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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:Making up our Shared Name
by Rabbi Zeise Wild Wolf
Jew by Choice, Name by Choice
by Kiera Aviya Koester
Sylvia Meister, Sylvia Roth, Sylvia Shopira and I, Sylvia Rosner
by Sylvia Rothchild
I Love My Name
by Troim Katz-Blacker Handler
A Bitter Blow
by Mara Benjamin
Wacky Macky
by Maxine Silverman
The Wisdom of Change
by Sophia Batsheva Rosenberg
The Pronunciation of My Name
by Rachel S. Havrelock
A Name in the Closet
by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
Feminist Son, Angry Mom
by Ann Klaff Lontein
The Power of Name
by Esther Gerstenfeld Radick
Out of the Flames
by Phyllis Pacheco
One Woman, 2 Marriages, 3 Cultures, 4 Names
by Karen Alkalay-Gut
A Dad’s Choice
by Seena Candy Sweet
Wave of Emotion
by Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
Each of Us Has a Name
poetry by Zelda