Oct 21, 2024
Irena Klepfisz in front of a mural dedicated to Chava Rosenfarb, Łódź, September 2024. Photo: Gabi von Seltmann
New Publications
Fans of Irena Klepfisz’s poetry have been richly rewarded in recent years with the release of two significant collections: Her Birth and Later Years (2022) and the newly published bilingual Polish-English collection of poems and essays, Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds (2024). Both books offer readers a comprehensive journey through Klepfisz’s poetic oeuvre, from her earliest works in the 1970s to more recent pieces, which resonate with the multifaceted experiences of a Jewish lesbian poet whose life has been profoundly shaped by the Holocaust, Yiddish culture, and feminist, lesbian political activism.
Her Birth and Later Years has already established itself as a landmark in contemporary poetry, showcasing the breadth of Klepfisz’s work over five decades while deeply engaging with themes of Jewish identity and the reverberations of Khurbn (the Yiddish term for the Holocaust), alongside reflections on feminist revolution and non-heteronormative politics. Pomiędzy światami (Between Worlds), edited by Klepfisz herself in collaboration with Polish literary scholar Olga Kubińska, brings together her poetry and essays in a bilingual format, allowing readers to choose their language as they embark on an intimate journey through her poetic and politically engaged histories.
The publication of Her Birth and Later Years marks the poet’s return, through the release of a poetry collection, after a thirty-year hiatus. Her previous book, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue. Poems Selected and New (1971-1990) (1990), took its title from one of Klepfisz’s most renowned poem, Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn/A Few Words in the Mother Tongue, in which the poet powerfully blends English and Yiddish. The intensity of this dual language use gives the impression that she is speaking in both languages simultaneously, mirroring the rift between the lost Jewish, Yiddish world destroyed by the Khurbn/Holocaust and the new world of her post-war emigration. Her most recent collections, Her Birth and Later Years and Between Worlds, feature selected works from earlier publications alongside new poems written between 1990 and 2020. These new pieces highlight Klepfisz’s profound poetic sensitivity in the last thirty years, guiding readers through a politically charged present that is deeply anchored in the past.
The cover of Her Birth and Later Years features a striking painting by Judith Waterman (1922–2016), Klepfisz’s longtime partner, whose artwork also illustrates Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds, the 2024 collection that I’d especially like to highlight for a moment. Released in spring 2024, this fresh project is a bilingual edition of selected poems, essays, and short stories (or fables—a genre Klepfisz has made a unique mark on). Bilingual collections like this are rare and noteworthy, even for readers who may not understand both languages (in this case, English and Polish). The book is also a remarkable translation effort, involving many translators collaborating to bring these texts to a wider audience.
Irena Klepfisz in front of Judith Waterman’s paintings that served as the inspiration for the covers and illustrations of the recent publications. Photo by Gabriela von Seltmann.
Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds carries additional significance for Klepfisz, as Polish was the language of her parents, who were Jews from Warsaw and members of the socialist Bund movement and were later confined in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Klepfisz’s father, Michał Klepfisz, died heroically in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19-May 16, 1943). Polish was also the language of Irena’s childhood, a time marked by fear and survival when the young Irena had to learn Christian prayers to “pass” as a Polish girl and avoid suspicion. Despite these traumatic associations, the Polish language also evokes tender memories for Klepfisz, such as her mother Rozka (Lodzia) Perczykow’s love for Polish literature.
This bilingual edition engages directly with Klepfisz’s life story, weaving together the languages that shaped her: Polish, Yiddish, and later, English. Yiddish, the language of Klepfisz’s ancestors, became a part of her poetic voice only after she learned it in New York, having emigrated to the United States via Sweden. Reunited with her mother after the war, they briefly lived together in Łódź before moving to Sweden in 1946, where Irena learned yet another language, Swedish. Klepfisz recently rediscovered notebooks filled with her early Swedish phrases from that time. By 1949, she and her mother had arrived in the United States, where she was immersed in yet another linguistic environment. In this multilingual journey, Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews, became central to her poetic identity. This tension between languages is beautifully captured in one of Klepfisz’s well-known bilingual poems from the Di rayze aheym/ The journey home cycle, Zi flit/She Flies, where her reflections on language and identity come to life.
To highlight the reflection on language and identity in “Zi flit/She Flies,” it is essential to examine the dynamic interplay between Yiddish and English, which captures the profound tension between languages that Klepfisz navigates. The poem begins with “Zi flit” in transliterated Yiddish, followed immediately by its English translation/equivalent, “She flies.” This bilingual shift, like the bird’s physical movement across different terrains—over the sea and mountains—reflects the poet’s own journeys, both in physical as well as between linguistic and cultural worlds. Klepfisz’s decision to present both languages side by side engages the reader in this navigation and mirrors the complexities of identity formation. In this context, language becomes fluid and transitional yet deeply rooted in memory and history.
The poem’s imagery intensifies this reflection as the bird eventually “settles on a tree near a wall of a cemetery.” The “cemetery” serves as a poignant symbol of both death and memory, specifically the collective Jewish memory embedded in Yiddish, a language closely tied to the past and a community decimated by the Holocaust. The bird’s flight and its eventual rest near this site of memory evokes the tension between movement (or survival) and the weight of historical trauma. The bilingual presentation of the poem emphasizes this tension: English represents a contemporary, globalized context, while Yiddish anchors the poem in the poet’s Jewish heritage and the memories of loss.
Klepfisz’s seamless transition between Yiddish and English reflects her profound negotiation of multiple identities—Jewish, diasporic, and feminist—each grounded in different historical and linguistic experiences. The blending of languages creates a dialogue between past and present and between cultural worlds, suggesting that her identity, like the bird in flight, is perpetually in motion yet tethered to historical and familial roots. Thus, the poem invites the reader to witness this fluid, evolving sense of self, where language is both a medium of survival and a repository of memory.
By establishing these linguistic and symbolic complexity layers, we see how Klepfisz’s reflections on language and identity are embedded in her bilingual writing. Her works Birth and Later Years and Pomiędzy światami/Between Words extend this dialogue, making her a unique voice in contemporary poetry, as she bridges the gap between historical memory and present-day identity struggles.
The extraordinary blending of languages, memory, and history in Klepfisz’s work makes her a truly unique voice in contemporary poetry. Her Birth and Later Years and Pomiędzy światami/Between Words are essential reading for anyone interested in Jewish history, feminist thought, and the ongoing dialogue between past and present.
A small girl, trying to make sense, remembers
One of the central themes to Klepfisz’s work is the trauma of the Holocaust, a tragedy she survived as a child hidden by her parents. As I already mentioned, she was born in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941; her early life was marked by the extraordinary and tragic events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, during which her father, Michał Klepfisz, lost his life. This personal history permeates much of her poetry as she grapples with the weight of memory and the responsibility of bearing witness. In well-known poems like Searching for My Father’s Body and The Widow and Daughter, Klepfisz confronts the lingering shadows of her father’s death and her mother’s survival. The search for her father is not just a literal quest but also a metaphorical journey through the fragmented remnants of a past obliterated by war. She poignantly writes of the “shock of not finding his name” and the anger that “his body was not discovered and remains buried in an unmarked grave.” The emotional turmoil of not finding his name, and of confronting his anonymity in death, becomes a recurring theme in her work.
The poem The Widow and Daughter juxtaposes the idyllic memories of pre-war life with the harsh reality of survival. The narrative of her mother, who transitions from a romantic young woman in Warsaw to a widow in New York, reflects the devastating impact of the Holocaust on personal and collective identities. Klepfisz’s use of language here is both tender and stark, illustrating the profound loss and the resilience needed to continue living.
In this context, Klepfisz’s later poems are particularly powerful. The nine poems from Mourning Cycle and selections from And Death is Always with Us—especially the deeply moving My Mother at 99: Looking for Home—engage in a significant intertextual dialogue with her earlier work, such as, from the collection Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds, the parable/story Di Yerushe/The Legacy: A Parable about History and Bóbe-Mayses Barszcz and Borsht and the Future of the Jewish Past. In this work, the poet reflects on her relationship with her mother, exploring themes of memory, legacy, and the challenges of living as a secular Jewish lesbian. It is one of the texts that illustrates Klepfisz’s engagement with lesbian identity and feminist thought, which I will return to shortly.
The final part of Her Birth, also included in Między światami/Between Worlds, from The Old Poet Cycle, resonates deeply with me in both the original English and the Polish translation. The figure of “the old poet” offers a refreshing perspective, often overlooked in today’s culture of unapologetic youth and the truncated style of communication one finds on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Klepfisz gives us poetic narratives and poignant situations, like the heartbreaking The old poet remembers: the immigrant girl, where she portrays a young immigrant girl, overwhelmed by a sense of displacement at a new, unfamiliar school. In one memorable scene, a teacher asks about her father, and the death of the father—a Jewish hero and war fighter—is contrasted with the school environment, full of people unable to grasp the world this girl has come from, where “Everyone whispered. She was no one’s friend.”
It’s hard not to read this poem autobiographically, recalling Klepfisz’s essay on family, included in Między światami/Between Worlds, from her 1995 essay The Limits of Language: Irena Klepfisz’s Family, where she poignantly states, “I’ve never had a family. A family was defined for me as at least three people and not two, and we were two people. I always felt the absence of my father.”
Irena Klepfisz’s work transcends autobiography; both her poetry and essays, while often grounded in personal experiences, offer something more universal. By rooting her poetic and essayistic reflections in specific, lived moments, she possesses an extraordinary ability to create a mirror for our own experiences—of loss and pain, of the struggle for identity, of discovering resilience in the face of a world that can seem indifferent or simply incapable of understanding us, because our experiences are so profoundly different.
The Legacy of Yiddish and Jewish Identity
Coming back to Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews, serves as both a cultural anchor and a site of resistance in Klepfisz’s work. Her decision to write bilingual poems in Yiddish and English is an act of reclaiming a language nearly lost to the Holocaust. In the introduction to Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds, Kubińska notes that Klepfisz’s bilingualism is not just a linguistic choice but a political one, symbolizing a bridge between the pre-war Yiddish culture and the contemporary world. This choice reflects Klepfisz’s deep commitment to preserving Yiddish as a living language and resisting its relegation to nostalgia. The poem “Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn/A Few Words in the Mother Tongue” exemplifies this intertwining of languages. Here, Klepfisz navigates the complex terrain of Jewish and lesbian identities, using Yiddish to articulate desires and experiences that are often marginalized in both mainstream Jewish and non-Jewish cultures. By weaving Yiddish into her English poetry, Klepfisz not only honors her heritage but also challenges the silences imposed on Jewish women, particularly lesbians. The poem becomes a site of cultural and linguistic resistance, where Yiddish serves as a vehicle for expressing identities that defy easy categorization.
Lesbian Identity and Feminist Activism
The inclusion of essays in Pomiędzy światami/Between Worlds feels particularly significant, as it allows readers to explore the connections between Irena Klepfisz the poet and Irena Klepfisz the essayist for the first time. A key thread is her lesbian identity: Klepfisz’s work is deeply rooted in her experiences as both a lesbian and a feminist. Her active involvement in feminist movements, especially within the Jewish lesbian community, is evident in both her poetry and essays. As a pivotal figure in the feminist publication Conditions and a contributor to the first Jewish lesbian anthology, Nice Jewish Girls, her contributions extend beyond literature. They are acts of activism, seeking to carve out space for voices that have long been marginalized or silenced.
Judith Waterman, Irena Klepfisz’s late partner, with Irena Klepfisz
Photo: 1989 NYC Gay Pride Rachel Epstein. From left: Lorin Sklamberg, Stuart Schear, Yankl Salant, Roberta Newman, Irena Klepfisz, Alicia Svigals.
Her essay “Jewish Lesbians Jewish Community Jewish Survival” is particularly significant in this regard. In it, Klepfisz argues for the inclusion of lesbian voices within the broader Jewish community, highlighting the intersections between antisemitism and homophobia. She insists that the Jewish community can benefit from the political insights of the gay and lesbian movements, particularly in the fight against marginalization and erasure. This essay, along with her poetry, underscores her belief in the necessity of solidarity and collective action in the face of oppression.
Intersections of Politics and Personal History
Klepfisz’s work is deeply political, shaped by her early exposure to Bundist ideology—a revolutionary socialist movement that emphasized equality and freedom. This political legacy informs much of her writing, where the personal is inseparable from the political. Her poetry and essays often reflect on the need for social justice, whether in the context of Jewish survival, gender equality, or the rights of marginalized communities.
Her engagement with contemporary issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the importance of solving the Gaza situation (present in her writing since the 1980s), and the U.S.A.’s immigration policies, demonstrates her ongoing commitment to activism. Even in her later years, Klepfisz continues to participate in public life, speaking out on issues of genocide and human rights. This activism is not separate from her literary work but is deeply embedded in it, making her writing a powerful tool for both remembrance and resistance.
Irena Klepfisz and Judy Waterman.
Conclusion
Her Birth and Later Years and Pomiędzy światami/ Between Worlds are more than poems and essays; these books are a testament to Irena Klepfisz’s life as a survivor, a Jewish lesbian, a Yiddishist, and a political activist. Her work bridges the worlds of the past and the present, of memory and action, of Yiddish and English, creating a space where multiple identities can coexist and inform one another. Klepfisz’s writing is a call to remember, to resist, and to continue the fight for justice in all its forms. Her poetry serves as a meditation on the complexities of identity and the ways in which personal and communal histories are interwoven. Her yerushe/legacy, as captured in these collections, is one of resilience, defiance, and an unwavering commitment to both her heritage and her vision for a better world.
Readings:
Irena Klepfisz in In geveb: Irena Klepfisz. “The 2087th Question or When Silence Is the Only Answer.” In geveb, January 2020: https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-2087th-question-or-when-silence-is-the-only-answer
Books reviewed:
Klepfisz, Irena. Her Birth and Later Years. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2022.
———Pomiędzy Światami. Wybór Wierszy i Esejów/ Between Worlds. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria (2024),
Further readings:
Irena Klepfisz, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue, Portland Oregon, Eight Mountain Press, 1990.
———Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes. Portland, OR: The Eighth Mountain Press, 1990.
Photos: All photographs included in this publication are from Irena Klepfisz’s personal archive and have been generously provided by the author. We extend our sincere gratitude for her contribution.
