Creator Bio
Irena Klepfisz
b. 1941
Irena Klepfisz was born in Warsaw and immigrated to the United States at age eight, where she became a bilingual Yiddish and English writer. Her poetry and essays address politics, memory, and lesbian identity. Klepfisz received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Prairie Schooner Reader’s Choice Award. She currently teaches at Barnard College.
Content by Irena Klepfisz
Primary Source
Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn / A Few Words in the Mother Tongue
lemoshl: for example
di kurve the whore
a woman who acknowledges her passions
di yidene the Jewess the Jewish woman
ignorant overbearing
let’s face it: every woman is one
di yente the gossip…