Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
Born	(1945-09-09)September 9, 1945 Flatbush,Brooklyn,New York City, United States
Died	July 10, 2018(2018-07-10) (aged 72) Elmhurst,Queens,New York City, United States
Occupations	Essayist poet academic political activist

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz (September 9, 1945 – July 10, 2018) was an American essayist, poet, academic, and political activist.^[1]

Born Melanie Kaye in 1945 in theFlatbush neighborhood ofBrooklyn,New York City, her parents had anglicized their last name from Kantrowitz prior to her birth.^[2] Her grandparents emigrated to theUnited States fromEastern Europe.^[3]

She later added Kantrowitz to her name to honor her Jewish roots. Kaye/Kantrowitz was active in theHarlemCivil Rights Movement as a teenager. When she was 17, she worked with theHarlem Education Project. About this she said "It was my first experience with a mobilizing proud community and with the possibilities of collective action."^[4]

Kaye/Kantrowitz associated her activism with herJewish upbringing,^[5] stating that it was related to her family's Jewish cultural and political heritage "as much as the candles we lit forHanukkah, or theSeders where bread andmatzoh shared the table." She wrote in her essay "To Be a Radical Jew in the Late 20th Century" that her "parents had not pushed [her] into activism, yet clearly they raised [her] to do these things".^[3]

In 1966, she left New York to attend graduate school inBerkeley, California. Later, she moved toPortland, Oregon, where she remained until 1979 before spending several years inNew Mexico.^[6]

Kaye/Kantrowitz described herself as a "Conscious Jew".^[5] Along withIrena Klepfisz andAdrienne Rich, among others, Kaye/Kantrowitz was a member ofDi Vilde Chayes (English: The Wild Beasts), a Jewish feminist group that examined and responded to political issues in theMiddle East, as well as toantisemitism.^[7][8]

In 1990, she served as a founding director forJews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), a progressive Jewish organization focused mostly onanti-racist work and issues ofeconomic justice.^[9][10] Kaye/Kantrowitz served on the JFREJ board from 1995 to 2004.^[10] Of her work with JFREJ, Kaye/Kantrowitz said: "Though the content of our mission is not specifically feminist, we have modeled feminist activism and included a feminist spin on issues such as hate violence, right of workers to organize, police brutality, andeducational equity."^[10]

Around 1990, she also co-foundedBeyond the Pale: The Progressive Jewish Radio Hour, a radio program that aired weekly onWBAI (99.5 FM) which "mixes local, national, and international political debate and analysis, from a progressive Jewish perspective with the voices and sounds of contemporary Jewish culture".^[11]

Kaye/Kantrowitz also served on the steering committee ofNew Jewish Agenda.^[12]

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz taught the firstwomen's studies course at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. She also taught atHamilton College,Brooklyn College/CUNY,Vermont College,^[5] andJewish studies,history andcomparative literature atQueens College.

Kaye/Kantrowitz died on July 10, 2018, ofParkinson's disease, aged 72.^[2]

Wikiquote has quotations related toMelanie Kaye/Kantrowitz.

Kaye/Kantrowitz's works include:

• We Speak in Code: Poems and Other Writings (1980, Motheroot Publications)
• The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology (1989, Beacon Press; editor, withIrena Klepfisz)
• My Jewish Face, and Other Stories (1990, Aunt Lute Books)
• The Issue is Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence and Resistance (1995, Aunt Lute Books)
• The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism (2007, Indiana University Press)

She contributed to anthologies, including:

• Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology (1981)
• Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence (1981)
• Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology (1984)

Kaye/Kantrowitz also edited the lesbian periodicalSinister Wisdom from 1983 to 1987.^[13]

• Enszer, Julie R.Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz September 9, 1945–July 10, 2018 atShalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women.Jewish Women's Archive 23 June 2021
• Enszer, Julie R.Remembering the Life and Work of Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz atLambda Literary August 22, 2018
• Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University Special Collections

• 20th-century American essayists
• 20th-century American Jews
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• 20th-century American poets
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• Deaths from Parkinson's disease in New York (state)
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• Jews for Racial and Economic Justice members
• Jewish women activists
• Lesbian academics
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• 1945 births
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