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June 9: Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founder and the founding editor of Ms. Magazine, was born on this date in 1939. She was raised in an observant home in Queens but fell out of Judaism at age 15 when her father would not allow her to be counted in a minyan to say kaddish for her mother. She returned to Jewish involvement in the 1980s as the mainstream community opened up to feminist influences. Pogrebin was a founder of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and also helped to launch MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the New Israel Fund, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, and the National Women’s Political Caucus. She is the author of Deborah, Golda and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America, among nine books, and has served two terms as president of the Author’s Guild.
“When a family is free of abuse and oppression, it can be the place where we share our deepest secrets and stand the most exposed, a place where we learn to feel distinct without being ‘better,’ and sacrifice for others without losing ourselves.” —Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Lawrence Bush edited Jewish Currents from 2003 until 2018. He is the author of Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution and Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, among other books. His new volume of illustrated Torah commentaries, American Torah Toons 2, is scheduled for publication this year.
