Talk: Women of the Yiddish Book

What connects a bride-to-be in Italy of the 1600s, an eleven-year old typesetter in the year 1710 and a secretary from Poland of the early twentieth century to a modern Yiddish-reading woman? They are all part of the story of Yiddish women and the book.

Since the medieval period up to the 21st century, women have been a driving force of the Yiddish book market – as customers and readers whose taste shaped literary production, as patronesses who supported the printing of books, as women for whom manuscripts were copied, as printers with their own publishing houses, as typesetters and proofreaders, typists and finally, writers.

Unruly women, fervent readers. In this captivating lecture with Dr. Diana Matut we will explore the profound impact that women had on the entire history of Yiddish manuscripts and books – and get to know extraordinary Jewish women and their story with manuscripts and books of the last six hundred years.