Remembering Two of Montreal's Yiddish Women Poets: Esther Segal and Ida Maza

Esther Segal and Ida Maza were Yiddish poets active in Montreal's literary milieu from the 1920s through the 1960s. While both were recognized by their contemporaries as significant voices in Yiddish poetry, they have been remembered in very different ways. This study presents the careers and writings of Segal and Maza as well as their roles as cultural figures in Montreal's Jewish immigrant community. It examines how their work has been disseminated and how they have been remembered. In the process, it raises questions of posterity in Yiddish literature: Who is remembered and included in the canon of Yiddish Canadian letters, and why?