#but would YOU want to be named Ernestine or Stephanie? Exactly | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chicago-geniza · 8 months ago

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I know they're serious but sometimes the antisemitic press attacks on Stefania were very funny. One called her "Stefania" Zahorska. Like they put her first name in scare quotes, as though that were the one she changed. Stefania is literally her middle name Assigned At Birth, which she'd been going by from a very young age. Meanwhile the Kraków Zionist press is always calling her "Pani Zahorska--to jest, Leser," which is MORE antisemitic

#Advisor was fascinated when I brought up the antisemitism of the Zionist press #That they strategically deployed to accuse Polonized Jews of antisemitism for assimilating #They were sometimes more vulgar than the Endecja press it was insane #stefania tag #Yes the demographics of Ernestyna in 1880s + 90s skewed heavily Jewish and it was often #A ciphered secular name for Estera which is why I use Anna Clarke's #granddaughter of Queen Esther quote as one of my epigraphs #but would YOU want to be named Ernestine or Stephanie? Exactly #being pretty familiar with her aesthetic preferences my sense is she simply did not like the name Ernestyna lol #she was going by Stefanja on record as early as 1910 and probably even in high school #Like Joni Mitchell going by Joni/Joan instead of Roberta

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