Tribute to Judith Arcana « Zuzanna Hertzberg

Tribute to Judith Arcana

2023, wooden box, collage, painting, embroidered textile, 57 × 49 × 7 cm (closed)

series Women Fighters. An Affective Archive

Zuzanna Hertzberg, Tribute to Judith Arcana, 2023, wooden box, collage, painting, embroidered textile, 57×49×7 cm (closed).

series Women Fighters. An Affective Archive

Zuzanna Hertzberg, Tribute to Judith Arcana, 2023, wooden box, collage, painting, embroidered textile, 57×49×7 cm (closed). Photo documentation of the solo exhibition Mechitza, Arsenał Gallery, Bialystok, 2023. Photo: M. Tym

Zuzanna Hertzberg, Tribute to Judith Arcana, 2023, wooden box, collage, painting, embroidered textile, 57×49×7 cm (closed)

American poet, writer, teacher, and activist, member of the underground Chicago-based Jane Abortion Service (1968–1973). From the founding of the collective until abortion became legal in the US in 1973, around 125 women activists operated as a part of The Jane, providing safe abortions to nearly 12,000 women. In one of the interviews, Judith Arcana said: ‘I did not mind that we were breaking the law because I knew the law was wrong. … We’re committing a crime in order to do what we think is good for women and girls. Why did we join an underground criminal abortion organization? The element of responsibility for the society, of taking on responsibilities beyond the basic—that’s part of the deal for Jews.’1

Below is a stanza of a song from the late 1960s popularizing the activities of Jane Abortion Service:

[…] 643-3844 is a number you’ll adore
The women in the service know what you’re calling for
They’ll give you an abortion
No matter what the reason for
And 643-3844 is a number you’ll adore
“Don’t you worry, don’t you fret”
My friend said to me so plain
“I’ll give you a telephone number
And you can tell it all to Jane.” […]

Judith Arcana was one of The Jane activists accused in the trial of aiding and abetting abortions. During the trial, American law changed, and she became, from a ‘criminal’, a respected and award-winning writer, activist, and lecturer.

In her socially engaged poems, such as the collection ‘What if your mother’ (2005), she addresses issues of reproductive justice, depicting the roles assigned to women in contemporary society and their everyday experiences of coping with problems to which this society responds with indifference and a practice of marginalization.

A well-known essayist and journalist, Merle Hoffman, wrote of her work that it is ‘a map of an internal, psychological and physiological journey through the territory of previously unrecognized experiences’— miscarriages, abortion, adoption, the experience of childbirth and the everydayness of motherhood. In the poem ‘We Have Always Done This’, presented in my art work, Arcana makes a circular reference to the biblical figure of Lilith—the matriarch and ancestor of women fighting for their equal rights—which has been re-appropriated by anarcho-feminists.

We Have Always Done This

The moon rises, glowing silver-white.
The old woman watches it rise.
Standing in the grass of the meadow, looking up over the trees, she watches the moon rise.

On this night, for this moon, she is standing there.
She has been called to welcome the moon.
She has been called to talk with the young ones.

She will tell them: We have always known this; we have always done this.

Some have the skill in their hands.
Some grow the herbs. Some carry the tools.
Some chant, beat the drums, rock their bodies under the moon.

We do this now, she will tell them. We have always done this.
This is in our blood.
Our blood is in you, she tells the young ones.

We must know when to do this. We must know when not to do this.
Dream and dance and think, together.
Dream and dance and think, alone.

Ask the moon in her narrow crescent, and as she grows, rounding.
Answers will be luminous in the silver-white light of the moon.
Answers will be shadows in the moon’s dark time.

We can make life, and break it.
We tend life, and can end it.
Always, we ask: Is now the time for this life?

You will decide, she tells the young ones: Always, you will decide.

1 Embedded in Judaism and Jewish tradition is the obligation of the individual to act for the benefit of the community. The tradition also places a strong emphasis on social justice and a principle regarding the daily practice of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). For many secular Jews, this is one of the fundamental ethical commitments and elements of their identity. Heather Booth, founder of the abortion service Jane, often says in the context of Jane’s actions and her motivations, ‘Believing in freedom and justice and the struggle for freedom itself was a Jewish value. … We need to act on the principle of Tikkun Olam. If we organize, we can change the world.’