ESTER (ESTHER) ROZENTAL-SHNAYDERMAN

ESTER (ESTHER) ROZENTAL-SHNAYDERMAN (June 1902-1989)

            The wife of Nisn Rozental, she was a journalist, born in Częstochowa, Poland. She completed a Russian public school and a high school as an external student. She graduated from Warsaw University. She worked as a teacher in Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) schools in Poland. She was sent by the Communist Party of Poland in the latter half of the 1920s to the Soviet Union. She completed a period as a research student at Kiev Institute for Jewish Culture, after which she assumed an academic post there. She was active in the field of pedagogical and academic work in Kiev. She moved to Birobidzhan in 1934 and continued her work there. After WWII she returned to Kiev, where she worked in the department of Jewish culture under the leadership of Eli Spivak and survived his liquidation—the “Babi Yar of the Yiddish word,” in her expression. She later worked in the northern Caucasus, and in 1958 she was repatriated to Poland. In Warsaw she published several textbooks for the new Jewish schools. In 1962 she made aliya and settled in Jerusalem, where she worked at the Center for Research and Documentation of East European Jewry and went on to write four volumes of memoirs concerning Jewish culture in the Soviet Union and its demise. In 1926 she debuted in print with an article, using the pen name E. Lendvaskaia, in the journal Af di vegn tsu der nayer shul (On the roads to the new school) 1 (Moscow). She wrote, mainly on pedagogical topics, for: Oktyaberl (Child of [the] October [Revolution]), Royte velt (Red world), Ratnbildung (Soviet education), Visnshaft un revolutsye (Science and revolution), Farmest (Competition), Der emes (The truth), Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan star), Di lernarbet in shul (Schoolwork in school), Yunger shlogler (Young shock worker), Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), Yerusholaimer almanakh (Jerusalem almanac), Bay zikh (On one’s own), Haever (The past), Molad (Birth), Beḥinot (Points of view), Shevut (Strike), Measef (Collection), and Tsukunft (Future) in New York. She died in Jerusalem.

Her books include: Gezelshaftkentenish lernbukh farn IV lernyor (Social knowledge, textbook for the fourth school year), with Motl Kruglyak (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1932), 2 vols., 176 pp.; Lernbukh af literatur (Textbook for literature), with Kruglyak (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1932), 156 pp.; Arbet mit opshteyendike shiler (Work with pupils falling behind) (Kharkov-Kiev: State Publishers, 1934), 26 pp.; Heymfargebungen (Homework) (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1935), 53 pp.; Tsum hundertstn geboyrn-tog fun sholem-aleykhem (On the centenary of the birth of Sholem-Aleichem), writing as E. Fuks (Warsaw: Unzer vort, 1959; Buenos Aires: YIVO, 1959), 120 pp., with Anna Warkowicka; Dos yidishe vort, leyen-materyal (The Yiddish word, reading material), five textbooks for Jewish middle schools in Poland (Warsaw: Państwowe Zakłady Wydawnictw Szkolnych, 1959-1960), with Anna Warkowicka; Af vegn un umveg, zikhroynes, gesheenishn, perzenlekhkeytn (Along ways and byways, memoirs, events, personalities), 3 vols. (Tel Aviv: Perets Publishers, 1974, 1978, 1982), Hebrew translation by M. V. Volpovski, Shelomo Evan-Shoshan, and Avraham Sarig as Naftule derakhim, zikhronot, meoraot, ishim (Tel Aviv: Hakibuts hameuḥad, 1978-1989); Birobidzhan fun der noent, zikhroynes, gesheenishn, perzenlekhkeytn (Birobidzhan close up, memoirs, events, personalities) (Tel Aviv: Leivick Publishers, 1983), 221 pp., Hebrew translation by Shelomo Evan-Shoshan as Birobidzhan mikarov, zikhronot, meoraot, ishim (Ramat-Gan: Hakibuts hameuḥad, 1990), 233 pp. Other pen names included: Sore Shnayderman.

Sources: Borekh Shefner, in Forverts (New York) (August 25, 1970); Y. Slutski, in Asupot (Tel Aviv) 1 (1970); M. Mints, in Beḥinot (Tel Aviv) 1972); A. L. Avnery, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (July 9, 1972).

Dr. Noyekh Gris

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 498; and Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 352-53.]