Writers of a broad range of texts—passionate and erotic lyrical verse, social realist fiction, affecting descriptions of immigrant life, nostalgic paeans to their Eastern European homes, dirges to those murdered in the Holocaust—Yiddish women writers were modernists and traditionalists, romantics and realists, prose writers and poets. They represent no single school or line of development, but rather the range of women’s voices contained in Yiddish literature.

The development of the Yiddish press allowed Jewish women to move from the domestic into the public sphere and to be part of public discussion about communities’ affairs, to acquire knowledge of other Jewish towns and world events, and to express themselves publicly in their own language understood by all. They wrote letters to the editor, stories and articles, and opinion pieces and practical instructions.

Writer and editor Charlotte Zolotow wrote over 70 children’s books. Her best-known story is William’s Doll, which was produced as a short film and as a song for the popular children’s album Free to Be … You and Me. Some of Zolotow’s books approach difficult topics such as gender roles, death, single parents, and conflict.