MIRIAM TSUNZER-SHOMER

MIRIAM TSUNZER-SHOMER (November 25, 1882-October 11, 1951)

            She was born in Odessa, Ukraine, the daughter of Nokhum-Meyer Shaykevitsh (Shomer) and the former wife of Charles Zunser (Tsunzer).  In 1891 she came with her family to the United States.  She studied in school, and after marrying she, too, took up societal activities.  She was president of the Zionist Women’s Organization (Hadassah) in New York.  She founded a group to support Jewish art in Israel (1931-1941).  She wrote poetry and stories for Avrom Reyzen’s Di naye land (The new country) in New York (1908) and memoirs in English for the journal Yesterday in New York (1939), as well as remembrances of her father (included as the first item in the book by Roza Shomer-Batshelis, Unzer foter shomer [Our father Shomer] [New York: IKUF, 1951], 251 pp., published in Hebrew as Avinu shomer, translated by Aharon Vaisman, with a preface by Dov Sadan [Jerusalem, 1953], 200 pp.).  She also contributed memoirs in Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) (New York) 33 (1950), pp. 168-82.  She died in New York.

Yankev Kahan