The
sister of Joshua (Shikl) Fishman, she was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of
Jewish community leaders Aaron and Sonia Fishman. She received both a Jewish and a general
education. She graduated from a
Workmen’s Circle school and the advanced Jewish course of study at middle
school in Philadelphia. She was active
for a time in Hashomer Hatsair (The young guard) in the United States. From 1954 she was a member of Kibbutz Bet
Alfa in Emek Izrael. She began
publishing lyrical poetry in the student journal Der nayer dor (The new generation) in Philadelphia (1950), and she edited
the periodical herself. In Israel she
was a member of Yung Yisroel (Young Israel) and contributed to the publications
of this writers’ group. She published
poetry in: Di goldene keyt (The
golden chain), Letste nayes (Latest
news), Fray yisroel (Free Israel), Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel), Folksblat (People’s newspaper), and Al hamishmar (On guard), among others,
in Tel Aviv; Svive (Environs) in New
York; Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in
Johannesburg; and Ilustrirte literarishe
bleter (Illustrated literary leaves) in Buenos Aires; among others. Among other places, her work was anthologized
in: Mortkhe Yofe, ed., Erets-yisroel in der
yidisher literatur (Israel in Yiddish literature) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ.,
1961). A number of her poems were
translated into Hebrew and published in Israeli periodicals. Her books include: Zun iber alts (Sun over everything), poems (Tel Aviv, 1962), 58
pp.; Derner nokhn regn (Thorns after
the rain), poetry (Tel Aviv, 1966), 84 pp.; Himl
tsvishn grozn, shamaim beesev (Heaven amid the grass) (Tel Aviv: Alef,
1968), 93 pp.; Vilde tsig, iza peziza
(Wild goat), poems (Jerusalem: Kriyat sefer, 1976), 112 pp., winner of the
Manger Prize in 1978. Both books have
parallel Hebrew translations by Aharon Aharoni.
She died in Bet Alfa, Israel.
“I have
written about her very first book,” noted Yankev Glatshteyn, “that her poems
are those of someone in her twenties, written with the feminine sensibility of
a twenty-something. We do have not have
such poems in Yiddish poetry. Her youth
is starkly evident in the poems, and they represent a definite girl’s age, with
all the moods, desires, laments, and joy.
This new book, Derner nokhn regn,
is a continuation in years, as if Rukhl Fishman were writing entries in a
diary. The poetess has aged in her youth,
in her private life, in her own intimacies.
In Rukhl Fishman’s new poetry collection, there is a home, but more than
a home there is an outdoors—air, tree, sky, the aroma of growth and bloom, and
the sorrow which often comes from its surroundings with beauty…. Around there is good, beautiful, heaven,
rain, and even singing, but a young woman in her thirties jots down notes of
her feelings; from young familyhood, from nostalgia, which arises from time to
time, and inasmuch as one doesn’t know from where it comes, one doesn’t know
where it disappears to. The sadness in
her poems, even personal experiences, is in the background of much sunshine and
beauty. There is no such personal
torment that a good rain cannot heal and wash away.”
Sources: Meylekh Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (May 12, 1956); Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3
(Montreal, 1958), p. 483; Ravitsh, in Di
goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 59 (1967); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (October 4, 1956); Y. Emyot, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (September 24,
1957); Mortkhe Yofe, in Yisroel-shtime
(Tel Aviv) (November 1957); Y. Paner, in Di
goldene keyt 44 (1962); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (May 18, 1962); Glatshteyn, Mit mayne fartog-bikher (With my
daybreak books) (Tel Aviv, 1963), pp. 133-38; Y. Varshavski (Bashevis), in Forverts (New York) (June 10, 1962); Y.
Zelitsh, in Afn shvel (New York)
(June-July 1962); Mates Baytsh, in Tsukunft
(New York) (September 1962); Kadye Molodovski, in Svive (New York) (September 1962); A. Leyeles, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (November 4, 1962);
Froym Oyerbakh, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(January 31, 1965).
[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers
(Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 444.]
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