Clara Lemlich

Lemlich was born in the small Jewish town of Gorodok, Ukraine in 1886. Her father was dedicated to the study of the Torah, and focused his work on teaching Clara’s brothers Judaism. Contrary to other families’ beliefs, the women were the ones to do the work in the Lemlich family. Clara’s mother ran a small grocery store and had her daughters aid in running the family business. For young girls in Gorodok, education was harder to come across because the only public school in the area didn’t allow Jewish people to attend. Instead, Clara had to make the most of the only thing she was taught: the Yiddish language. With the money that she earned from helping out in the family grocery store, Clara would sneak out and purchase novels written by Russian authors to study as she wanted an education. One day, because her father despised the Russians, her books were burned after being uncovered in their home. Still, Clara kept collecting the books secretly. Her family eventually emigrated to the United States in 1903, to escape anti-Semitic acts occurring near their home.