ROKHL KRAMF

ROKHL KRAMF (b. August 17, 1906)[1]

            She was a poetess, born in Kristinopol (Krystynopol, now Chervonohrad), Galicia.  She was raised in Warsaw, where she was active in “Shulkult” (School and culture).  In 1938 she arrived in the land of Israel (for the second time).  She published intimate lyrical poetry in: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Haynt (Today), Dos vort (The word), and the anthology Zalbe akht (Group of eight) (1932)—all in Warsaw; Nayes folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz; Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv; and in the Hebrew press through translations of her work.  Her works include: Shtile reyd (Silent speech) (Warsaw, 1937), 55 pp.; In shtilkeyt (In quiet) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1970), 126 pp., Hebrew translation as Ḥarishit (Silence) (1970); Volkns viln veynen (Clouds wish to cry) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1973), 135 pp., Hebrew translation as Avim mitavim levakut (1973); Arop in di hoykhn (Down in the heights) (Tel Aviv: Leivick farlang, 1980?), 95 pp.  “There is a thoughtfulness,” noted Avrom Lis, “which makes Rokhl Kramf’s poems colorful and contemporary.  There is in her poetry a poetic beauty and polish of word.”  Dov Sadan wrote that Kramf should not have been omitted from Naygreshl’s anthology of Yiddish poetry in Galicia: Kleyne antologye fun der yidisher lirik in galitsye, 1897-1935 (A short anthology of the Yiddish lyric in Galicia, 1897-1935) (Vienna, 1936).

Sources: Sh. Lev, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) 47 (1937); Shmuel Zaromb, Shriftn (Writings) (Warsaw, 1938), p. 41; Mortkhe Tsanin, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (January 22, 1970); Avrom Lis, In der mekhitse fun shafer (In the compartment of creating) (Tel Aviv, 1978), pp. 122-26.

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 490.]

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[1] Incorrectly given in Binem Heler’s Dos lid iz geblibn, lider fun yidishe dikhter in poyln, umgekumene beys der hitlerisher okupatsye, antologye (The poem remains, poems by Jewish poets in Poland, murdered during the Hitler occupation, anthology) (Warsaw, 1951).