REYZL LANDAU

REYZL LANDAU (b. March 9, 1892)

            Her maiden name was Levitski, born in Mozir (Mazyr), Byelorussia.  She studied in religious primary school and secular subjects with private tutors.  Under the influence of the folksongs for which her mother had a particular affection, she began on her own writing songs.  She joined the Bund and frequently gave public speeches to Jewish workers.  To avoid arrest, she left for Minsk and in 1906 came to the United States.  The difficult circumstances and adaption to her new surroundings and to sweatshop labor eviscerated in her any further desire to write.  In 1911 she married the poet Zishe Landau.  In October 1939 she debuted in print in Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine) in New York, using the name “Dvore.”  She also contributed work to: Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York; and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal.  She was preparing to publish a book of her poems, dedicated to Zishe Landau, with prose about him as well.  She was last living in New York.

Sources: Meylekh Ravitsh, in Byalistoker lebn (New York) (October 1940); Moyshe Shtarkman, Hemshekh-antologye (Hemshekh anthology) (New York, 1945), pp. 401-5.