Galicia’s Rebellious Daughters, and the Birth of Orthodox Schools for Girls

Now comprising most of southern Poland and part of northwestern Ukraine, Galicia is the former Polish territory that, from the late 18th century until World War I, belonged to the Austrian empire. Its Jews had their own dialect of Yiddish, their own liturgical customs, and their own way of making gefilte fish. While Galician Jews had a reputation for intense piety, the changing world of the turn of the century brought defections. Rachel Manekin notes some of the instances of young women leaving the fold—sometimes to pursue higher education, more often to pursue Gentile lovers, and sometimes conversion to Catholicism—and their stories as they were told in the press, and in literature.