Politics; or, Grappling with Liberalism and Women’s Lib

We present here the tenth chapter from the memoirs-in-progress of the renowned scholar and author Ruth R. Wisse. Earlier chapters can be found here. Further installments will appear over the next months.

When I began writing on political subjects, I prepared by imagining myself in the kosher bakery that was a seven-minute drive from my Montreal home. My women friends, who thought my affection for the place perverse, baked their own hallahs or sent their husbands to do the shopping. But for over two decades I’d gone there for encouragement in times of stress.

The bakery’s staff had long since given up trying to keep order by means of numbered tickets. The largely immigrant customers paid such things no heed, shouting “I was here first!” or elbowing others aside as if the next loaf sold from under them might mean they would never feed their families again. The cacophony on a Friday, not to speak of a holiday eve, peaked when the trucks bearing gefilte fish arrived and the women grabbed the packages before the deliverymen could reach the refrigerated shelves.