Ida Maze was a “communitarian-proletarian” Yiddish writer who turned her Montreal home into a magnet for Yiddish writers and culture. After emigrating from Belarus to North America at age twelve in 1905, Maze began writing lyrical poems that were original and inspiring to young people.

Journalist, essayist, novelist, and translator Clara Malraux spent her early life involved with antifascist activities and joined the French Resistance during World War II while in hiding with her daughter. Her work often describes her attempts to make a place for herself in a misogynistic and antisemitic society.

Adeline Cohnfeldt Lust was a writer who published two novels and numerous short stories, newspapers articles, and editorials over her trailblazing career as a Jewish woman in journalism in the early twentieth century.

Polish-born writer Elisa Lispector was nine years old when her family immigrated to Brazil in 1920. Alongside her successful career as a public servant, Lispector was a writer who published seven novels and three books of short stories. Her second novel is semi-autobiographical in its grappling with Lispector’s Jewish immigration story.

Fanny Lewald was a successful and respected writer in nineteenth-century Germany. She established a salon in Berlin and became tremendously productive, writing novels, essays, and articles. In her influential autobiography, she argued for the emancipation of women. Lewald believed that women’s professional work was the basis of their liberation.

Politician and writer, Emma Levine-Talmi, grew up in a liberal Jewish home in Warsaw before immigrating alone to Palestine in 1924 at the age of nineteen. She was active in Kibbutz life before becoming a member of Knesset for the Mapam party. During her time in the Knesset, she engaged in social issues, including, equal rights for women.

Sonia Levitin mined both her personal history and major historical events for her award–winning books for children and young adults. Her 1970 book Journey to America, which detailed her family’s struggle during the Holocaust, was an instant classic.

Novelist, essayist, and poet Amy Levy was a popular and successful writer of the late nineteenth century. Admired by Oscar Wilde, she was the second Jewish woman to attend Cambridge and the first at Newnham College. Her work reflects the autonomous and achievement-oriented ideals of the “New Woman,” as well as her own struggles with depression.

Although essentially a product of the revolt against High Victorianism, as well as of Edwardian and pre-War social mores, Ada Leverson remained attuned to the latest cultural trends, and was quite a prominent figure in the literary and artistic circles of the twenties. Her stylish and pleasurable novels afford invaluable insights into the human comedy and the English society of her day.

From the silent movie era through 1960, Sonya Levien crafted over seventy films ranging from the 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame to the screen adaptation of Oklahoma! Levien was one of Hollywood’s highest-paid and most highly sought screenwriters, known for her ability to adapt any story quickly and to fix an ailing script.

Blume Lempel used stream-of-consciousness, flashback, and free association in her writing to create unique stories with themes rarely seen in Yiddish literature: eroticism, incest, and rape. She only wrote in Yiddish, and much of her work remained untranslated until very recently.

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), an internationally known poet and essayist, created the role of the American Jewish writer. She lent her voice to the Statue of Liberty to enunciate a vision for America, but she herself was in no doubt about the Jewish roots of her vision in tikkun olam (repairing the world) through righteousness, justice, and compassion.

After surviving political prison in Poland during the Holocaust, Anna Langfus moved to France and began writing plays and novels that dealt with themes of war, destruction, and loss. In her works, she weaved autobiographical material with fiction, capturing her harrowing experiences in her art.

Else Lasker-Schüler was a German-Jewish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright. Born in Elberfeld (today part of Wuppertal, Germany) in 1869, Lasker-Schüler is best known for her dream-like, bohemian poetry.

Ewa Kuryluk is an author, writer, essayist, artist, and art historian. Born in Poland, she did not know for a long time that her mother was a Jew and a member of the underground whose survival had been facilitated by her future husband. Kurlyuk has published in the field of art history, produced art held by museums around the world, and written poetry and novels.

Hanna Krall is one of the most important Polish-Jewish writers and reporters. A Holocaust survivor, she portrays in her own extremely concise manner the vicissitudes of other survivors, rescuers, and perpetrators. Krall has been internationally recognized and her works have been translated into fourteen languages.