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two reasons for the defection, which was not only a turning-away but the beginning for another source of [[strikethrough]] enlarged [[/strikethrough]] emotional [[strikethrough]] experience [[/strikethrough]] richness. One was the reading. The other was [[strikethrough]] her growing [[/strikethrough]] anger about [[strikethrough]] what she came to feel was [[/strikethrough]] the inferior position of women in [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] Judaism. "The beginnings were there in the Synagogue, and I am told to go upstairs. I have never swallowed it to date. Much later I had a running bout with Barney Newman about my objections to the role of women in Judaism. We battled till he died; he said I misunderstood and I said I understand loud and clear but I objected. Then one time he asked me whether I had seen the plans for his Synagogue. I asked why I should see them?
'Because it'll settle the argument,' he said.
'Well, and where are the women in your Synagogue,' I asked?
'You'll see! You'll understand!' he said.
"Where are they?"
'Right on the altar!'
And I said,' ....you! You sit on the altar and get yourself slaughtered! I want the first empty seat on the aisle!

There was also Judaic taboos and ritual concerning women that may have had effect, though a less conspicuous one. Of Course there were the tales from my mother about life in Russia, how the women had to go to the public baths and so on. It all created a kind of horror thing for me. But we never carried things that far at home, even though we had an orthodox house. Remember, I am born in this country....so all those old customs are really just tales of the background.

School, on the other hand, provided that weaning-away of a younger generation from the previous one's ethnic identification for which the American educational system was, after all, set up. Useful for the making of good citizens one activity was making maps, making the American space visual. [[strikethrough]]??[[/strikethrough]]

[[left margin]] [[strikethrough]]and American citizenship and [[/strikethrough]] [[/left margin]]

Every time I see a Jasper Johns map, I remember how crazy I was for doing that thing. [[strikethrough]] We picked our own paper and then [[/strikethrough]] We had to figure out what each state was known for. I got tiny empty capsules and filled them with sheet or whatever and glued them on to a piece of beautiful blue paper. I had drawn the states in colored crayon. And I just loved that