HELEN LONDYNSKI-TOYBNBLAT

HELEN LONDYNSKI-TOYBNBLAT (May 31, 1896-May 2, 1992)

            She was born in Warsaw to Hassidic parents.  After graduating from Sofia Kalecki’s school for girls, she studied literature and psychology at the Polish “Wolna Wszechnica Polska” (Free Polish University) in Warsaw.  At the start of WWI (1914), she was a cofounder of a free kitchen for homeless Jewish children, which later (with help from Y. L. Perets, Yankev Dinezon, A. Birnboym, Sh. Gilinski, Dovid Herman, and others) was transformed into the “Y. L. Perets Children’s Home” in Warsaw (at 7 Gensze).  From 1920 she was a proofreader of books which Sh. Y. Londynski (her husband by this point) was publishing for “Di Tsayt” (The times).  In 1925 she settled in Paris.  She arrived in New York in August 1942.  She worked in a sweatshop and later in an office.  She published descriptions of her personal experiences in: Undzer horizon (Our horizon) (New York) 1 (May 1957) and 3 (April 1958); Tsukunft (Future) (New York) (July-August 1959); Zhelekhover yerlekher byuletin (Żelichów annual bulletin) (New York) (1960); Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper) (September 1960); Davar (Word) (Tel Aviv) (April 1961); Zayn (To be) (New York) (January 1961); and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) (Montreal) (August 14, 1961).  She was also the author of: In shpigl fun nekhtn, zikhroynes (In the mirror of yesterday, memoirs) (New York, 1972), 192 pp.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 319.]