First of all, at our Seder table—we have most probably a Seder that would make some people shudder. We read only the most necessary. We have my grandchildren there, and my grandchildren's friends there, and I don't want them to be so bored that they fall asleep at the table: it's for them. So they are incorporated into the service, and every Seder that we have, we discuss a topic: death penalty, Russian Jewry, the Intifada. And all the time, I insist that there is going to be something said about the women and the children. Because some of these things that are discussed are so male-driven, and so politically-driven, and so power-hungry-driven. And what is lost in the shuffle, is that they are really families, and there are women and children.

My father was always disappointed that I wasn't a boy. I was raised like a boy. I know how to chop wood, I knew how to fix an iron. I never was this girly-girly cliquish kind of person. So I just said to myself, well you want to treat me like that? Why? I'll show you! I'm capable—I'll beat you with my brain! I can't beat you up, I can't take my fist, but I'm going to outsmart you. I always said, I'm going to outwork you, I'm going to outthink you, and I'm going to outsmart you. That's not to say that I would not sometimes be in a rage about the things that people did or said or tried. I would always say, if I were a man, I'd knock ''em.

How to Cite This Page
For a bibliography: Jewish Women's Archive. "Jewish Women's Archive - Women Who Dared - Miriam Waltzer on TRADITIONAL ROLES." <http://jwa.org/exhibits/wwd/jsp/fullAnswer.jsp>.

For a footnote: Jewish Women's Archive, "Jewish Women's Archive - Women Who Dared - Miriam Waltzer on TRADITIONAL ROLES," <http://jwa.org/exhibits/wwd/jsp/fullAnswer.jsp>.