VERA HAKEN

VERA HAKEN (b. May 18, 1912)

            She was born in Odessa, and in 1922 settled in Czernowitz.  She graduated from high school and a theatrical seminary.  From 1938 she was a director in revue theaters in Bucharest, Munich (1948-1950), and New York’s Folksbiene.  She came to the United States in 1951.  She wrote stories, poems, essays, and memoirs in Tsukunft (Future) in New York, Afn shvel (At the threshold) in New York, and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv.  She initially wrote in Russian, later in German.  Her work is included in such anthologies as: Dina roytkop (Dina Roytkop) (Tel Aviv, 1976); Kubi vol, der meteor (Kubi Wohl, the meteor) (Haifa, 1980); and Emanuel Haken’s Nigunim tsu yidisher dikhtung (Songs to Yiddish poetry), 2 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1973, 1977).  Some of her poems were sung at concerts, in theaters, and on the radio.  In book form: Kinder-yorn, yugnt-yorn mit leyzer shteynberg (Childhood years, youth years with Eliezer Shteynberg) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1969), 51 pp.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 213-14.