SHEYNE-FEYGL BLOND

SHEYNE-FEYGL BLOND (March 1, 1887-March 1, 1985)

     She was born in Vilna, daughter of Shimen-Yitskhok and Khane-Sore Shapiro.  As a young person, she was affiliated with the Bund.  She served as a delegate from the Vilna Jewish Business Employees to the All-Russian Conference of Business and Banking Employees held in Moscow in 1912.  From 1920 until the start of WWII in 1939, she lived in Warsaw.  She was a member of the Warsaw committee of the Bund and chair of the Organization of Jewish Laboring Women, “YAF.”  When the Germans occupied Warsaw, she escaped to Vilna.  From 1941 she was in the United States (New York), where she was active in the Jewish socialist movement.  She began to write about community issues in Di tsayt (The times) in St. Petersburg in 1912.  She contributed to the Bundist periodical Lebensfragn (Life issues), Arbeter-luekh (Workers’ agenda), Foroys (Onward), Vokhnshrift (Weekly writings) (Warsaw), and Undzer tsayt (Our time) in New York, among others.  She contributed to Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw from 1920 to 1939, and there she published—aside from topical newspaper material—articles about various issues of the day; edited the sections “Froyen-vinkl” (Women’s corner) and “Internatsyonale sotsialistishe bavegung” (International socialist movement), among others; and principally involved herself with translating novels and stories from German, Russian, Polish, and English.  Among her translations, there appeared the following: Hundert protsent (One hundred percent) (1924) by Upton Sinclair [original: 100%, the Story of a Patriot]; Yanko muzikant (Yanko, the musician) (1924) by Henryk Sienkiewicz [original: Janko Muzykant]; Tinyol un zayn volfish (Tignol and his whale) (1925) by René Thévenin [original: Barnabé Tignol et sa baleine]; Shtet un yorn (Cities and years) (1925) by Konstantin Fedin [original: Goroda i gody, roman]; Hunger (Hunger) (1925) by V. Vinichenko [original: ?]; Di brider shelenberg (The brother Shelenberg) (1926-1927, printed in separate volumes as an award to Folks-tsaytung, and published also in another edition: Warsaw, 1929, 360 pp.) by Bernhard Kellerman [original: Die Brüder Schellenberg]; Der toyt fun a milyoner (The death of a millionaire) (1927) by G. D. and Margaret Cole; Di royte shtral (The red beams) (1927-1928 in Folks-tsaytung, additionally published: Warsaw, 1929, 380 pp.) by Aleksey Tolstoy [original: Krasnie luchi]; Di nakht fun farrat (The night of treason) (1928) by Liam O’Flaherty [original: The Informer]; Libe (Love) (1929) by Panteleimon Romanov [original: Pravo na lyubov’ (The right to love)]; Di republik shkid (The republic of Shkid) (1929) by G. Bielyk and L. Panteleev [original: Respublika Shkid]; Yorgang 1902 (Class of 1902) (1929) by Ernst Gläser [original: Jahrgang 1902]; Iev (Job) (1930) by Joseph Roth [original: Job]; Oryent-ekspres (Orient Express) (1935) by A. Den Doolaard [original: Oriënt-Express]; A milyoner af tsen teg (A millionaire for ten days) (1935) by Victor Bridges; Der parfumen-kenig (The perfume king) (1935) by Cleman Wattel [?]; Der untergang fun prag (The fall of Prague) (1936) by S. Fowler Wright [original: Prelude in Prague]; Don-ramiro (Don Ramiro) (1936) by Enrique Laretta [original: Don Ramiro en América]; A mentsh vert geboyrn (A man will be born) (1936) by Boris Pil’niak [original: Rozhdeniye cheloveka (Birth of man)]; Lyubashes tragedye (Lyubash’s tragedy) (1936) by Fedor Gladkov [original: Tragediya Lyubashi]; Mir zukhn a land (We’re looking for a country) (1936) by H. Gretsch [?]; Unzere tekhter di natsis (Our daughters the Nazis) (1936) by Hermynia Zur Mühlen [original: Unsere Töchter die Nazinen]; Krig kegn di krigs-hern (War against the warlords) (1936) by Berthold Jacob [original: ?]; Dos amerikaner meydl (The young American woman) (1936) by Peter May [?]; Vilyam foks (William Fox) (1937) by Upton Sinclair [original: Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox]; Batsolt mitn lebn (Paid for with life) (1937) by Margarete Neumann [?]; A vide fun a merder (Confession of a murderer) (1937) by Joseph Roth [original: Beichte eines Mörders]; A kind fun unzer tsayt (A child of our time) (1937) by Ödön von Horváth [original: Ein Kind unserer Zeit]; Ikonge shtarbt nisht (Ikonga will not die) (1937) by Ilya Katscher [?]; Der ershter man (The first man) (1938) by Alfred Schirokauer [original: Der erste Mann]; Nokh halber nakht (After half the night) (1938) by Irmgard Queen [?]; 10 milyon kinder (Ten million children) (1938), by Erika Mann [original: Zehn millionen Kinder]; and Manye (Manja) (1939) by Anna Reiner [original: Manja]; and a number of stories and novellas by A. Barbiss [?], B. Pil’niak, Duhamel [?], Ilya Ehrenburg, L. Andreev, Jerome, and Mikhail Kaverov [?], among others.  She wrote for the most part under the pseudonyms: S. B., Dina, B. Shapir, and others.  She was living in New York where she died.

Khayim-Leyb Fuks