Eva Kotchever (1891-1943) wrote one of the earliest books of American lesbian literature. She was an openly gay Jewish immigrant woman in America when homophobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant sentiment was widespread.
Eva Kotchever (1891-1943) wrote one of the earliest books of American lesbian literature. She was an openly gay Jewish immigrant woman in America when homophobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant sentiment was widespread.
You’re probably familiar with rebels without a cause, but what about rebels with a cause? This month on Womanica, we’re talking about women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. From the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler, to the most prominent figure of the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, to the “Queen of Civil Rights” Ruby Hurley, these women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Rebels WITH a cause: women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. These women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
Today we are talking about a woman who wrote one of the earliest books of American lesbian literature. She was an openly gay Jewish immigrant woman in America when homophobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant sentiment was widespread. And she made her voice heard and created space for other marginalized folks.
Let’s talk about Eve Adams.
Eve Adams, also sometimes known as Eva Kotchever, was born Chawa Zloczower in 1891 in Mlawa, Poland. She was the eldest child of seven children. Her father Mordechai was a grocer and her mother Miriam stayed at home with the children. When she was growing up, Poland went through a variety of different political and social movements, led by socialists, nationalists, liberals, and anarchists.
At the age of twenty, Chawa set her sights on America. She boarded the S.S. Vaderland in Belgium. And in June 1912, she landed at Ellis Island in New York. Chawa arrived in America alone, and spent some time traveling throughout the country. She never quite felt at home anywhere. In a later letter to a friend, she wrote that she was “in all the world a foreigner, and in the country I was born, a Jew.”
Not long after her arrival to the states, Chawa took the name Eve, which was the English translation of her name. Historians think that r due to her androgynous persona, she combined the biblical names Eve and Adam to create the name she was best known by: Eve Adams. In keeping with her androgynous presentation, she often wore men’s clothing and lived fairly openly as a lesbian at a time when queer identities were more than frowned upon.
Eve spent time with revolutionaries and anarchists including Emma Goldman – whom we’ve covered on Womanica before – and Alexander Berkman. Emma even employed Eve at her anarchist magazine Mother Earth. In Chicago, Eve co-managed The Grey Cottage, a radical bohemian space. And throughout the U.S., she sold radical leftist literature.
In 1925, Eve opened a tearoom in New York City. It was located in the basement of 129 MacDougal Street in the West Village. And beyond being a place to gather and sip tea, it was a place for bohemians to congregate – artists, poets, lesbians, and gay men. One local publication called The Quill described the space as a place where “ladies prefer each other.” Its patrons came to know it as Eve’s Hangout.
Eve’s choice of location for her tearoom was crucial. In the early 1900s, the block of MacDougal street south of Washington Square Park became a hub for those who existed beyond the bounds of what was considered societally acceptable. While other spots in the West Village faced police crackdowns, this block was a meaningful haven for the queer community.
Eve’s Hangout wasn’t immune to bad press, though. Falling into classic lesbian stereotypes at the time, journalists called Eve “a man-hater.” Her pantsuit style was described as “mannish.” J. Edgar Hoover even took note of Eve – he used his government agency, which eventually became the FBI, to spy on her.
The real trouble started one night in June in 1926. A woman named Margaret Leonard entered Eve’s Hangout and caught Eve’s eye. The following day, the two met at Eve’s apartment to take a taxi together to a play in the theater district. In later accounts from Margaret, she claimed in their taxi ride to the play, Eve kissed her and touched her breasts.
What sealed her fate came next: Eve told Margaret that she wanted to give her a copy of a book she had published entitled Lesbian Love. The book was a series of stories of lesbians who Eve had known, which is now considered one of the first ethnographies of lesbians in America. Margaret seemed interested and so the pair returned to Eve’s apartment where she gave Margaret an autographed copy.
Several days after their excursion, Margaret came back to Eve’s Hangout and revealed that she was not as fond of Eve as it might have seemed. She was actually an undercover policewoman. Alongside four other police officers, she arrested Eve. Eve was charged with obscenity and disorderly conduct, due to her book and sexual advances toward Margaret. .
Eve was then convicted and sentenced to a year and a half in jail. After she served her time, the government began the process of deporting her. Eve pleaded with immigration authorities, but they ignored her and sent her back to Poland. A few years later, Eve moved to Paris where she spent much of her time writing and selling books to tourists.
In Paris Eve met Hella Olstein Soldner, a German cabaret singer who became her closest companion.. In 1940, when German troops arrived in Paris, the pair fled to Nice in southern France. They lived a few years in Nice before they were arrested and sent to the Drancy internment camp in Paris.
Not long after being sent to Drancy, Eve and Hella were put in a cattle car and sent to Auschwitz where both Eve and Hella were murdered.
Today, Eve’s vibrancy and unwillingness to conform lives on through a number of plays that center her story. And after tracking down a trove of her letters and documents – including a rare copy of Lesbian Love – in 2021, historian Jonathan Ned Katz published her biography, titled The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams.
All month, we’re talking about rebels with a cause. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!