We, Women, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska

Title

We, Women, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska

Description

Like her mother, Ida Kaminska sought out powerful women’s roles. And, in 1932, Ida Kaminska translated a work by one of Poland's radical feminist thinkers, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska, into Yiddish and adapted it for the Yiddish stage. Morozowicz-Szczepkowska advocated “the struggle against love” as the only way for women to combat male oppression and develop authentic agency. As the play’s heroine puts it: “One can’t be free, or be a modern person, and at the same time remain a little female dependent on a single smile, a single lie, a single male betrayal.” And, given its radical ideas, We, Women was banned by Mussolini in Italy. For the Yiddish version, entitled Mir Froyen (We, Women), Kaminska imitated the production of the original by ensuring that all aspects of the play were executed by female participants.

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Citation

“We, Women, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska,” YIVO Online Exhibitions, accessed December 23, 2024, https://strashunlibrary.yivo.org/items/show/2302.

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