Arguably the most important Yiddish writer in Israel during the 20th century was the poet Abraham Sutzkever. He moved to Vilna about 1920 and began publishing Yiddish poetry associated with the Young Vilna group in the 1930s; the Introspectivist poet A. Leyeles encouraged him. Sutzkever lived for several years in Warsaw, where he published his first book of poetry in 1937. He escaped from the Vilna ghetto in 1943 and wrote poems about his experiences—as well as one of the most powerful memoirs from Lithuania, Fun Vilner geto (1946; “From the Vilna Ghetto”). Some of his poetry that responds to the Nazi genocide is contained in Di festung (1945; “The Fortress” or “The Prison”) and in Lider fun geto (1946; “Poems from the Ghetto”). After Sutzkever moved to Palestine in 1947, he furthered Yiddish literary culture in Israel and around the world by editing the journal Di goldene keyt (1949–96; “The Golden Chain”). His poetry explored a wide range of subjects, including Israel and Africa. Selections from Sutzkever’s work were published in English translation as A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose (1991). Other Yiddish writers in Sutzkever’s group Yung-Yisroel (“Young Israel”) were Shlomo Vorsoger, Tzvi Eisenman, Rivka Basman, and Rokhl Fishman.

Rikudah Potash was born in Poland and moved to Palestine in 1934. She published poetry in Poland and in Israel, including the volume Moyled iber Timna (1959; “New Moon over Timna”). Both her sense of fantasy and her knowledge of art history enrich this collection of poems. For example, “Dos rod mazoles fun Beys-Alpha” (“The Zodiac Wheel from Beit Alpha”) spins out an intimate encounter with the mosaic floor that had been discovered at Kibbutz Beit Alpha.

After surviving the Holocaust, Leyb Rokhman, who had moved to Warsaw in 1930 and studied in a yeshiva, published Un in dayn blut zolstu lebn (1949; And In Your Blood Shall You Live), a journal of his wartime experiences. He settled in Jerusalem in 1950. With his family he tried to carry on both the Hasidic tradition and secular life of prewar Poland. His second book, Mit blinde trit iber der erd (1968; “With Blind Steps over the Earth”), expresses the psychological complexities of life as a survivor.

Yosl Birshteyn was born in Poland, lived in Australia, and moved to Israel in 1950. He published poems, novels, and stories in Yiddish and Hebrew, including the novel Der zamler (1985; “The Collector”). Polish-born Tsvi Kanar survived three years in a concentration camp. He moved to Palestine in 1946, studied theatre in Tel Aviv, and performed as a pantomime artist. In 1980 he began writing fiction in Yiddish; among his books are Ikh un lemekh (1994; “Lemekh and I”) and Opgegebn broyt (1996; “Returned Bread” or “Returning the Favour”).

Lev Berinsky was a Russian poet who switched to Yiddish—in the tradition of Shimon Frug, a 19th-century Russian Yiddish poet. Berinsky’s first volume of Yiddish poetry, Der zuniker veltboy (1988; “The Sunny World-Structure”), was published in Moscow; after emigrating to Israel, Berinsky published Fishfang in Venetsie (1996; “Fishing in Venice”).

Yiddish women writers

In the 20th century women began to contribute substantially to the development and diversity of Yiddish literature. Coincidentally, the following three leading women poets were born in Belorussia (now Belarus), lived for a while in Warsaw, and later moved to New York.

Anna Margolin (pseudonym of Rosa Lebensboym) moved to Odessa, Warsaw, and, finally, New York City. She began publishing poems in 1920 and collected the volume of her Lider (Poems) in 1929. Her themes and use of rhyme associate her with poets of Di Yunge, but in other respects she has more in common with the Introspectivists. Margolin’s lyricism is typified by her short poem “Slender Ships,” which begins, “Slender ships drowse on the swollen green water, / black shadows sleep on the cold heart of the water.” Margolin portrays a natural scene that resonates with the poet’s psychology, concluding, “I shall be still.”

Celia Dropkin lived in Warsaw and Kiev before immigrating to the United States in 1912. She began writing poetry in Russian. She was associated with both Di Yunge and the Introspectivists, and, in the words of critic Kathryn Hellerstein, “her poems of sex, love, and death shocked and seduced her contemporaries.” Dropkin published poems and stories in many leading journals, and she authored one volume of poetry, In heysn vint (1935; “In the Hot Wind”).

Kadia Molodowsky moved from Belorussia to Odessa and then Kiev, where she published her first poetry and was influenced by David Bergelson and his circle. From 1922 to 1935 she lived in Warsaw and published her important collections of poems Kheshvndike nekht (1927; “Nights of Heshvan”) and Dzshike gas (1933; “Dzshike Street”). In her first book, the sequence entitled “Women Poems” reflects on the possibility and meaning of writing poetry as a woman. She immigrated to the United States in 1935. Her book Der melekh David aleyn iz geblibn (1946; “Only King David Remained”) mourns the destruction wrought by the Nazi genocide, as in the poem “Es kumen nit mer keyn briv” (1945; “No Letters Arrive Anymore”).

Born in Ukraine, Malka Heifetz Tussman immigrated to the United States in 1912. She lived in Chicago; in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and in California. She published her poems in many journals, including In zikh. Tussman’s early poetry, as evinced in her first book, Lider (1949; Poems), was written in sonnet form. She also experimented with the eight-line poetic form called a triolet (with a rhyme scheme of abaaabab). In later poems she sometimes used short lines of free verse. Her six important books of poetry include Mild mayn vild (1958; “Mild My Wild”) and Haynt iz eybik (1977; “Now Is Ever”). Selections from Tussman’s poetry appear in English translation in With Teeth in the Earth (1992).

The anthology Found Treasures (1994) provides a selection of short fiction by many significant women authors, including Rikudah Potash, Fradel Schtok, and Yente Serdatzky.