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Quotes from Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes — Irena Klepfisz

born 1941 Poland

← All quotes by Irena Klepfisz

9 quotes

A child, of course, assumes that her world is the whole world.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

As a child, my first conscious feeling about being Jewish was that it was dangerous, something to be hidden.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

I've been thinking a lot about it lately, about the corruption here in America, how everything becomes big business, how everything becomes diseased. Everything.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

Though U.S. Jews were quick to protest the Knesset's attempt to define "who is a Jew," it is a definition we are obsessed with.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

At thirteen I tried silence. At sixteen I tried anonymity. I have since learned these are not the only options.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

Experience has obviously taught me that Jews are not the only ones in danger and that what is "undesirable" in me is not limited to my Jewishness.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

As I grew older, I learned the full breadth of Yiddish literature; but this early introduction with its inherent political vision became as powerful an influence in my life as did the war.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

Just as we must not allow our strong commitment to developing Jewish secularism to detract from the struggle in the Middle East, that conflict cannot be used to allow assimilation to take over our lives.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

This is the confusion. Being Jewish. Being a lesbian. Being an American. It all converges. It is like feelings about one's parents. Love and embarrassment. The painful realization that they are not perfect.

Dreams of an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches and Diatribes (1990)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Irena Klepfisz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.