Wonderful to read and listen to these appreciations of Paef, however: (1) Although Boston deserves credit for raising and educating her, please note that she is not a "native" of the city; she was born in Minsk in Russia. Her status as an immigrant from Russia, and a Jew, raises the profile of her courage. The Sedition Act of 1919 and the subsequent arrests and deportations of Russian immigrants by J. Edgar Hoover and Mitchell Palmer, could not have made America comfortable for Paef's family. Nevertheless, in that anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual atmosphere, as a very young woman bearing targetted ethnicities, she teamed up with Governor Baxter to publicly fight for her pacifist principles. (2) The video emphasizes her Boston Museum School grad education over her undergrad program at Mass. Normal Art School. Tuition at the Normal Art School in those years was zero (or negligible). It was almost the only access to a professional art education available to working-class immigrant families at the time. Paef demonstrated her appreciation for her public-school alma mater by returning to lecture at the school.
Wonderful to read and listen to these appreciations of Paef, however: (1) Although Boston deserves credit for raising and educating her, please note that she is not a "native" of the city; she was born in Minsk in Russia. Her status as an immigrant from Russia, and a Jew, raises the profile of her courage. The Sedition Act of 1919 and the subsequent arrests and deportations of Russian immigrants by J. Edgar Hoover and Mitchell Palmer, could not have made America comfortable for Paef's family. Nevertheless, in that anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual atmosphere, as a very young woman bearing targetted ethnicities, she teamed up with Governor Baxter to publicly fight for her pacifist principles. (2) The video emphasizes her Boston Museum School grad education over her undergrad program at Mass. Normal Art School. Tuition at the Normal Art School in those years was zero (or negligible). It was almost the only access to a professional art education available to working-class immigrant families at the time. Paef demonstrated her appreciation for her public-school alma mater by returning to lecture at the school.