...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 …

- Irena Klepfisz

...Iknow the bitter fact that most lives are incredibly wasted, that opportunities for developing identity, for receiving pleasure, for achieving a s…

- Irena Klepfisz

Most Jewish feminists and gays that I know remain angry and frustrated by Jewish progressives. Deeply committed to progressive causes, frequently in …

- Irena Klepfisz

What we grieve for is not the loss of a grand vision, but rather the loss of common things, events and gestures.... ordinariness is the most precious…

- Irena Klepfisz

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 and econo…

- Irena Klepfisz

...Jews must learn to say without excuse, without equivocation: despite our history and our powerlessness in the past, despite allthe injustices that…

- Irena Klepfisz

Poland remains undzer heym, our home, no matter how bitter the memories, how filled with disappointment and betrayal. Amerike iz goles, America is ex…

- Irena Klepfisz

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…

- Irena Klepfisz

The aspirations of most people--security, pleasure, leisure, meaningful work, creative and intellectual pursuits--are to be supported. These desires …

- Irena Klepfisz