CANADIAN JEWISH often associatedwith fire that "flare[s] yellow not- / especially-Jewish-touch WOMEN'S POETRY into snapshots and faint / record- I of a Modil." To arrive at that point ings and the tactile. ..." Carole she reaches back through a "long an- SOME MAJOR THEMES Lecher (1946) looks back "deep in cestral geography," wishing she could a frond of yesterdays." apprentice with a mystical Jew who byJanii Rapoport In Miriam Waddington's (1917- ) practises levitation as well as medita- "memory box" the strongest metaphor tion. Helene Rosenthal (1922- ) Poetry, ispmhaps, then is ofa green-finned fish who "prods the also connects her Jewishness to a only slumberingworldstowakcllness." For flower by its root. She is the out- a state of mind Anne Michaels (1958) memory, also growth of the "fierce blossoming" of that Icapjiom memory associated with water, ".. . insists with her ancestors. to imagination its sea voice, / muttering fiom its bone Jewish identity for Donia -Miriam Mandel cave. / Memory wraps us / liithe shell Blumenfeld Clenman (1927- ) is in- wraps the sea." Memory is inscribed in tertwined with guilt as she lived "on .. . a word is the memory of its the human body as well; organically, the edges of [the] Holocaust." meaning. above and beneath the earth and Clenman is still asking who she is, -Anne Michaels through time that is both geological does not yet know what ethics to and historical. embrace, what heritage to hllow. Jew- Memory is a means that empowers the In the poetry of Adeena Karasick ish heritage survives for Sharon Nel- written word: whether first recor-ded (1965- ) memory is Gactured, mir- son, but through "a smattering of old as a result of individual exper-ience or rored and refracted "as the memory tongues / disintegrating in the sub- more indirectly through family, soci- of memory /l is mimesis m€mes {the urbs / foreign to young ears." As late ety and oral or recorded history. Hebrew letter mem):" even the "In is as 1978 Miriam Mandel was writing For Rachel Korn (1898-1982) perceived as a resonating image of its about the concealment of her herit- memory is largely ofa fugitive past. If own memory. age and the fear of her Jewish identity any of its central elements still exist, being revealed. their connection to the present is .. . where I lived Although "being born Jewish" ap- only by a single filament of a spider's my song pears as a line in a section of a poem web. The overtones are melancholy, -Miriam Waddington by Libby Scheier that begins "some tied into a dark knot while the narra- accidents that occurred yesterday:" tor can still evoke what in reality she Interpreted through contemporary her identity seems to be more con- acknowledgesis no longer there. Her linguistic theory, identity for Karasick nected with the body and the trans- happy recollections of childhood is celebrated through "this design ofa formation of the body through nega- learning are through the fragrance of sign // .. . assigned to a sign // or this tive andlor positive experiences. wild poppies and ripening wheat, ayin {the Hebrew character ayin)": Rhea Tregebov (195 3- ) confesses tragically transformed into the char- the sounding of the first letter of her through her poetry, perhaps some- ring and smoke at Belzec and name in Hebrew. Her place is within what ironically, to being completely Maidanek. the Hebrew alphabet encoded in in love with herself and wants "to A blind alley is memory for Miriarn meanings, shapes, combinations of stop being wonderful." Although Mandel (1930-1 982) where the gar- letters and a system of signs. Her Tregebov sees herself as both a simple bage of the past is disguised/covered Jewishness is rooted in sound, regard- and (more) complex being, through up by images of traditional women's less of divisions among languages as her first name she identifies with ava- clothing of the 1920s and '30s. Such we know and use them: "jouisse- tars. In the present tense her clothing figures as well in the selec- mantics of de-sire, I am jewish. Je Jewishness is seen as a shadow; the tive memory of a narrator who in the joue jouir." The self is ".. . always Jews of her past "... slotted them- work of Sharon H. Nelson (1948- ) virtual" and essentially "an inter- selves into streets named / Selkirk and journeys to a landscape that appears textatic syntacticism." Salter." to be perfect but from which much Through a more traditional ap- has been unconsciously deleted. proach Miriam Waddington identi- Italllies there, in the woven strandc Libby Scheier's (1946) memory, fies with Jews she describes as "soft of blood. in poetry, is emotion-centred and touches" and equates with "the soft1 -Rachel Korn

VOLUME 16, NUMBER 4 As an extension of self perhaps, ceptions and, in time, role reversals, From Biblical images and narratives Rhea Tregebov has written at length Sharon Nelson examines the conflict Rachel Korn has drawn meaningful about her son, as has Libby Scheier. between mother and daughter twentieth-century analogies. Genesis Susan Glickman (1953- ) has writ- throughout her writing. In the midst is translated into a "somersaulting ten about infants and from the point of such turbulence, however, Nelson word," the bnning of a poem. The of view of young children. writes that her mother tells her to story of Lot's wife betomes a story of Virmally all the writers whose books "Stop cleaning your house: 1 Write exile for the one who didn't turn and are under consideration for this essay poems!" Through a series of rendered consequently didn't get to remain be- include the bittersweet aspects offam- snapshots, letters, telephone hind. And in sorrow her melancholy is ily life in their poetry. As described by conversations and visits both real and as long as Sarnson's hair. Jill Solnicki (1945- ): "we leave our imagined, Manyne Jenoff (1942- ) In her poem on Lot's wife, Miriam imprint on others: / their hyed edges, evokes the essence of an often strained Waddington transfers suffering, sen- their torn seams." Arguments some- daughter-mother relationship. suality and hope across centuries and times leave scars in Susan Glickman's Adeena Karasick displaces/decon- cultures, then loops them back again family poems when the only smiling structs the process of her mother's through the original story. Through is "in photographs and even there / dying in a language of "ciphered ac- identificationwith her Biblical name- someone's always out of focus." But cess" and "through the interstices / sake and the impact of that name- "it is {also}only parents who believe where interest is I about / the a b / a sake's younger brother the Prophet anyone / can be protected. /After all, way out / maybe." Moses, she parallels the history and that's their job." Carole Lecher per- For Anne Michaels, "My mother's geography of her own emigrant Rus- ceives other writers as her family: story is tangled, / overgrown with sian family. they spar like siblings, "fighting in lives of parents and grandparents / blood / ancient as the dawn." because they lived in one house and . . . fir I bring Europe i ghosts Donia Blurnenfeld Clenman writes among them / remembered hundreds into the well-lit living room tenderly and perceptively about a of years of history." Her central im- of CaMdian internatiortaIimt daughter's teenage years: "She is Jew- age for a family is that of "plate- ish, / Botticelli. / How far did you dip tectonics, flow-folding. / Something and I dream in good English too. into history / to paint my daughter?" inside shifts; suddenly we're closer or -Donia Blumenfeld Clenman And through an imagined dialogue apart." she manages to restore her Polish For Miriam Waddington there is a grandfather "in an ecstatic circle Dear Mama .. . Noah's ark with more than animals dance." andpleae, next Pasover, in req- on a journey into exile. She dreams Phyllis Gotlieb's (1926 ) grand- uiem, oh "of new kingdoms / ... thrusting parents, for her, were "two faces of send me a mother? blessing, not a themselves / in a chorus of colour / despair. // .. . {who) cultivated / in memo. from river to sky." the scoured yard of their love / a -Manyne Jenoff Testimony of displacement and garden of forget-me." Both love and exile-what Adeena Karasick would humour inform Robyn Sarah's Woven into the fabric of family call "memorexilen-is central to the (1949-) recollections of her grandfa- life, as with individual identity, are work of Rachel Korn, Donia ther: "in the hospital, settling his threads of Judaism manifested as as- Blumenfeld Clenman, Deborah Eibel account / with cancer, he replied / to pects of rituals, symbols, traditions (1940- ) and the early writing of all who inquired, 'I'm just / waiting and culture, and drawn from the Bi- Sharon Nelson. The hands ofa house- for avisa,' he would say. / 'Tell them, ble, folklore, myth and legend. Both maid away from home Rachel Korn I'm waiting for a visa.'" Miriam Waddington and Miriam compares to ".. . oars / which row her Not surprisingly, among the most Mandel incorporate the sedm into life through / dark and steamy kitch- sentient poems are those concerning poems about faith. And Yom Kippur ens"; her new world "is tied in a mothers. In a poem of Miriam becomes a poem of conscience for thousand knots." Donia Blumenfeld Waddington's, "The Milk of the Donia Blumenfeld Clenman. The Clenman's Poland is "a blood clot Mothers" belongs to all who nurture, two strands ofa havdalahcandle form, around my heart" but also a country but its existence is endangered and for Sharon Nelson, "a single body // where certain plants are "spinning continually threatened by environ- a single / source / of light." Both the colour wheel of the universe." In mental abuse that can also be politi- Phyllis Gotlieb and Libby Scheier set Canada she puts "on the ointment of cally motivated. Rachel Korn identi- out their thoughts on circumcision, reason / and tapeis} heartbreak with fies with ".. . thevoice ofmy mother's acknowledging the patriarchy along bandaids." tears, / .. . the sound I ofher weeping." with the pain. As Scheier concludes: Of the ".. . boatloads / Of learned Within the context of generational "Be careful not to be a creature whose women / On the Atlantic" whose differences, shifting mores, misper- pain is judged by others." creativity was not recognized back in

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME their native Vienna, Deborah Eibel field." It is also ".. . separation, / the psychological and emotional deaths accentuates the women's naive as- membrane of the orange dividing it- fiom dealing with the day-after-day sumption of a destination- self, / the surhce of silver / that turns limitations of sticky cereal bowls, America-as a "City of ladiesnwait- glass into a mirror." neverending vacuuming and the like. ingwith genuineanticipation for their The breakdown of such relation- Re-entering "the closed universe of assistance in matters literary and ar- ships is expressed viscerally as "futfuls the body, / woman i sphere, a constel- tistic. America is both burden and ofwind and rain" Uill Solnidci); "shat- lation still unexplored," their men nightmare for the immigrantwomen tering red fire-glassn (Hrlcne perceive female independence as a about whom Sharon Nelson writes. Rosenthal); "... a blade, cutting I threat to their own security, sexuality It is a place where they must sacrifice both ways" or "some token air" and the power vested in traditional the past for a present in which they (Robyn Sarah); or intellectually and male authority. still see themselves simultaneously as often somewhat ironically in patterns Four decades later, when women too like and too unlike their grand- (Miriam Waddington); as a farm re- get together in a Robyn Sarah poem, mothers, who have also suffered, port or as "recipes and algorithms" theymay still drink tea and work with dreamed and loved. (Sharon Nelson); a series of math- yarn but "the ricesticks to the bottom ematical problems (Rhea Tregebov); of the pan, I and things get left out in .. . Toguard love and in a decree nisi (Robyn Sarah). the rainn while ".. . they talk / the sun is a way of making Societally sanctioned lackof eqdity, down, talk stars, talk I dawn-"and it. To make it is a way of ending abuse, denial, confusion, an inability "while they lean doser to peer down / it. For us no object to trust and essential differences are into the murkywater where last night's comes between; unnamed offered as some of the reasons. dream / flicks its tail and is gone." And love has no chart or claim, thus the women's movement and the only the inward The workdisthediagramofa man rise of feminism beins to be docu- touch as bod the bearingground -Miriam Mandel mented on the pages of the books of -Helene Roscnthal Canadian Jewish women poets. Chronicling the submissive role of A younger generation is not only In the poetry of those Jewish women throughout the early history able to dream and imag(in)e gender women who first examined relation- of western civilization, Jill Solnicki equality but also to celebrate being ships they chose as adults, the con- counterpoints some of the significant daughters, sisters, mothers, women. ventional and the traditional is re- events in Roman civilization as well Freed from but also wounded by the flected from their history, society and as in Roman mythology with the disquilibriumofthepast,Libby Scheier culture. Rachel Korn and Miriam tiresomeness of being a woman at the writes without restraint about thegeni- Waddington draw from nature to end of the twentieth century when tal and the sexual, wanting to "...see express longing, uncertainty and in- that woman is still cast in the role of each other with open eyes I what we tervals of waiting. When Phyllis housewife. Rhea Tregebov delineates really look like. / What we are." Gotlieb explores physical intimacy it "... thescarswecarryl ...justlike the ~&ondwhat we now know as femi- is with metaphors of animals, but history ofour lives:" in a projection of nism waits Adeena Karasick's also with images ofships and cosmol- elementary school readers in com- selfreflexive Feminine "Secreture (or ogy and the terminology of a Danish mon use in the 1940s and '50s. "S'ECRITURE OF WE NIGHT" or, fir- sex manual apparently originally writ- Women are not considered serious; ther, "S'ECRE(A)TURE."Detached fiom ten in lyrical French. nor are they meant to be taken seri- regulations-real andtor symbolic- Food is utilized in this respect by ously in Deborah Eibel's pre-Second- a narrational "she" works "both Donia Blumenfeld Clenman: grapes World-War Vienna, and these same synchronically, operating linearly and pomegranates; Jill Solnicki: ju- women are restricted in what they are along the paradigmatic axis-and jubes and chocolate-wrapped cher- officially allowed to learn. Phyllis diachronically-proliferating out- ries; Marvyne Jenoff: cashew toes; Gotlieb's fifties' women live in ". .. wardalong the syntagmaticaxis." The Helene Rosenthal: an ice-cream cone, houses like toyboxes emptied of their words are noetic, resurgent, bold, melting. Susan Glickman acknowl- 1 excuses for existence" and drive provocative; they abrogate, separate, edges, within a slightly different con- "down 1 down / down to the dress- interrogate; explore, challenge, play; text, ".. . we are / all food!" maker to match / buttons with great they sublimate and articulate. For Robyn Sarah love is a spirit exactitude and cunning." lamp or a touchstone or a "dream of Writing about the women growing .. . and women will have come wings"; for Susan Glickman an ". .. up in patriarchies during that period so far that no one can see them, act / of translation." And for Anne as well as about the double standards even fiom Michaels it's a "long journey towards and collusion she sees practised by each other," an experience of together their mothers, Sharon Nelson de- h&b oflce windows. "holding up the night sky in a winter scribes self-silencing and evokes the -Robyn Sarah

VOLUME 16, NUMBER 4 Transformation of the concept of those who continue to address its MI~cwatr self as individual and ofwomen as an impact and legacy with sensitivity Gmwcidc enabled part of an integrated whole and integrity are Canadian Jewish -Adeena Karasick mirrors the pursuit of social justice women poets. across the geography and history in Amid the terror and horror, the We do not drscd but risefim communities ofvaryingcomposition testament of "bundle{s) of bones and our histories. and sizes. Anne Michaels explores the bucket{s) of blood," Rachel Korn is -Anne Michaels oppression of Russian writers under able to write about the nuns who the Stalinist regime. Menakick saved Jewish children: "Their words Reminded, we remember; yet there boards "the transcultural express." walk barefoot through the smoking has been a return to genocide in east- Miriam Waddington probes psy- ruins, /Their murmurous voices rise, em Europe and in Africa and less chiatrists, professors, trade-union grow luminous, /And light the dark- public wars continue against dissi- leaders, and judges, and examines the ness of a Jewish mother's grave." dents in China and Burma, among dilemmas faced by alcoholics, drug While "the rest of the world / was other countries. Our own society is addicts, deserters, thieves, prostitutes, busy listening to the / overture of the scored with episodes of intensifying prisoners and prison personnel. Car- deathcamps// ... and... thelpost- violence. In terms of their individual ole Leckner scrutinizes city politi- man brought us valentines / stamped sensibilities and concerns, some of cians and comments on grassroots and postmarked Death," Miriam the writers whose work has been dis- social action. Rhea Tregebov takes Waddington asks: ". . . how am I to cussed in this essay are already trans- on doctors, autism, social stratifica- know / That these are not my chil- forming such raw material into po- tion, political activists, crimes of pas- dren / Scrambled and atomless, sent etry, circling back and moving for- sion and the environment; Libby / To make my grief specific?" Phyllis ward at the same time through a Scheier: the underprivileged, famine Gotlieb recognizes the children's spiral of knowledge, and of memory. in the third world, rapists, NDS, and "books in black letters blacker / than visiting Martians. She provides distur- the ovens ofAuschwia lettershapes." Note: Although many of the writers bing statistics and quotes from outside "The smoke of gas chambers will not whose books have been considered sources on prison inmates and guards, settle" for Donia Blumenfeld for this essay have published in other alcoholic spouses/partners, and child Clenman, nor will "the bleeding sun, genres, only their poetry is mentioned abuse. She also writes about anti- the bloodless moon." here. The only writer whose work has Sernitism andneNazism as do Phyili "When marchers appear from no- appeared in English translation is Gotlieb and many of the others whose where ... / Historians are afraid," Rachel Korn; in all other cases the books are Wigsurveyed here. writes Deborah Eibel. "What if the poetry was originally written in Eng- next parade / Should stop suddenly, / lish. Monique Bosco is the major Then why do historians run Right in front of them, /And not go Jewish writer in the French language away.. . on?" Helene Rosenthal hears ".. . the in Canada but her poetry has not On streets too narrowforparadcs? pungent aroma / of Ghetto laughter been translated and hence has not -Deborah Eibel .. . // .. . despite the choreography of been referred to in this survey, wen death." "There is no anger in bleached though many of her themes are rel- Histories of social justice and in- bones / lamp-shades, fertile dust" want to those discussed. justice; of individuals, their families Sharon Nelson notes, though "dus- and lives, can ultimately be seen as ters ofvillages / somewhere in europe Janis Rapoport (1946) is the author irregularly shaped fragments of an / hold graves of genealogy / books of of five books of poetry: Within the aggregate that indudes mass move- tradition: I ~rinciples,ethics." "They Whirling Moment (Anansi Press, ments and anti-movements. Often say I this dream will pass /l ... the 1963, Jeremy's Dream (Porckpic, beyond rational interpretation these dream will not pass." 1974), Winter Flower (Hounslow huge yet intricate puzzles are among For Rhea Tregebov "it is still there, Press, 1979), Upon Her Fluent Route the most difficult to decode, espe- .. . /Those dead, almost all, who lived (Hounslow, 1991), and After Para- cially by those who live-or live and my borrowed memories." Anne dise (Simon 6 Pierre, 199G). She is die-at the conjuncture ofparticular Michaels writes: "The dead leave us writing her fourth play, The Shiva events or linger on their periphery, starvingwith mouths full oflove /l .. . Box, an nccnpt of which is beingpro- and wen by those who are born after, Memory has a hand in the grave up to duced by the WinnipegJewish Theatre but who are given those stories to the wrist." "Revealed through layers / in December 199Gaspartofaprogram carry forward: commemorating, in- of a variety of retellings" Adeena called l OX 10: AMinyan OfWomen. terpreting, attaining insight, render- Karasick inscribes both on and off the ing into art through images, sounds page "a memory reference / in defer- References and words. Such an went was of ence / a defiant reflex:." She says, "[I course the Holocaust, and among will not] pass over you in silence." Clenman, Don,ia Blumenfeld. I

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESlLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Dream in Good English Too. To- Korn, Rachel. Gmerationc Selected Forum Press, 1983. ronto: Flowerfield and Littleman, Pom.Oakville: Mosaic PressNal- Nelson, Sharon H. seawreck. Freder- 1988. ley Editions, 1982. icton: Fiddlehead Books, 1973. Eibel, Deborah. Streets Too Narrow Lcckner, Carole. Citybeart.Windsor: Nelson, Sharon H. The Work OfOur $r Paradcs. Victoria: Sono Nis Black Moss Press, 1988. Hands. Dorion: The Muses' Com- Press, 1985. Mandel, Miriam. The CoUrcted PO- pany, 1992. Glickrnan, Susan. Henty Moorei m of Miriam Mandcl. Edmon- Rosenthal, Helene. Listen to the Old Sheep. Montreal: Signal Editions ton: Longspoon Press and Newest Mother. Toronto: McClelland and (Vehicule Press), 1990. Press, 1984. Stewart Limited, 1975. Glickman, Susan. Hidc and Seek. Michaels, Anne. Miner? Pond. To- Rotstein, Nancy-Gay. Through the Montreal: Signal Editions ronto: McClelland and Stewart, Eyes ofa Woman. Toronto: Griffin (Vdhicule Press), 1995. 1991. How, 1975. Gotlieb, Phyllis. The Works: CoUrcted Michaels, Anne. The Weight of Or- Sarah, Robyn. Anyone Skating On Pom. Toronto: Calliope Press, anges. Toronto: The Coach House That Middle Ground. Montreal: 1978. Press, 1985. Vdhicule Press, 1984. Jenoff, Manyne. No Lingm'ngPeace. Nelson, Sharon H. A Broken Vessel. Sarah, Robyn. The Towhston~Pom Fredericton: Fiddlehead Poetry Montreal: Delta Can Press, 1972. Nmandselected. Toronto: House Books, 1972. Nelson, Sharon H. Blood Poems. of Anansi Press, 1992. Jenoff, Marvyne. The Orphan and Fredericton: Fiddlehead Poetry Scheier, Libby. Second Nature. To- the Stranger. Toronto: Wolsak and Books, 1978. ronto: Coach House Press, 1986. Wynn, 1985. Nelson, Sharon H. Family Scanrlalr. Scheier, Libby. Sky. Stratford: The Karasick, Adeena. Genrecidc. Van- Ste. Anne de Bellevue: The Muses' Mercury Press, 1990. couver: Talonbooks, 1996. Company, 1994 Solnicki,Jill. Fabric OfSkin. Ottawa: Karasick, Adeena. Mk~nuars.Van- Nelson, Sharon H. Grasping Men i Penumbra Press, 1994. couver: Talonbooks, 1994. Metaphors. Dorion: The Muses' Tregebov, Rhea. Mapping The Chaos. Karasick, Adeena. The Empress Has Company, 1993. Montreal: Signal Editions No Closure. Vancouver: Talon- Nelson, Sharon H. Mad Womrn 6 (Vdhicule Press), 1995. books, 1992. Crazy Ladies. Dewittville: Sunken Tregebov, Rhea. Remembering His- tory. Montreal: Guernica Editions, 1982. Tregebov, Rhea. The Proving Groundr. Montreal: Signal Editions (Vdhicule Press), 199 1. Faculty of Arts Waddington, Miriam. CoIlectcd PO- Department of Political Science m.Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986. Applications are invited for a tenure-track appointment at the assistant professor level in International Relations. Candidates are expected to have a strong record in teaching CARRYING ON THE and publication in multilateralism and/or international secu- TRADITION rity and/or foreign policy. Applicants are expected to demon- JEWSH WOMEN strate strength in International Relations theory. A regional specialization would be an asset. Appointment to commence WlW?ERS IN WADA July 1, 1997. Requirements: PhD or equivalent. Salary: Commensurate with qualifications. Applicants should send a curriculum vitae, appropriate sam- Students ofCanadian culture are well ples of their scholarship, teaching evaluations, and arrange to aware of the significant contribution have three letters of reference sent to: Prof. Harvey G. Simmons, Jewish writers have made to Cana- Chair, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, S669 dian literature. Whether writing in Ross, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ont. M3J 1P3. Yiddish as first-generation immi- Applications must be received by January 31,1997. grants, or writing in English as the children or grandchildren of imrni- This appointment is subject to budgetary approval. York University is implementing a policy of employment equity, including affirmative action for grants, Jewish writers have produced women faculty. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, this literaryworksthat are among the best advertisement is directed to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. and most loved in the Canadian liter- ary canon. The work ofYiddish writ-

VOLUME 16, NUMBER 4