Moishe, why did Klara and
Rosa start this Mishigane holiday 8th of March?
I don’t know Haim, I think
they were in the flower business.
A Russian-born Jewish American
labor activist, suffragist, and educator Theresa Serber Malkiel (1874-1949)
was the first woman to rise from factory work to leadership in the Socialist
party. Her 1910 novel, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. She helped to
reform New York state labor laws. As head of the Woman's National Committee of
the Socialist Party of America (SPA), she established an annual Woman's Day which was
the precursor to International Women's Day.
A Polish-born Jew Rosa Luxemburg (1871 – 1919) was a Marxist theorist,
philosopher, economist, anti-war activist and revolutionary
socialist who became a
naturalized German citizen at the age of 28. Successively, she was a
member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of
Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), the Social
Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Independent
Social Democratic Party (USPD) and
the Communist Party
of Germany (KPD). Together with her best friend Klara Zetkin, a German Jew, who later moved to Soviet Union,
they started the International Women’s day.
It took a few years until 1917 for it to be celebrated in Socialist countries
on the 8th of March.
As always nice Jewish girls
are at the core of every grand idea to change the world. As always, they are blamed when the idea is
hijacked. They were fighting for the
right to work, for the right to vote, for the right to hold public office, for
the right to express themselves. They
were fighting for most of the things we take for granted.
What do we have today? We have Ukrainians shouting that it’s a
Russian holiday they should block. So
they now are against a husband giving his wife a bouquet of flowers. We have
Terrorists glorifying Kamikaze women in the Hijab. The rights of women in the Arab world is not
something I can even begin to fathom.
Finally, we have women
marching for the right to abort a baby in the last trimester. Forget the moral or religious aspect of that
one. As someone who was born after 26
weeks in my mother’s womb I have a problem with it. As someone who went though IVF and considered
adoption, I know that if that decision was not made by 5 moths of pregnancy,
that life is there for someone who will love it.
There are many other marches
for anything and everything that kills the original message. It is irrelevant now whether you agreed with
the original idea or not.
Russia still celebrates the 8th
of March. It is very close to the
American’s Mother’s day. Men give gifts,
bring flowers, read poetry to their wives, cook dinner. One day a year girls are princesses. Boys at school give them cards and candy,
like on Valentine’s day. Based on the
Russian social media that hasn’t changed.
It hasn’t changed among women who remember other women in their lives.
My favorite part hasn’t
changed either. It is an excuse for
concerts and duets among the best performers and celebrities. It is an excuse
for the best old movie reruns. With that
on TV it is easier and more fun to do what women always do around the
house.
It may be curious to see how
much further that grand idea of Tikun Ha Olam will be taken next year. How far from the original will it go? How
many will decide to push their twisted agenda with it?
Thankfully, my husband doesn’t
need a day to give me flowers or cook dinner.
In my house it may simply be Shabbat, or an idea to say Thank you for something.
So for me, 8th of
March is just another excuse to remind myself that Jewish Girls are the Future. That will never change.
Comments