RIVKE RUS

RIVKE RUS (b. December 8, 1912)

            She was the author of stories and novels, born in Sarnki Gurne (Sernyky), near Tarnopol (Ternopil), Galicia.  She studied in a secular school in Vienna.  From 1937 she was living in Uruguay and Argentina, and from 1944 she was in Israel, where she lived in Kfar Sirkin.  She debuted in print with poems in Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires.  She moved over to prose and published novels, stories, reportage pieces, and literary essays in: Heymish (Familiar), Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), Letste nayes (Latest news), Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Idishe tsaytung, Der shpigl (The mirror), Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Buenos Aires, Rozaryer lebn (Rosario life), Haynt (Today) in Montevideo, and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal, among other serials.  Her work also appeared in: Mordekhai Ḥalamish, Mikan umikarov, antologya shel sipure yidish beerets yisrael (From near and from far away, anthology of stories in Yiddish in Israel) (Merḥavya, 1966); Almanakh fun di yidishe shrayber in yisroel (Almanac of Yiddish writers in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1967); and Shmuel Rozhanksi and Avrom Zak, Oysgevortslte un ayngevortslte, antologye (Uprooted and rooted, anthology) (Buenos Aires, 1971).  She published novels in Idishe tsaytung: Af di felder fun baron hirsh (In the fields of Baron Hirsch) (1948) and Af di felder fun negev (In the fields of the Negev) (1957-1960); and in Letste nayes: Fremde blut (Strange blood) (1966), Beyltshe di aristokratke (Beyltshe the aristocrat) (1975) on Jewish life in Ukraine of old, and In plonter fun gefiln (Amid confusion of feelings) (May 1978-1979).  In book form: Mapilim (Clandestine Jewish immigrants to Palestine), vol. 1 (Montevideo: B. Reznikovitsh, 1947), 170 pp.; Af argentiner felder (On Argentinian fields) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1966), 272 pp.; Der dnyester roysht (The Dniester rushes) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1978), 322 pp.; Brayndeles kinder-yorn (Brayndele’s childhood years) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1982), 234 pp.  In Hebrew: Dam zar (Strange blood), trans. Shelomoh Shenod (Tel Aviv, 1974), 255 pp.

Sources: Yitskhok Vaynshenker, Boyers un mitboyers fun yidishn yishev in urugvay (Founders and builders of the Jewish community in Uruguay) (Montevideo: Zrie, 1957); Yonas Turkov, in Folksblat (Tel Aviv) (June 9, 1966); Avrom Lev, in Lebns-fragn (Tel Aviv) 176-177 (1966); Y. Kahan, in Zayn (New York) (September 1970).

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 507.]