For those who knew Manuela Dobos, I am saddened to let you know that she died on July 22, 2015.

Manuela was a speaker at our Gender and Transformation workshop at NYU in the spring of 1998. She had been active in the 1990s in the Network of East-West Women, and was an expert on the region.  She had lived for some years in the former Yugoslavia and returned to the U.S. to get a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. Her research was in part financed by one of the two Fulbrights she received. She taught for decades at the College of Staten Island, specializing in Russian, East European, and women’s history. Manuela was an activist for the cause of social justice, equality, and human rights. She traveled often  to Bosnia in support of refugees . She was a founding member of Brooklyn Parents for Peace (now Brooklyn for Peace) and helped start Women for Women International, begun as a micro-credit program for groups of Bosnian women in postwar reconstruction. She was also passionately engaged with life on every level.

There will be a Memorial and Life Celebration for her
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26
1:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Friends Meeting House
110 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Reception 4 p.m. at the home of Alan and Carolyne Eisenberg
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

For train directions to the Brooklyn Friends Meeting House here.

All are welcome to come to help us remember and celebrate this wonderful woman at one or both of the gatherings in her name.

A fund is being established in Manuela’s name which will provide a grant for research and travel for selected Antioch College students. Friends can also make a donation payable to Brooklyn for Peace or to Women for Women International.

Please distribute and forward to whomever you think would like to come. All are welcome to help us remember and celebrate this wonderful woman at one or both of the gatherings in her name.

Please feel free to email sashaczar@gmail.com with any questions, Obituary and memorial information can also be viewed at http://www.copelandfhnp.com/obituaries/Manuela-Dobos/.

Visit our community site: Manuela’s helping hands.

Dear Friends,

As most of you know, I’ve been working in East Central Europe—it’s been twenty three years now!—to foster discussion and mutual support among feminists through the NGO I co-founded, The Network of East-West Women.

You may also be aware that all the feminist activists and institutions we have worked with in East Central Europe are currently under serious threat as right-wing, openly misogynist governments and movements are attacking what they are calling “gender ideology.”

In these lean and right-turning times, the Network, and its extraordinary Book and Journal Project, can’t continue our work without our far-flung feminist community. Who will fund feminist activists now? It’s got to be us.

Please help!

You can contribute via PayPal or via check. For PayPal, log into your account, and enter newwny@igc.org and the amount you would like to donate.

To pay by check, make it out to the Network of East-West Women and send to:

Ann Snitow
The Network of East-West Women

For more info on NEWW

Join us for our first workshop of the semester:

“The Neighbours can Hear: Engaging Citizens in Domestic Violence Intervention and Divided German State-Making”

 Jane Freeland, Carleton University, Ottawa

Jane Freeland is a PhD candidate at Carleton University.  She is the winner of numerous awards, including from the Central European History Society and the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam.  Her publications include “Creating Good Socialist Women: Continuities, Desire and Degeneration in Slatan Dudow’s The Destinies of Women,” Journal of Women’s History (forthcoming); “Morals on Trial: State-Making and Domestic Violence in the East German Courtroom,” Perspectives on Europe, Vol. 44(1) (2014): 55-60, and “What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Domestic Violence? State-Making and Gender Violence in a Divided Berlin, 1969-1990” Perspectives on Europe, Vol. 43(1) (2013): 96-100.

In her current work, Freeland compares the history of domestic violence in East and West Germany to consider what makes approaches to domestic violence distinct, both temporally and with respect to political/ideological differences. In this paper, Freeland examines approaches to domestic abuse in East Germany following the 1971 leadership change to Erich Honecker.

Colleagues and Friends,

Henry Shapiro is playing some gorgeous classical, piano music at 167 Spring St., Bell #11, 7:30 tonight, September 1. He’s decided to donate the proceeds (admission $15) to the Network East-West Women.  Refreshments served.

Please come help us keep renewing the Network!
Ann Snitow