Forging a New Polish Jewish Woman: The Jewish Girls’ Vocational School of Lwów (Lviv)

Lecture by Sarah Zarrow, PhD

Forging a New Polish Jewish Woman: The Jewish Girls’ Vocational School of Lwów (Lviv)

July 14, 2020 at 7:00 PM

Registration required on ZOOM After registration, a link will be sent

In the wake of the First World War, civic activist Cecylja Klaftenowa founded the Jewish Girls’ Vocational School in Lwów (Lviv). Driven by feminist, Jewish, and Polish patriotic commitments, the school’s mission was to educate Polish Jewish young women for financial independence, artistic mastery, Jewish literacy, and Polish civic engagement. This talk will investigate the school’s (and Klaftenowa’s) eclectic ideologies and discuss the school’s function as a laboratory for creating a new generation of Polish Jewish women.

Sarah Ellen Zarrow is an assistant professor of history at Western Washington University, and holds the Endowed Professorship in Jewish History. Her ongoing research focuses on Jewish life in modern Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. She was previously an International Fellow at New Europe College in Bucharest, Romania.