VOHLMAN-SHERATSHEK (MIRIAM SHIR [SZIR])

VOHLMAN-SHERATSHEK (MIRIAM SHIR [SZIR]) (1899-March 10, 1982)

            She was the daughter of the writer Yehude-Leyb Vohlman, born in Radom, Poland.  From her earliest years she was living in Warsaw where she graduated from high school and studied psychology in university.  In 1924 he moved to Israel where she worked as a teacher.  She debuted in print with lyrical poems in Ilustrirte velt (Illustrated world) in Warsaw (1919), and from that point she contributed poems, reportage writing, and correspondence pieces to: Tog (Day), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter)—in New York; Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; Lodzer folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper) and Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper); Nasz Przegląd (Our review) in Warsaw; and Chwila (Moment) in Lemberg; among others.  She was a regular contributor to: Davar (Word), Omer (Speech), Davar hashavua (Word of the week), and others, in which she published poetry, reportage essays, and articles under the name Miriam Shir [Szir].  She edited the Yiddish translations in a Yiddish-Hebrew dictionary, Milon kis ivri-idi (Pocket Hebrew-Yiddish dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1930), 75 pp., and of the entries in the Hebrew-Polish dictionary, Milon kis polani-ivri (Pocket Polish-Hebrew dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1931), 175 pp.  She translated into Hebrew recent Polish poems and into Polish poems by Israeli poets.  With her husband Dawid Szir, she brought out two dictionaries: Milon ivri-polani (Hebrew-Polish dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1958), 2 vols., 857 pp.; and Milon polani-ivri (Polis-Hebrew dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1975), 3 vols., 2013 pp.  Among her pen names: Yehudis Marmor and Bas-Leye.  She died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Ezra Korman, Yidishe dikhterins (Jewish women poets) (Chicago, 1928); P. Vyernik, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 1, 1931); David Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 6 (Tel Aviv, 1955); Sh. Ernst, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (May 14, 1956).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 226.]