Rachel Boymvol

Rachel Boymvol in the early 1970s

Rachel Boymvol, sometimes spelled Baumwoll (Russian: Рахиль Львовна Баумволь, Yiddish: רחל בױמװאָל, Hebrew: רחל בוימוול, March 4, 1914, Odessa - June 16, 2000, Jerusalem) was a Soviet poet, children's book author, and translator who wrote in both Yiddish and Russian.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Because of the popularity of her Soviet children's books, they were translated into multiple languages. After 1971 she emigrated to Israel and published a number of books of poetry in Yiddish.

Biography

Boymvol was born in Odessa, Russian Empire on March 4, 1914.[6][7][3] She was the daughter of Judah-Leib Boymvol, a playwright and Yiddish theatre director who was murdered in 1920 by anti-Bolshevik Polish soldiers during the Polish-soviet war.[6] He and members of his touring Yiddish theatre were pulled off the train at Koziatyn which was then under Polish control; he and troupe members Epstein and Liebert were killed in front of their families.[8][9][3] Rachel was also injured in the attack and remained bedridden for several years after.[10][2] Rachel grew up in a culture fluent in both Yiddish and Russian and showed an aptitude for rhyming and storytelling from a young age.[6] She began to write at age six; at around this time she and her mother relocated to Moscow.[10] Her first Yiddish poems were published in a Komsomol magazine when she was nine.[3] Her first published book was a book of children's songs entitled Kinder-lider, published in 1930 with the support of Shmuel Galkin.[2][11] She then studied in the Jewish department at the Second Moscow State University; she met her husband, Ziame Telesin, while in Moscow and they were married there.[12][3] After they graduated in 1935 they were sent to work in Minsk, where she quickly became well known as a children's literature author.[6][2][10]

During World War II, she went with her family to Tashkent, except for her husband who enlisted in the Red Army; it was during the war that she began to publish in Russian.[3][12][2][7] She later wrote, "The Bolsheviks saved me from death, and I was a fervent Bolshevik. I drew five-cornered stars, but also six-cornered, Jewish ones, because the Bolsheviks loved Jews and would give us a country that would be called Yidland. In my head was a confusion that would last many years..."[13] After the war she settled in Moscow, and starting in 1948 she published many poems, children's songs, and stories in Russian, as well as translating from Yiddish to Russian, including a novel by Moshe Kulbak in 1960.[14][4][2] Her dozens of books and pamphlets of Russian-language children's songs and short stories became very popular, with some reaching a circulation of a million copies.[5][3] From 1961 onwards, she became a regular contributor to the Yiddish-language journal Sovyetish Heymland, both in original pieces and in translations of Soviet poetry.[6][15]

Boymvol's son Julius, who was a dissident, applied to emigrate to Israel in 1969.[2] His parents decided to follow him, and in 1971 Rachel was allowed to emigrate to Israel. She left as part of a large wave of Soviet Jewish writers who settled in Jerusalem, which also included Meir Kharats, Yosef Kerler, and Dovid Sfard.[16][17][18] Her husband was able to follow her there during Passover 1972.[12] After arriving there, she lost her main source of income which was writing children's books, and she turned increasingly to publishing books of Yiddish poetry.[4][11] She also continued to publish in Russian, and some of her Yiddish collections were translated into Hebrew during the following decades by Shelomo Even-Shoshan.[6]

Selected publications

  • Kinder-lider (1930)[11][19]
  • A briv fun di arbeṭndiḳe fun der Sovetisher Gruzye dem firer fun di felḳer - dem groysn Sṭalinen (1936, with Ziame Telesin)[20]
  • Bertshik Brud: a kinder maysele un 6 ferzn (1936)[21]
  • Oysderveylte dertseylungen (1938)[22]
  • Dos tanele (1938)[23]
  • Lider (1940)[24]
  • Libshaft: lider (1947)[25]
  • Skazki dli︠a︡ vzroslykh (1963)[26]
  • Pod odnoĭ krysheĭ (1966)[27]
  • Gli︠a︡di︠a︡ v glaza: stikhi i poėma (1968)[28]
  • Oysgebenkt (1972)[29]
  • A mol iz geṿen a helfand mayselekh far ḳleyn un groys (1973)[30][31]
  • Fun lid tsu lid (1977)[32][33]
  • Dray heftn (1979)[34]
  • Aleyn dos lebn (1983)[35]
  • Mayn yidish (1988)[36]
  • Lider fun farsheydene tsayṭn 1935-1978 (1989)[37]
  • Vundervelt (1990)[38]
  • Treyst un troyer: hundert naye lider (1998)[39]

References

  1. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica. New York: MacMillan. 1971. p. 440.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "К 100-летию со дня рождения Рахили Баумволь". expositions.nlr.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Shnayderman, Sh. L. (1974). Tsuzamen zamlbukh far liṭeraṭur, ḳunsṭ, Yidishe problemen un doḳumenṭatsye (in Yiddish). Tel-Aviv: Y. L. Perets. p. 242.
  4. ^ a b c Zak, Avraham (1973). In opshayn fun doyres̀ eseyen un dermanungen (in Yiddish). Buenos Aires: Alṿelṭlekher Yidisher ḳulṭur-ḳongres opṭeyl in Argenṭine. pp. 209–32.
  5. ^ a b "װעגן רחל בױמװאָל". אלמאנאך :יידישע שרייבער פון ירושלים (in Yiddish). 12: 196–9. 1981.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Estraikh, Gennady. "Boymvol, Rokhl". YIVO Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  7. ^ a b Kisiel, Marian (2017). "Rachela Bojmwoł. Szkic do portretu". Rusycystyczne Studia Literaturoznawcze (in Polish). 27 (27): 87–97. doi:10.31261/RSL.2017.27.07. hdl:20.500.12128/6237. ISSN 0208-5038. S2CID 149601564.
  8. ^ Kaminska, Ida; Leviant, Curt (1973). My life, my theater. New York: MacMillan. p. 55.
  9. ^ Young, Bernard (1950). Mayn lebn in ṭeaṭer (in Yiddish). New York: IKUF. pp. 313–4.
  10. ^ a b c Lapidus, Rina (2012). "Rachil' Baumvol' (1914-2000)". Jewish women writers in the Soviet Union. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 106–18. ISBN 9780415617628.
  11. ^ a b c Kerler, Yosef (1991). Geḳlibene proze (eseyen, zikhroynes̀, dertseylungen) (in Yiddish). Jerusalem: Yerusholaymer almanakh. pp. 141–6.
  12. ^ a b c Shnayderman, Sh. L. (1974). Tsuzamen zamlbukh far liṭeraṭur, ḳunsṭ, Yidishe problemen un doḳumenṭatsye (in Yiddish). Tel-Aviv: Y. L. Perets. p. 234.
  13. ^ Quoted in Vladimir Glotser, introduction to “Пред грозным ликом старости своей...”, Журнальный зал: “Большевики спасли меня от смерти, — напишет потом Рахиль Баумволь, — и я была ярой большевичкой. Рисовала пятиугольные звезды, а также шестиугольные, еврейские, — потому что большевики любят евреев и дадут нам страну, которая будет называться Идланд. В голове у меня была путаница и продолжалась долгие годы...”
  14. ^ Kulbak, Moshe (2013). The Zelmenyaners : a family saga. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. xxxiv. ISBN 9780300188950.
  15. ^ Shemen, N. (1968). Batsiung tsu der froy loyṭ Tanakh, Talmud, Yaadeś un liṭeraṭur-shṭudyes (in Yiddish). Buenos Aires: YIVO. pp. 564–6.
  16. ^ Fleischmann, Wolfgang Bernard (1993). Encyclopedia of world literature in the 20th century (Rev. ed.). New York: Ungar. p. 687. ISBN 0804431353.
  17. ^ Kochan, Lionel (1978). The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917 (3d ed.). Oxford [England]: Published for the Institute of Jewish Affairs by Oxford University Press. p. 279. ISBN 9780192811998.
  18. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica. Decennial book, 1983-1992 : events of 1982-1992. Jerusalem: Encyclopaedia Judaica. 1994. p. 392. ISBN 9650703969.
  19. ^ Ḳinder-lider. OCLC 19312843. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  20. ^ א בריװ פונ די ארבעטנדיקע פונ דער סאװעטישער גרוזיע דעמ פירער פונ די פעלקער ־ דעמ גרױסנ סטאלינענ. OCLC 122855970. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  21. ^ בערטשיק ברוד: א קינדער־מייסעלע אינ 6 פערזנ. OCLC 122959018. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  22. ^ אױסדערװײלטע דערציילונגענ. OCLC 122711894. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  23. ^ דאס טאנעלע. OCLC 163812908. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  24. ^ לידער. OCLC 50546427. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  25. ^ Libshafṭ: lider. OCLC 1252318996. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  26. ^ Сказки для взрослых. 196. OCLC 652134340. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  27. ^ Под одной крышей. OCLC 84419977. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  28. ^ Gli︠a︡di︠a︡ v glaza: stikhi i poėma. OCLC 863467711. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  29. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1972). Oysgebenḳṭ (in Yiddish). Tel Aviv: Y. L. Perets.
  30. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1973). A mol iz geṿen a helfand mayselekh far ḳleyn un groys (in Yiddish). Tel-Aviv: Y. L. Perets.
  31. ^ א מאל איז געווען א העלפאנד: מעשהלעך פאר קליין און גרויס. OCLC 320564170. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  32. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1977). Fun lid tsu lid (in Yiddish). Jerusalem: Eygns.
  33. ^ ‏פון ליד צו ליד. OCLC 66909498. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  34. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1979). Dray hefṭn (in Yiddish). Jerusalem: Eygns.
  35. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1983). Aleyn dos lebn (in Yiddish). Jerusalem: Aroysgegebn dukh [d.h. durkh] dem Dr. Shemuʼel un Riṿḳah Horoṿits-fond bay der Yidisher ḳulṭur-gezelshafṭ in Yerushalayim.
  36. ^ Boymvol, Rachel (1988). Mayn Yidish (in Yiddish). Tel-Aviv: Aroysgegebn durkh dem Dr. Shemuʼel un Rivḳah Hurṿits-liṭeraṭur-fond bay der Yidisher ḳulṭur-gezelshafṭ in Yerusholayim.
  37. ^ לידער פון פארשיידענע צייטן 1935-1978. OCLC 959562065. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  38. ^ Ṿunderṿelṭ. OCLC 1170476462. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.
  39. ^ Ṭreyst un ṭroyer: hunderṭ naye lider. OCLC 1170428474. Retrieved 12 September 2021 – via WorldCat.