After the Holocaust, a new dichotomy emerged in the context of what it means to be in exile for the Jew. Many survivors, refugees, and their children found themselves living in new countries. This experience introduced a host of new emotions and challenges for the survivor or refugee, many of which are still being acted out today. The ideal situation, in regards to resettlement, would be for the immigrant to disregard the past, and assimilate without complication into the new society. Yet, it remains a common and natural tendency to feel a longing for one's previous life. For the Jew living in a post-Holocaust world this not only means to struggle with the concept of being a stranger in a strange land, but how to deal with the loss of a beloved world and culture which has now been destroyed.
             The reason this new exile is different from other exiles, is that historically and religiously the Jewish Diaspora in Europe itself was considered to be an exile. Due to the Haskalah movement, a new and vibrant secular Jewish culture began to emerge. One goal of this movement was to empower Jews living in the Diaspora, and therefore redefine what it means to be in exile. Through creating a Jewish culture that was uniquely secular they were transforming the Diaspora to work for them instead of against them. This struggle to forget the past and move on, and the role of memory in exile are treated in the poetry of Irena Klepfisz, especially those poems dealing with displacement and the Yiddish language. Cynthia Ozick also explores similar motifs through characters in her short story Envy; Or, Yiddish in America.
             Irena Klepfiz as a refugee had a unique experience during the wartime years that has left a great impression on her work. Unlike the vast majority of victims who were simply killed or fled, her family was destroyed in a more psychologically damaging way. Her father, as part of the Jewish resistance within the Warsaw ...