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by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
A Name in the Closet
My father’s name is Kantrowitz. He changed it to Kaye in 1942.
At the dyke bar in Portland I tell my best Jewish friend that I’m thinking about taking back my mother’s maiden name. “Kaye is a made up name,” I say, “It has no history.” Amy, historian, tells me, “Just because a history isn’t pretty doesn’t mean it isn’t history.”
Kaye is both history and closet. History is a kind of closet. Kaye is Kantrowitz Kaminsky Keminetsky Kowalsky Klutz Korelowich Ka… (think about asking every Jew you know: what was your name?)
adopted from Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology
Who Are We?
The articles in this special section:A Name in the Closet
by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
Each of Us Has a Name
poetry by Zelda
Wave of Emotion
by Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
A Dad’s Choice
by Seena Candy Sweet
One Woman, 2 Marriages, 3 Cultures, 4 Names
by Karen Alkalay-Gut
Out of the Flames
by Phyllis Pacheco
The Power of Name
by Esther Gerstenfeld Radick
Feminist Son, Angry Mom
by Ann Klaff Lontein
Making up our Shared Name
by Rabbi Zeise Wild Wolf
The Pronunciation of My Name
by Rachel S. Havrelock
The Wisdom of Change
by Sophia Batsheva Rosenberg
Wacky Macky
by Maxine Silverman
A Bitter Blow
by Mara Benjamin
I Love My Name
by Troim Katz-Blacker Handler
Sylvia Meister, Sylvia Roth, Sylvia Shopira and I, Sylvia Rosner
by Sylvia Rothchild
Jew by Choice, Name by Choice
by Kiera Aviya Koester