Kadya Molodowsky: The Life of a Yiddish Woman Writer

Author: 

Newman, Zelda Kahan

Credentials: 

Lehman College/CUNY

Based on detailed archival research in three countries, Zelda Kahan Newman tells the story of Kadya Molodowsky, the most prolific woman writer of Yiddish. A feminist before feminism was a movement, Molodowsky wrote poems that still circulate today.

Molodowsky was caught up in nearly all the cataclysms of twentieth century Jewry: the chaos of World War I, an inter-war pogrom, a narrow escape from Nazi Europe, migration to the US, and a failed attempt at life in the young state of Israel.

In her biography, Kahan Newman reveals hitherto unknown facts about Molodosky’s relationship with her husband and father, as well as the importance of a woman-friend and Molodowsky’s feminine persona. The book discusses Molodowsky’s known and not-so-well-known poems, plays, novella and novel, as well as their historical and social context. Finally, the reader gets to see the irony of this writer’s end of life: hailed in the country that would abandon her language, and ignored in the country she valued dearly.

Market: 
Jewish Studies, Jewish History, Jewish Literature, Women's Studies, Yiddish Studies, Yiddish Literature, American Studies, American History, Religion, Religious History, World Literature, European Literature
Release Date: 
June 15. 2018
ISBN: 
Hardcover: 978-1680530568
Price: 
$99.95
Trim Size: 
6x9
Pages: 
340
Illustrations: 
None
Publisher: 

ACADEMICA PRESS
1727 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
academicapress.editorial@gmail.com