Sara (Salomea) Perlmutter ID: 323
1865–1936
Teacher, community activist, journalist, translator.
She was named Sara Süssel at birth, but as an adult she called herself Salomea. She completed an eight-grade higher elementary vocational school (szkoła wydziałowa) in Lviv and, from 1880 to 1884, attended the Imperial-Royal Women's Teachers' Seminary in Lviv. On June 28, 1884, she received her certificate of maturity with honors — notably in Polish, German, Ruthenian, French, and religion. In 1886, she obtained a teaching certificate for first-level elementary schools; in 1888, a certificate for first- and second-level higher elementary vocational schools; and in 1903, she received her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bern. Her dissertation, published in 1902, focused on Carl Menger and the Austrian School of Economics.
Beginning in the fall of 1884, Salomea Perlmutter was associated with the Tadeusz Czacki Girls' School in Lviv: first as an unpaid trainee, then as a paid trainee from November 1, 1888, and, on May 3, 1893, as a temporary teacher. From 1885 to 1890, in addition to regular subjects, she taught Jewish religion and Hebrew for 2 to 5 hours per week, with her salary paid by the Lviv city budget. In September 1896, the newspaper Przyszłość (eng. The Future) mentioned her as a teacher at the Czacki School and an informal leader among Jewish female teachers, criticizing her position on teaching Hebrew. She continued at the Czacki School until at least the summer of 1901, combining her work with studies at the University of Basel. On March 1, 1905, she was working at the Jan III Sobieski Girls' School in Lviv, where she was appointed a permanent teacher on March 23. During the 1912–13 school year, she taught Polish, German, history, and geography, earning an annual salary of 2,700 kronen. She likely remained there until her retirement on November 24, 1927.
She translated socialist and philosophical works from Russian and German, including those by Plekhanov and Karl Kautsky, under the pseudonym Trawiecka. In 1901, she attempted to establish a private school for girls in Lviv.
She was actively involved in the Social Democratic movement and women's civic life in Lviv in the early 20th century. She held leadership roles in the Women's Hearth society (Ognisko Kobiet, founded in 1893; from 1907 located on the ground floor at ul. Brajerowska, 14, (now vul. Bohdana Lepkoho)), an organization her sisters Anna and Laura also joined. She was an active member of the Polish Philosophical Society in Lviv (Polskie Towarzystwo Filozoficzne we Lwowie) and published in its journal. She also served on the leadership of the Adam Mickiewicz People's University Society (Towarzystwo Uniwersytetu Ludowego im. A. Mickiewicza), delivering popular lectures on economics and the history of economic doctrines organized by the society. From 1900 to 1910, she was frequently published in the press (including Nowe Słowo; Promień: pismo poświęcone sprawom młodzieży polskiej; and Prawda: tygodnik polityczny, społeczny i literacki). Her work focused on issues such as the status of women, the labor of female workers and domestic servants, motherhood and intellectual labor, misogyny, women's night work in industry, and the relationship between national and social-democratic issues.At the same time, she was deeply engaged in public life: she spoke at women's and teachers' gatherings in Lviv and Kraków, served as a delegate at conventions of elementary school teachers and junior female teachers, participated in the League Against the Trafficking of Girls (Liga dla zwalczania handlu dziewczętami), and publicly advocated for women's electoral and political rights. As the only non-Ukrainian participant, she attended the 1904 summer courses of the Society of Supporters of Ukrainian Science, Literature, and Art in Galicia, organized by Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. In 1910, she represented the Lviv Social Democratic Women's Organization at the International Women's Conference in Copenhagen, supporting resolutions on women's suffrage and social protection for working women and mothers. She held representative positions in Social Democratic organizations, serving as a delegate to the government relief commission in Lviv (1917) and as a member of the governing body of the Polish Socialist Party representing Lviv (1924).
In the recollections of her
contemporaries, she appears as a controversial figure. They highlighted her
intellectual vitality and enthusiasm, but also emphasized her confrontational
nature and inflexibility regarding ideological principles.
Salomea Perlmutter never started a
family of her own, but in 1919 she was raising a seven-year-old orphaned girl,
the daughter of a relative. In the early 20th century, Salomea lived with her
mother and sister at ul. Sykstuska, 64
(now vul. Doroshenka) in Lviv, and later lived alone at ul. Sykstuska, 38 and ul.
Lenartowicza, 9 (now vul. Nechuia-Levytskoho).
With the outbreak of World War I, she evacuated to Vienna with her family. From
1917 onward, she resided at ul. Leona Sapiehy, 4 (now vul. Stepana Bandery),
where she had her own telephone line (number 95-04). After her death, her
younger sister Anna Perlmutter lived there in 1939. In March 1936, Salomea
Perlmutter donated her correspondence from 1902 to 1909 to the Ossolineum
Library, including letters from the philosopher and writer Stanisław
Brzozowski. The collection is now housed in Wrocław.
She died on May 15, 1936, in Lviv.
Works and projects
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, Karl Menger und die Österreichische Schule der Nationalökonomie: Eine Kritische Untersuchung der Hauptlehren (Bern: Verlag von C. Sturzengger, 1902).
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Położenie żeńskiej służby domowej", Nowe Słowo, 1902, R. 1, nr 8: 191–196; nr 9: 213–216.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Naukowy mizogin", Nowe Słowo, 1902, nr 14: 348–352.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Macierzyństwo a praca umysłowa", Nowe Słowo, 1902, nr 18: 425–431.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Młodsze nauczycielki", Nowe Słowo, 1902: 575.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Położenie lwowskich robotnic chrześcijańskich", Nowe Słowo (Kraków), 1902, nr 21: 498–503; nr 23: 548–550.
- Dr. Salomea Perlmutter, "Tolstois Weltanschauung und ihre Entwicklung", Die neue Zeit: Wochenschrift der deutschen Sozialdemokratie. 21.1902-1903, 1. Bd. (1903), H. 13: 404–407.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Położenie lwowskich robotnic chrześcijańskich", Nowe Słowo, 1903, nr 6, 13, 14, 19, 20, 23, s. 124, 199, 249, 295, 319, 443, 463, 535–541.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Praca nocna kobiet w przemyśle państw cywilizowanych", Nowe Słowo (Kraków), 1904, nr 1: 8–12.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Ludzkość i Ojczyzna", Promień: pismo poświęcone sprawom młodzieży polskiej (Lwów), R. 7, nr 2 (luty 1905): 52–55.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Rewizyonizm a kwestya kobieca", Nowe Słowo (Kraków), 1905, nr 20: 444–450.
- Dr. Salomea Perlmutter, “Ein Beitrag zur Agrarfrage”, Die neue Zeit : Wochenschrift der deutschen Sozialdemokratie. 23.1904–1905, 2. Bd. (1905), H. 27: 20–27; H. 28: 54–59).
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Nowa próba poglądu filozoficznego na dzieje", Przegląd Filozoficzny (Warszawa), R. 5, zeszyt 4, (1905): 445–455.
- Dr Salomea Perlmutter, "Kwestya narodowościowa i socyalna demokracya", Prawda: tygodnik polityczny, społeczny i literacki (Warszawa), R. 28, 1908, nr 9: 102–103; nr 10: 114–116; nr 12: 139–140.
- S. T., Rada Narodowa: czem była i być powinna: uwagi na czasie (Warszawa, 1917?), 36 s.
Translations:
- J. Plechanow, Anarchizm a socyalizm, tłum. Salomea Perlmutter (Lwów: Spółka Nakładowa "Książka", Drukarnia Udziałowa, 1906).
- K. Kautsky, Od demokracji do niewolnictwa państwowego: odprawa Trockiemu, tl. Trawiecka (Lwów: Ludowe Spółdz. Tow. Wydawnicze, 1922).
Sources
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- ЦДІАУ у Львові, ф. 178 (Крайова шкільна рада, м. Львів), 178/1/4714:40.
- Державний архів Львівської області (далі — ДАЛО), ф. 3 (Магістрат міста Львова), 3/1/3396: 81.
- ДАЛО ф. 1 (Львівське воєводське управління, м. Львів), 1/37/3155: 48.
- Львівська національно наукова бібліотека ім. Василя Стефаника, 73/369/20: лист Саломеї Перлмуттер до Остапа Ортвіна (Ostap Ortwin).
- Przyszłość: organ narodowej partyi żydowskiej oraz Towarzystwa politycznego żydów galicyjskich i bukowińskich, R. 4 (1895/1896), nr 23: 178.
- Księga adresowa król. stoł. miasta Lwowa (Lwów, 1904, 1910, 1913).
- Księga pamiątkowa i adresowa wygnańców wojennych z Galicyi i Bukowiny 1914-1915 oraz Album pamiątkowe. Cz. 1. (Lwów, Wiedeń, 1915): 151.
- Martin Rohde, "Ukrainian Popular Science in Habsburg Galicia, 1900–14", East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Volume VII, No.2 (2020): 152.
- Stanisław Łempicki, Wspomnienia Ossolińskie (1948), 84.
- Jędrzej Moraczewski, Wspomnienia: Ludzie, czasy i zdarzenia (Łódź, 2021), 302–303.
- Maria Vovchko, "Perlmutter (vel Trawiecka) Sara (Salomea)", red. nauk. Michał Augustyn, у: Słownik biograficzny nauczycieli religii mojżeszowej. Edycja internetowa (2025). URL: https://nrm.project.uj.edu.pl/p/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_3wK4AgLazhkt/157144744/159217164