An international bibliography of

AN INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING BY JEWISH WOMEN 2004
By Irena Klepfisz and Helen Epstein
Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in memoir as a genre on the parts of the international publishing industry as well as the academy, where memoir is now a frequent focus of non-fiction courses. Memoirs by Jewish women have been very much a part of this trend. Increasingly, scholars are examining the autobiographical writings of women rabbis, politicians, physicians. psychologists, community leaders and artists, and literary figures for a greater understanding of Jewish life.
As Jewish women writers, we have both been asked to lecture on Jewish women’s memoir and are confronted with the lack of a definitive anthology that is inter-national (including Europe, Israel, South America, North and South Africa and the U.S.) and inclusive of all parts of the community (observant and secular; lesbian and heterosexual; Ashkenazi. Mizrachi and Sephardi). We are particularly interested in texts that are out of print and texts which have not yet been translated into English but that we can translate ourselves. In 2002 we were funded by what was then the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women to begin work on a bibliography.
We have selected an international group of authors and texts and annotated them, thereby opening up a resource through which scholars might address such questions as: when did Jewish women begin writing memoirs and why? In what contexts did they locate their lives? Did they view themselves as exceptions or, as Mary Antin saw it, representatives of "unwritten lives?" We hope that this annotated bibliography, which we view as an evolving resource for general readers as well as for the many Jewish reading groups across the country, will also provide a valuable tool for students and teachers in Jewish Studies, History, Sociology and Literature courses.

We have chosen to include only book length autobiographies. In addition, because there is so much Holocaust material, we reviewed only the “classics” and a few other special memoirs. We have, however, included articles, personal essays, and anthologies of work by women from under-represented groups, most particularly Sephardi/Mizrachi women and Lesbians.

Memoirs included here describe Jewish women’s lives in 25 countries: Austria; Canada; Chile; Cuba; Czechoslovakia; England; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; India;

Israel; Lebanon; Lithuania; Netherlands; Palestine; Poland;

Russia; South Africa; Spain; Soviet Union; Switzerland

Syria; Turkey; U.S.) and are written in 10 languages:

German,_Hebrew,__Russian,_Spanish_and_Yiddish.'>Czech, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew,

Russian, Spanish and Yiddish.
We tried to describe rather than review the literature although inevitably judgments were made. We were particularly interested in Jewish women who were in some way activists or involved in Jewish, women’s and general political movements; in women who were involved in the arts and in the sciences. Psychoanalysts and psychotherapists are strongly represented.

We have created 239 keywords which allow researchers to be

as detailed as possible.
The bulk of the material—despite our best efforts—is Ashkenazi, secular, heterosexual, middle class. We do not repeat these words—instead we identify Sephardi, observant (Hassidim, Orthodox, Traditional), lesbian, and working class (class—whenever this is an issue).
Helen Epstein and Irena Klepfisz


To facilitate research and to make continuation of the project on the internet easier, we have established the following Keywords (239)

1950s

1960s

Abortion

Academia

Activism

Adolescence

African American

Agunah

AIDS

Anglo Jewry

Anthropology

Anti-Racism

Anti-Semitism

Apartheid

Art

Ashkenazim

Assimilation

Austria

Baltimore

Berkeley

Berlin

Bialik, H. N.

Birobizan

Black Power Movement

Bobriusk

Bombay

Booksellers

Boston

Brecht, Bertolt

Bronx

Brooklyn

Budapest

Buddhism

California

Cambridge

Canada

Catholics

Chagall, Marc

Child Psychology

Childlessness

Chile

Civil Rights Movement

Class

Cleveland

Cochin

Communism

Conservative

Court Jews

Cracow

Cuba

Czechoslovakia

Death

Deganya

DP Camps

Drug Addiction

Dutch

Early Feminism

East Coast

Education

England

Etsel Groups

Family Violence

Farsi

Fashion

Father-Daughter Relationship

Feminism

Feminist Theory

Food

France

Frankfurt

Free Love

French

Freud, Sigmund

Friendship

German

German Jews

Germany

Greece

Gulag

Halakha

Hamburg

Haskalah

Hebrew

Hebrew Literature

Hidden Children

Holidays

Hollywood

Holocaust

Homophobia

Hungarian Jews

Hungary

Immigrants

India

Indian Military Service

Intermarriage

International

Interracial Marriage

Iran

Iranian Women

Isareli/Palestinian Conflict

Israel

Israeli Feminism

Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

Janina

Jazz

Jewish Food

Jewish Identity

Jewish Labor Bund

Jewish Renewal

Jewish Women of Color

Jewish Youth

Journalism

Kibbutz Life

Kindertransport