...I am an outsider, a lesbian, a shikse. The Jewish community is not my community. But as a Jew--as a Jew in a Christian, anti-Semitic society--the Jewish community is, and will always remain, my community. Enemy and ally. — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
I have never heard of a tradition among Jews that encourages us to support each others' differences. Quite the contrary. What I've always been taught is that Jews forever see each other as bitter enemies whose differences are irreconcilable. — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
How do we work together? For if we want liberation for women, then we're committed to building a society in which these distances--of class… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
...I've stopped wanting to do any work at all. All work is bullshit. Everyone knows that. No matter how many telephones and extensions, no… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
“& they kind of probe about your future & if you have a will or why you bother to accumulate all that stuff or… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
What we grieve for is not the loss of a grand vision, but rather the loss of common things, events and gestures.... ordinariness is… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
Poland remains undzer heym, our home, no matter how bitter the memories, how filled with disappointment and betrayal. Amerike iz goles, America is exile,… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
...I am an outsider, a lesbian, a shikse. The Jewish community is not my community. But as a Jew--as a Jew in a Christian,… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
...Jews must learn to say without excuse, without equivocation: despite our history and our powerlessnessin the past, despite all the injustices that we have… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
To most middle-class feminists, as to most middle-class non-feminists, working-class women remain mysterious creatures to be “reached out to” in some abstract way. No… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
“I numb myself and begin the body check skimming quickly unwilling to be caught in strangers' tragedies, only looking directly at those whom I… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
Most Jewish feminists and gays that I know remain angry and frustrated by Jewish progressives. Deeply committed to progressive causes, frequently in the vanguard… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
...Iknow the bitter fact that most lives are incredibly wasted, that opportunities for developing identity, for receiving pleasure, for achieving a sense of self-worth… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
The aspirations of most people--security, pleasure, leisure, meaningful work, creative and intellectual pursuits--are to be supported. These desires and dreams are not shameful. In… — Irena Klepfisz Copy Share Image
