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Overview
Emma Goldman, 1869 – 1940
This exhibit was produced in collaboration with the Emma Goldman Papers.
"I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things."
Emma Goldman dedicated her life to the creation of a radically new social order. Convinced that the political and economic organization of modern society was fundamentally unjust, she embraced anarchism for the vision it offered of liberty, harmony and true social justice. For decades, she struggled tirelessly against widespread inequality, repression and exploitation.
Goldman's deep commitment to the ideal of absolute freedom led her to espouse a wide range of controversial causes. A fiery orator and a gifted writer, she became a passionate advocate of freedom of expression, sexual freedom and birth control, equality and independence for women, radical education, union organization and workers' rights.
Support for these ideas—many of which were unpopular with mainstream America—earned Goldman the enmity of powerful political and economic authorities. Known as "exceedingly dangerous" and one of the two most dangerous anarchists in America, she was often harrassed or arrested while lecturing, and sometimes banned outright from speaking. Insisting on the right to express herself in the face of overwhelming odds, Goldman became a prominent figure in the establishment of the right to freedom of speech in America.
Although Goldman was hostile to religion in general, her core beliefs emerged in part from a Jewish tradition that championed the pursuit of universal justice. Her early experiences in Russia and as an immigrant to the United States laid the groundwork for her later analyses of political and economic problems, and she understood that her own ideals had their roots in a Jewish historical experience shaped by longstanding oppression. Goldman's career stands as an important chapter in the history of Jewish activism in America.
- Quotation beginning "I want freedom" from Emma Goldman, Living My Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931), 56.
- Quotation "exceedingly dangerous" woman by United States Attorney Francis Caffey, July 12, 1917, National Archives.
- Early Years - Next >
Discuss
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Emma Goldman
Jewish has always been a multi-dimensional subject, and Ms. Goldman, Trotsky, Disraeli, and other famous people, including Spinoza, Mendelsohn, and Einstein, who were ethnically Jews but not always completely onboard by other definitions illustrate this pretty well. They have to be accepted for their contributions to history and to their people, even if they need to also be critiqued for imperfections in their assumptions and for the complicated way they've impacted their own people.
Her criticisms of the religion of her time were on-target. Her solutions were not so great. I looked in on this page researching her role in egging on the assassination of McKinley. Because of her fiery radicalism she sometimes had a blind "third eye" and "third ear" and so her approach often caused as many problems as it aimed to resolve.
Jewish?
Maybe on paper. Emma Goldman wasn't just "hostile to religion," she was an avowed atheist. She said, "Only after the triumph of the Atheistic philosophy in the minds and hearts of man will freedom and beauty be realized." You say, "...she understood that her own ideals had their roots in a Jewish historical experience shaped by longstanding oppression." Is that the reason she is a "Trailblazing Jewish woman?" Well, her ideals had roots in the oppressive historical experiences of young pregnant women and black people and gay people. Does this mean she was a trailblazing young, pregnant, black, gay woman? There are enough Jewish trailblazers not to have to claim nonjewish activists.
Emma Goldman and the way she acted and what I think
I think that if all women who have thought this way when she was alive we would have gotten things done alot faster for women. Even though now there are still people that thing women should not do a specific job. Like the military for example there are still people that think a women cant do the same job a man can in the military. im sure some who agree with me that sexism and I for one do NOT agree with it.I say "GOOD FOR YOU EMMA GOLDMAN YOU DID ALOT FOR WOMEN JUST BY NOT GIVING UP!"
Emma Goldman Art Piece
An impassioned artist has made an ongoing project to site images of New York heroes around the city. For the 5th of May she chose to go out at dawn and hang small glass-enclosed images of Emma Goldman in appropriate places in the city. This project emerged from an idea called "Wish you were here" which originally was about hanging images of ex-NewYorkers in places they cherished. History took over. A glorious image of Tesla in a small plexiglass frame hanging from brass chain can still be found outside his hotel. Emma Goldman can be tracked at this website:
diderotsblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/visitation-emma-goldman-1869-19...
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