The Denver Jewish news., 1922-11-08
Council of Jewish Women


New AOrk Clty-MrS. Elma Ehrllcn
Levilger contributes an article Oh .The
Jewish Woman as Author" to the cur
rent issue of "The Jewish Woman
the national publication of the Council
herself the author of several books
and prize plays, including 1.-THE Bur-
den" 'Jeptha's Daughter Jewish
Holiday Stories" THE New Land"
and '.Playmates in Egypt" Her article
represents very Interesting study of
the Jewess in American literature:
1T is Of peculiar significance that
among the many Jewish women writ
ing in America today the poets seem to-
turn oftenest to Jewish themes for
their inspiration. Our first Jewish
woman of letters. Emma Lazarus,
found her fullest expression while writ
ing for and Of her people; the verses
of our later women poets bear the
Jewish stamp even when they treat of
alien subjects.
Emma Lazarus, whose early poems
won the admiration of no less critic
than Emerson, first seemed to feel the
birththroes of her Jewish heritage
when She sought to MD the miserable
Jewish refugees vino fled to this coun-
try from Russia Hers were among the
first verses in America breathing OF
the SORROWS and hopes of the Jewish
people.
1.-The legitimate successor of Emmn
Lazarus. is felt by mdny to BID Jessie
Sampler. Her lyrics of the old Jew
in exile and the new jew in Palestine
are possibly the finest expression of
lean writer; her TRANSACTIONS of the
more familiar Hebrew prayers and her
story poems which compose her volume,
"Around the Year in Rhymes" are an
invaluable collection for parents and
Jewish teachers
Florence Kipcr Frank of Chicago,
can lay her chief claim to fame on
the merits of her two Jewish poems.
1.-THE Jew to Jesus" and .'The Jewish
Conscript" Three other Jewish women.
Bablette Deutscl, Lola Ridge and Jean
Starr Untermcyer. opponents of the
new verse and II cosmopoli, an phil
osophy. still have written verses which
only Jewess could write Here n
picture of hot night in ihe Ghetto.
there bit of waiting on the Eve of
Tisha Bah. again a por RAFT Of a jew
ish mother-littlc ctchines done in the
heart blood of the jew.
This almost passionate realism
pervades the work of one of our young
est Jewish writers whose rise to the
top of the literary ladder has been
little short of sensational. Herself an
immigrant factory worker, Anzin
Yezierska in u few years has become
one of the leading American writers
of short stories Such pen pictures
from her first volume. Hungry
Hearts," as 1.-The Fat of thc-Iand' or
1.-The Lost Beautifulness." stand I'M
excelled as genre sketches OF the East
Side Jewish family.
Mary Antin's "Thc Promised Land
has found Il companion picture in
Bertha PEARLS SARAH and Her Dailgh-
ter The stories of Fannie Hurst,
perhaps the most widely read of any
of our Jewish writer's When they
treat of Jewish life, are singularly
free of the grmness which colors the
tales of Yezierska and Pearl. Edna
Ferber is another dcservedly popular
short-story writer and novelist whose
finest work has been done outside the
Jewish field We wish Miss Ierber
would give us novel some day pictur-
ing The life of the jew who has called
America his home for two or three
generations: it would be worth writ
ing and Miss Ferber would do it to
perfection.
Rita Weinman is best known for
her intimate studies of theatrical life.
Her play of few years ago. The
GENTLE Wife, dealt with the problem
of htermarriage but except for
few surface peculiarities her Jewish