PUE RAKOVSKI (PUAH RAKOVSKY, RAKOVSKA)

PUE RAKOVSKI (PUAH RAKOVSKY, RAKOVSKA) (July 3, 1865-May 13, 1955)

            She was a writer and translator, born in Bialystok, into a family with a long line of rabbis.  She studied in religious elementary school with the boys.  She graduated from a private school at age twelve.  At home she studied foreign languages, especially Hebrew.  In 1889 she sat for the teacher’s examinations, and in 1891 she became a leader of Yehudia, the first Hebrew school for girls in Warsaw.  From 1916 she was a Hebrew teacher in private high schools in Warsaw and environs.  She was very active in “Ḥoveve-tsiyon” (Lovers of Zion) and later in the Zionist movement in Poland.  In 1935 she settled in the land of Israel.  She wrote for both the Hebrew and Yiddish press mostly on Israel and women’s issues.  With Rokhl Shteyn and Leye Prushanski, she edited Froyen shtim (Women’s voice) in Warsaw (1925, two issues appeared).  Her works include: Di yidishe froy (The Jewish woman) (Warsaw: Bnos tsien, 1918), 30 pp.; Di moderne froyen bavegung (The modern women’s movement) (Warsaw: Yidishe froyen-farband, 1928), 29 pp.; Zikhroynes fun a yidisher revolutsyonerin (Memories of a Jewish revolutionary woman) (Buenos Aires: Dos poylishe yidntum, 1954), 318 pp., which appeared earlier in shorter form in Hebrew as Lo nikhnati, sefer zikhronot (I did not submit, memoirs), trans. David Kalai (Tel Aviv, 1951), 200 pp.  He translations include: Yidishe geshikhte XIX yorhundert (Jewish history, nineteenth century), from Shimen Dubnov and other sources (Warsaw, 1920), 232 pp.; Karl Kautsky, Ver iz shuldig inem velt-krig? (Who is guilt in the world war?) (Warsaw: Nayer shtrom, 1920), 218 pp.; Avraham Yaakov Paperna, Zikhroynes (Memoirs) (Warsaw: Tsentral, 1923), 214 pp.; Lily Braun, Memuarn fun a sotsyalistin (Memoirs of a socialist [original: Memoiren einer Sozialistin]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1924), 2 vols.; Erich Maria Remarque, Afn mayrev, nishto keyn nayes (All quiet on the Western front [original: Im Westen nichts Neues]) (Warsaw: Y. A. Tsuker, 1929), 259 pp.; Larisa Reisner, Di froy fun di barikadn (oktober) (The woman at the barricades, October) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1929), 502 pp.; Leon Trotsky, Mayn lebn (My life [original: Moya zhizn’]) (Warsaw: Biblyon, 1930), 2 vols.; Ben B. Lindsey, Di revolutsye fun der moderne yugnt (The revolution of modern youth [original: The Revolt of Modern Youth]) (Warsaw: Y. A. Tsuker, 1930), 301 pp.; and novels by Victor Margueritte: Der khaver (The comrade [original: Le Compagnon]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1927), 361 pp., second edition (1929); Di bokherte (The girl [original: La Garçonne]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1928), 359 pp., second edition (1928); Dayn kerper gehert dir (Your body belongs to you [original: Ton corps est à toi]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1928), 352 pp.; Der nayer dor (The new generation [original: Le Couple]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1928), 360 pp.; Der gezang fun pastukh (The song of the shepherd [original: Le Chant du berger]) (Warsaw: Sh. Goldfarb, 1931), 300 pp.  She was the protagonist of Ben-Avigdor’s story, Rabi shifra (Rabbi Shifra) (Warsaw, 1893), 34 pp.  She died in Haifa.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958); Sh. Grinshpan, Yidn in plotsk (Jews in Płock) (New York, 1960), pp. 178-80; Yankev Glatshteyn, In tokh genumen (In essence), vol. 2 (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 177-83; Ester Rozental-Shnayderman, Af vegn un umveg, zikhroynes, geshenishn, perzenlekhkeytn (Along ways and byways, memoirs, events, personalities), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1974), pp. 289-91; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Ruvn Goldberg