Words to the Wives

Significantly, the newspaper reader in this joke was clean-shaven, without the beard or sidecurls (peyes*) of observant, or frum,* Jewish males, performing a religiously forbidden act: smoking on Saturday, the Shabbos (the Sabbath). Just as significant is what the smoker-on-Shabbos is doing: reading a Yiddish newspaper. Hence the greenhorn’s confusion: who are these people? They look and act differently than those in his own cultural milieu. Further, what the clean-shaven smoker has in his hands is likewise something new: a newspaper, in Yiddish yet. This book looks at how the Yiddish press sought to create Jewish-American identities for one particular set of readers not mentioned in the above-quoted joke: women. Women, identity, and the printed word sit at the center of this book, which examines two women’s magazines and the women’s pages in three daily newspapers, from 1913, when the first Yiddish women’s magazine appeared, until 1925 when the Immigration Act of 1924 took effect, ending mass migration.

This study examines the women’s pages in three mass circulation daily newspapers, as well as two short-lived women’s magazine. The magazines, Froyen zhurnal and Di froyen-velt, appeared on a monthly basis, one of them (Di froyen-velt) becoming a weekly in January 1914 until its demise two months later. The women’s pages in Dos yidishes tageblatt and Forverts came out weekly. Only one of the newspapers, Der tog, had a daily women’s page, even though not so labeled.

Despite the differences exhibited by the various publications in this study, they shared one characteristic: a dedication to becoming Americans, though what constituted “becoming American” varied from journal to journal. Di froyen-velt and Froyen zhurnal expressly declared themselves as vegvayzers for immigrant women. To Forverts, for example, being a good American meant allegiance to the Socialist Party. All of the publications presented a middle-class American lifestyle as desirable, despite differing political and religious ideologies.

How did these publications view assimilation, and what were their approaches toward two of the most popular ideologies on the Jewish Street—Zionism in its many varieties, and Socialism? What did these publishers, writers, and editors have to say about a way forward for coming generations through the medium of some form of Jewish education, be it religious, political, or cultural? How would parents raise their children to not assimilate? These questions animated the Jewish Street and the publications in its newsstands. Writers discussed these issues on the front page, the editorial page, and, of course, the women’s page. Education for Jewish youth—in America designated the duty of women in the home—likewise was a common theme in sections of a publication aimed at women.

Many of those writing in these publications advocated looking at Jewish holidays differently, switching the focus from men to women. These writers did not proclaim their intentions as something novel, but presented their viewpoints in a taken-for-granted manner, just as they took male religious authority for granted. They did not see any contradiction between the old forms and the new ways of looking at them. After all, none of these publications called for displacing men as religious or community leaders. This novel approach manifested itself—not surprisingly—on the women’s pages and in Froyen zhurnal; Di froyen-velt concerned itself with fighting religious superstitions rather than celebrating Jewish holidays.

While the last chapter got off the street and into the home, this chapter goes further inside, to the mirror: What did these publications demonstrate as possibilities for personal identity? How should Jewish-American women look? Graphics, whether photographs, drawings, cartoons, or advertisements, worked as some of the vehicles for these new looks.

The trajectory of this book began on the East Side, home to all of the publications in this book. It then discussed an issue common to all these publications: support for voluntary Americanization. It then switched to the American Main Street, to discuss the attitude of these publications toward issues of concern to all women, Jewish or non-Jewish, native-born citizen or immigrant—whether women should study, work, or vote. The book returned to the Jewish Street to discuss issues of particular interest to the Jewish community: attitudes toward assimilation, Zionism, Socialism, and Jewish education for Jewish youth. From the Jewish Street we entered the home, to consider how these publications reconfigured the woman’s role in traditional holidays. Still within the home, we narrowed our view further, to the mirrors reflecting how Jewish-American women would present and see themselves. This world of possibilities, alternatives, and modifications played out on pages targeting women, both in the three mass circulation newspapers and the two women’s magazines.