Release of "Free To Be You and Me"

November 27, 1972

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Letty Cottin Pogrebin was the editorial project consultant for "Free to Be You and Me" album, released on November 27, 1972, as well as the book and television special associated with the project. Created by feminist and actress Marlo Thomas, "Free To Be You And Me" is an album of non-sexist stories and songs for that have helped shape the worldview of a generation of children.

Free To Be You and Me, the album of non-sexist stories and songs that helped shape the self-understanding and world view of a generation of children, was released on November 27, 1972. Letty Cottin Pogrebin was the editorial project consultant for the album as well as the book and television special associated with the project, all of which were created by feminist and actress Marlo Thomas. Free To Be You And Me, which features such songs as “Parents are People” and “It’s All Right to Cry,” is still enjoyed by children today.

In addition to her work on Free To Be You And Me, Pogrebin was a founding editor of Ms. Magazine. She was a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, as well as the Ms. Foundation for Women and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.

When the United Nations International Women's Decade Conference equated Zionism with Racism in 1975, Pogrebin was provoked to combat anti-Semitism within the women's movement just as she fought sexism within Judaism. Over the last three decades, Pogrebin has been a fixture in feminist, Jewish, and Jewish-feminist causes, as well as an outspoken political activist on issues including hunger, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Black-Jewish relations.

Her publications include the best-selling parenting guide to raising non-sexist children, Growing Up Free: Raising Your Children in the 80s (1980), as well as Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America (1991), Family Politics: Love and Power on an Intimate Frontier (1983), and Getting Over Getting Older: An Intimate Journey (1996). Her first novel was Three Daughters (2003).

To learn more about Letty Cottin Pogrebin, visit Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia and Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution.

See also: This Week in History for June 9, 1939, Birth of feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin; Letty Cottin Pogrebin in the Virtual Archive; Our 10 Plagues, The Sisterhood 50, Free to be... on Jewesses with Attitude.

Sources: www.soapboxinc.com/letty-cottin-pogrebin; Jewish Women in America, An Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 1087-1088; Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution, jwa.org/feminism/index.html?id=JWA058.