By Judy Batalion - Lilith
April 7, 2026
Just weeks after submitting my laboriously-conceived dissertation on women’s collaborative art stemming from California in the 1970s, I stumbled on my next obsession and a new understanding of feminist history–one that would take me back to pre-war Poland.
By Judy Batalion - Jewish Book Council
March 30, 2026
There was a problem. The ghetto bench law — the rule forcing Jewish students to sit in a segregated bench in university classrooms that was increasingly popular in Poland in the 1930s — was instituted at the University of Warsaw in the fall of 1937. But in my newest draft of my historical novel, I’d shifted parts of the story around, and the ghetto benches were suddenly happening in the spring. (Lesson learned: always write fiction in a place with limited seasons so you can chop and change bits without having to endlessly rewrite weather.) But could I morally alter the date of this discriminatory rule’s implementation from fall 1937 to spring 1938? I was riddled with worry.
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