ROKHL BROKHES (September 23, 1880-1942)
She was born into a poor family in
Minsk. Her father, Volf, was a follower
of the Jewish Enlightenment and wrote a great deal in Hebrew, but did not
publish it. When she was nine years of
age, her father died, and shortly thereafter she was compelled to seek work as
a tailor. She later worked as a teacher
of handicrafts in the Minsk Jewish Artisanal School for Girls. She first published in 1899 in Der yud
(The Jew): a story entitled “Yankele.”
Later she published stories in Fraynd (Friend) in St. Petersburg
and Tsukunft (Future) in New York.
She also wrote dramas. Until the
Soviet period, she mainly portrayed the life of the Jewish wife and mother, of
the Jewish child, and of female Jewish laborers; later, she wrote stories for
children. In her last years, she
frequently published in Shtern (Star) in Minsk and Oktyabr
(October). A number of her short stories
were translated into Russian, German, and English. She wrote more than 200 stories, numerous
children’s stories, and a handful of plays.
The state publishing house of Byelorussia had planned to publish her
collected writings. The first volume was
set in type and ought to have appeared, but the Nazi invasion made this
impossible. She suffered and was
murdered in the Minsk ghetto. Among her
books: A zamlung dertseylungen (A collection of stories) (Vilna, 1922),
96 pp.; In pyonerishn lager (In a pioneer camp) (Minsk, 1936), 40 pp.; Gelke,
stories (Moscow, 1937), 38 pp.; Odlerl un shoymele, a vunder-maysele (Odlerl
and Shoymele, a wondrous tale) (Moscow, 1939), 16 pp.; Shpinen (Spiders)
(Minsk, 1940), 30 pp.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1, pp. 441-43; Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn
fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), part 1 (Vilna, 1929), pp. 168, 169,
171, 181-84, 187; part 2, p. 63; Uri Finkl, in Eynikeyt (Moscow) (July
14, 1945); Binyomin Yud, in Kultur un dertsiung (New York) (November
1945).
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