![Róża Melcerowa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/R%C3%B3%C5%BCa_Melcerowa.jpg)
Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer (Polish: Róża Pomeranc-Melcer; November 5, 1880 – October 19, 1934)
[died at age 55, Oct. 20, 1934, American Jewish Yearbook, By American Jewish Committee, Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1935, p. 270] was a
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
writer and novelist based in the city of
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
. In
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
she became the first Jewish woman to be elected to the
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...
, the Parliament of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, as a member of the Committee of United National Jewish Parties. A strong promoter of
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
, she was an influential member of local Jewish women's organizations, especially the ''Koło Kobiet Żydowskich'' (Jewish Women's Circle). She contributed to a number of local and foreign journals, writing in both German and Polish, and participated in international congresses.
Biography
Born in 1880 in
Tarnopol
Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...
, Roza Pomerantz was brought up in a well-to-do Jewish family. In addition to her schooling, she had private lessons in music and German. After studying for three years at the
Leipzig Conservatoire
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
, she returned to Tarnopol where she supported initiatives providing assistance to Jewish orphans, especially those returning from the 1903
Kishinev pogrom
The Kishinev pogrom or Kishinev massacre was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Kishinev (modern Chișinău, Moldova), then the capital of the Bessarabia Governorate in the Russian Empire, on . A second pogrom erupted in the city in Octob ...
s without their parents. In 1906, she married Izaak Melcer, a railways official.
Pomerantz contributed articles to a wide variety of newspapers and journals in both Polish and German. These included the
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
Zionist papers ''Wshód'' and ''Przyszlośé'' as well as ''
Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...
'' and ''Das Israelische Familienblatt'' and the Swiss ''Jüdische Arbeiter'' and ''Dr. Blochs Wochenschrift''. Among her contributions were the short stories ''Ein Chazarenkönig'', ''Chancia'' and the play ''Matka'' which was first performed in Lviv in Polish. In the 1920s, she published the short story ''Der Chossen Bocher''.
As a result, she became well known to those who read Zionist publications in German.
She also wrote novels featuring Galician Jews such as ''Im Land der Not''.
Other works included ''An die jüdischen Frauen: Ein Appell'' (1898) and "Die Bedeutung der zionistischen Idee im Leber der Jüdin" in ''Der Zionismus und die Frauen'' (c.1905).
She also exerted considerable influence on Zionist youth in Galicia, arranging and attending festivities and functions. She was an active member of the women's movement, helping to establish a Zionist women's association in
Stryi as early as 1898. In 1908, it was registered as ''Ognisko Kobiet Żydowskich'' (Jewish Women's Cercle). In 1901 in Tarnopol, she was elected chair of the district committee while in 1903, she proposed the establishment of a Galician Zionish women's association which led to the founding of the ''Kolo Kobiet Żydowskich'' (KKZ) in 1908 in Lviv. After the end of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, under the KKZ, she established a Jewish kindergarten (1918) and a girls' home (1919).
In 1911, Pomerantz represented Galicia at the 10th Zionist Congress in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, becoming one of the pioneers of the
Women's International Zionist Organization
The Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO; he, ויצו ') is a volunteer organization dedicated to social welfare in all sectors of Israeli society, the advancement of the status of women, and Jewish education in Israel and the Dias ...
which was established in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1920. In 1923, she participated in the
First World Congress of Jewish Women in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, demanding support for Jewish emigrants to
Palestine.
Róża Pomerantz-Meltzer died on 20 October 1934, aged 55.
[
]
References
External links
Photograph of Roza Pommerantz from Getty images
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomerantz-Meltzer, Roza
Jewish Polish politicians
Polish Zionists
Women members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland
1880 births
1934 deaths
20th-century Polish women politicians
Writers from Ternopil
Polish writers
Polish women writers
Polish feminists
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)