Paulina Lebl Albala je bila autorka udžbenika, prevoditeljka, feministkinja.
Rođena u jevrejskoj Beogradskoj porodici, 1909. godine maturira u prvoj generaciji maturantkinja Prve ženske gimnazije. Studirala je književnost i bila je izuzetno uspešna studentkinja, te je još tokom studentskih dana počela da objavljuje radove i eseje. S obzriom na to da je govorila nekoliko jezika – engleski, nemački, francuski i ruski, bavila se prevoditeljskim poslom, i prevela neke od najznačajnijih imena književnosti i poezije: Hajnriha Hajnea, Čarlsa Dikensa, Maksima Gorkog, Gustava Flobera…
Po završetku studija sem toga što je radila kao nastavnica napisala je i udžbenik iz književnosti. Za feminizam Paulina počinje da se interesuje nakon poziva koji joj upućuje hrvatska književnica Zofka Kveder da učestvuje u radu na feminističkom listu „Jugoslovenska žena“.
1917. Paulina ispred Ministarstva prosvete odlazi u Ženevu i tamo živi naredne dve godine. Tokom boravka u Ženevi Paulina prati aktivnosti ženskog pokreta u svetu i kada se vratila u Beograd sa Zorom Kasnar osniva Društvo za prosvećivanje žena i zaštitu njihovih prava. Cilj ovog društva je bio da žene i muškarci imaju jednaka politička prava i prava na obrazovanje, a posebnu pažnju su posvetile edukaciji žena iz ruralnih područja, otvarajući škole po selima. Paulina je sarađivala sa brojnim ženskim organizacijama, uređivala list „Ženski pokret“ i sarađivala sa listovima „Život i rad“, „Glasnik jugoslovenskog ženskog saveza“, „Žena danas“. Na mnogim projektima je sarađivala sa levičarkom i feministkinjom Katarinom Bogdanović, sa kojom je i 1923. godine napisala udžbenik Teorija književnosti. Osam godina je bila ne čelu Udruženja univerzitetski obrazovanih žena.
Po izbijanju Drugog svetskog rata Paulina se sa porodicom seli u Ameriku, a u Beograd se vraća nakon oslobođenja, da bi 1948. sa prvom grupom jevrejskih iseljenika otišla u Izrael. U narednom periodu je živela i u Italiji, Kanadi i Kaliforniji, gde je i umrla.
Paulina Lebl Albala was a textbook author, a translator and a feminist.
She was born in a Jewish family in Belgrade and in 1909 she finishes high school in the first generation of girl students of the First Women High School of Belgrade. She studied literature and she was very successful student – even during the high school days she were publishing her work and essays. She spoke few languages – English, German, French and Russian, and she was translating Heinrich Heine, Charles Dickens, Maxim Gorki, Gustave Flaubert…
After she finished University, Paulina worked as a teacher and as a author of literary textbooks. She started being interested in feminism after Zofka Kveder – a Croatian writer – invited her to work on feminist newspapers “Yugoslavian Woman”.
As a representative of the MInistry of Education, Paulina went to Geneva in 1917 and she lived there for the next 2 years. She followed news about actions of women’s movements around the globe and once she came back to Belgrade she founded a Society for education of women and protection of their rights. This society fought for the equal rights on education and they especially concentrated on the education of the women from rural parts of the country. Paulina wrote for many women’s newspapers and she was the editor in chief of “Women’s movement”. She worked on many projects with a feminist Katarina Bogdanović and two of them together published a textbook “Theory of Literature”. For the full 8 years she was the president of Society of Women That Finished University.
When the WW2 started, Paulina moved with her family to USA, and then she moved back to Belgrade after liberation. In 1948 she goes with the first group of Jewish immigrants to Israel. In the next few years she lived in Italy, Canada and California. She died in California.