Jewish Anarchist Women 1920-1950: The Politics of Sexuality

Lecture Admission: Free Watch the video

Anarchist theory includes the belief in freedom for all - that no one person, nor group of people, should have power over any others; that individuals can best decide how to live (and love). In this presentation Elaine Leeder will discuss eight Jewish women who identified as anarchists, active during the 1920s to 1950s. Through analysis of in-depth interviews Leeder explores the complete sexual freedom that these women sought at a time when conventionality and conformity was the norm. These women attempted to create equality in the public and private spheres, some living communally and raising their children in progressive schools. They also sought to maintain complete equality of the sexes through economic independence and maintaining non-conformist sexual relationships. This talk will place a particular focus on the way that ethnicity played a role in these women’s identities, emphasizing their atheism, while still maintaining Jewish values and traditions.

About the Speaker

Elaine Leeder is a retired dean and professor at Sonoma State University; she is the author of six books, two of which are being used at universities around the country. Her first book The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer, was published by SUNY PRESS. She was the author of a number of articles on Anarchist-Feminism in the 1980s. Currently she works in prisons doing restorative justice facilitating dialogues between victims and those who committed the crimes in California prisons. She is the recipient of the Real Hero Award from the American Red Cross for her work in prisons, is listed in Who’s Who of American Teachers, and Who’s Who in America, and was a visiting scholar at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.