Novels by female Jewish immigrants, many written a century ago, are largely unknown. As noted in a New York Times article “How Yiddish Scholars Are Rescuing Women’s Novels From Obscurity”, Yiddish works by men such as Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer were translated and popularized, but publishers dismissed women’s fiction as insignificant or unmarketable. Fortunately, a growing body of translations is being produced by Jewish feminist scholars who scroll the microfilms of bygone Yiddish newspapers and periodicals where the novels were serialized, and comb through archived card catalogs for women who were poets or diarists to see if they were also novelists. Scholars hope the newly translated novels will enrich the teaching of Yiddish — the mamaloshen or mother tongue — and provide this missing perspective. Alas, bias in the publishing industry hasn’t changed. The voices of women, especially those from diverse backgrounds, are still under-represented compared to men (roughly 30% to 70%). For more thoughts on writing and the literary world, see REFLECTIONS.
