LOLA KOYFMAN

LOLA KOYFMAN (1887-December 24, 1964)

            She was the author of sketches, born in Belatserkov (Bila Tserkva), near Kiev.  Her original first name was Sore.  She was the daughter of Sholem-Aleichem and wife of Mikhl Koyfman.  She graduated from a Kiev high school and studied at the University of Geneva.  After arriving in the United States, she began writing sketches and short stories for Tsukunft (Future) and over thirty years for Forverts (Forward) in New York—initially translated from Russian by Dine Blond-Mikhlevitsh, later written in Yiddish from the start.  She published about 2,000 sketches, many of them republished in Yiddish newspapers outside the United States.  In Sholem aleykhem bukh (Sholem Aleichem book) (New York, 1926), she wrote up memories of her father.  She also translated many stories of his into English.  “The appeal of her sketches,” wrote Lazar Fogelman, “is rooted in their always bringing up an interesting question in intimate, human life….  She would often hold back, only hinting in speech….  She was short of breath in writing.  A longer story by her would lose its innovative charm…in recounting a story.”  She died in New York.

Sources: B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 3, 1965); Lazar Fogelman, in Forverts (New York) (February 15, 1965); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York); American Jewish Yearbook (1965).

Yekhezkl Lifshits