GOLDMAN, EMMA
Emma Goldman was a crusader for ANARCHISM, feminism, and the labor movement. She was also an essayist and is best known as the first editor of Mother Earth, a magazine providing a forum for feminist and anarchist writers.
Goldman was born June 27, 1869, in Kaunas,
Lithuania, a province of the Russian Empire, dur-
ing the early stages of revolt against czarism and
the rise in popularity of COMMUNISM. The seeds
of the Bolshevik revolt were already being sown
in the towns and villages throughout the country
where discontent with czarist rule was strongest.
Goldman, who described herself as a born rebel,
came into the world as the third daughter of
Abraham Goldman and Taube Goldman. Her
parents’ marriage, like many Jewish Orthodox
unions of the time, had been arranged.
Goldman suffered the fate of being a female
in a culture that valued males. When she was
young, her father made no effort to disguise his
disappointment at having still another daughter
instead of the much-prized son he hoped for.
He has been described as hot tempered and
impatient, particularly with Goldman’s rebel-
liousness, which she showed at an early age. He
was a traditional Jewish father, and he planned
to arrange a marriage for his daughter when she
was 15. Goldman, however, had different ideas:
she longed for an education and hoped some-
day to marry someone she loved. Goldman
described her mother as cold and distant, but
also strong and assertive, and she may have
served as a role model for Goldman’s own
forthright manner.
After spending her childhood in Kaunas,
Konigsberg, and St. Petersburg, Goldman emi-
grated to the United States in 1885 with a sister.
They joined another sister who had settled in
Rochester, New York, where Goldman found
work in a coat factory, sewing ten-and-a-half
hours daily at a salary of $2.50 a week. She lived
in a crowded apartment with her two sisters and
her brother-in-law. Their working and living
conditions, as well as those of others even more
destitute, sparked her interest in anarchism and
