Yiddish Women in Translation by Amanda SeigelAugust 17, 2020

Bertha Kalish — Actress Bertha Kalich, author (with Tsvi-Hirsh Rubinstein) of Mayn leben, a memoir serialized in Der Tog. NYPL Digital Collection, Image ID: TH-25321

[Updated February 16, 2022] It is astounding both how many women have written in Yiddish, and how thoroughly they have been marginalized. An informal survey identified nearly 900 women who wrote and published their work in Yiddish. Yet of the 2% of Yiddish literature that has been translated, most is by male writers. Many historical anthologies of Yiddish literature in translation are all-male. Those do that include women have often lumped them into the gendered category of “female poets”, discounting women’s incredible contributions to Yiddish poetry as well as prose. For an incisive look at women’s poetry in Yiddish, read Kathryn Hellerstein’s A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987. Find anthologies of Yiddish literature in English translation, including those that feature and highlight women’s writing, in the translation section of the new Yiddish Research LibGuide.

Building upon the pioneering works of scholars such as Irena Klepfisz, new translations of writing by women in Yiddish are reaching a wider audience than ever. Recent translation efforts are bringing women’s voices in Yiddish to the forefront, and making their works accessible for reading, teaching, and scholarship. Prose works in particular, such as novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs—many long buried in microfilmed newspapers and archives—are finally getting their due.

Where to Find Yiddish Writing by Women in English Translation

In geveb
This innovative, online, peer-reviewed journal of Yiddish Studies regularly publishes translations as well as critical and pedagogical pieces about Yiddish and gender.

Pakn treger
This long-running, popular illustrated journal of the Yiddish Book Center reflects its ongoing initiatives to translate and publish Yiddish literature, including highlighting women as writers and translators.

Bridges
This legendary Jewish feminist journal (now defunct) was among the first to publish Yiddish literature by women in English translation. Read online from home or find print volumes in our catalog.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (Jewish Women’s Archive)
An important resource for biographical information on women writers in Yiddish.

Women on the Yiddish Stage: Primary Sources (Digital Yiddish Theatre Project)

An ongoing series of translations from primary sources written by Yiddish actresses.

book covers

Works by Individual Writers

Fiction

Bella Goldworth

Across the Border. Short Stories trans. from the Yiddish by Max Rosenfeld

Miriam Karpilove

Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love translated from the Yiddish and with an introduction by Jessica Kirzane

Esther Singer Kreytman

Blitz and other stories, translated from Yiddish by Dorothee van Tendeloo; edited by Sylvia Paskin
Diamonds [Brilyantn]. translated from the Yiddish and with an introduction by Heather Valencia
Dance of the Demons [Sheydim-tants]. Translated from Yiddish by Maurice Carr; introduction by Ilan Stavans afterword by Anita Norich; biographical essays by Maurice Carr and Hazel Karr
Deborah [Sheydim-tants]. With a new introduction by Clive Sinclair; translated by Maurice Carr

Blume Lempel

Oedipus in Brooklyn & Other Stories, translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Yente Mash

On the Landing: Stories , translated by Ellen Cassedy ; with an afterword co-authored by Jessica Kirzane

Kadya Molodowsky

An Endless Stretch of Land translated by Yaira Singer
A House With Seven Windows: Short Stories translated by Leah Schoolnik.
A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg's Journal translated by Anita Norich. For more on Molodowsky, see also Kadya Molodowsky: The Life of a Yiddish Woman Writer by Zelda Kahan Newman

Adele Mondry

Wyszkowo, A Shtetl on the Bug River; translated from the Yiddish by Moshe Spiegel

Salomea Perl

The canvas and other stories translated by Ruth Murphy ; with an introduction by Justin Cammy

Chava Rosenfarb

Bociany; Of Lodz and Love translated from the Yiddish by the author
Survivors: Seven Short Stories translated by Goldie Morgentaler.
The Tree of Life: A Novel About Life in the Lodz Ghetto [Trilogy translated from the Yiddish by the author in collaboration with Goldie Morgentaler]

Fradel Shtok

From the Jewish provinces : selected stories translated by Jordan D. Finkin and Allison Schachter

Fiction Anthologies

Arguing With the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers edited and with a preface by Rhea Tregebov; introduction by Kathryn Hellerstein, 2008. Bryna Bercovitch, Rochel Brokhes, Frankel-Paula Zaltzman, Hamer-Sarah Jacklyn, Malke Lee, Rikudah Potash, Chava Rosenfarb, Anne Viderman

Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars: Jewish Women in Yiddish Stories: An Anthology edited by Sandra Bark; introduction by Francine Prose, 2003. Lili Berger, Rochel Brokhes, Shira Gorshman, Hamer-Sarah Jacklyn, Rachel Korn, Esther Singer Kreitman, Malke Lee, Blume Lempel, Ida Maze, Kadya Molodowsky, Rikudah Potash, Miriam Raskin, Chava Rosenfarb, Dora Schulner, Yente Serdatzky, Chava Slucka-Kestin

The Exile Book of Yiddish Women Writers, edited by Frieda Johles Forman, 2013. Lili Berger, Rochel Brokhes, Sheindl Franzus-Garfinkle, Shira Gorshman, Chayele Grober, Sarah Hamer-Jaclyn, Rachel Korn, Blume Lempel, Ida Maze, Rikudah Potash, Chava Rosenfarb, Dora Schulner, Mirl Erdberg Shatan

Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers edited by Frieda Forman; introduction by Irena Klepfisz, 1994. Dvora Baron, Celia Dropkin, Rochel Faygenberg, Rachel Korn, Esther Singer Kreitman, Blume Lempel, Helen Londynski, Kadya Molodowsky, Fradel Schtok, Yente Serdatzky

Memoirs

Hayah Rahel Andres

Years Have Sped By= Zaynen yorn gelofn [bilingual autobiography and poetry]; forrede un iberzetsungen oyf English fun Yudl Ḳohen; [edited by Jeanette Cohen].

Hinde Bergner

On Long Winter Nights: Memoirs of a Jewish Family in a Galician Township (1870-1900); translated from the Yiddish, edited, and with an introduction by Justin Daniel Cammy.

Bella Rosenfeld Chagall

Burning Lights, translated by Norbert Guterman; with 36 paintings by Mark Chagall.
First Encounter, illustrations by Marc Chagall ; translated by Barbara Bray.

Bertha Ferderber-Salz

And The Sun Kept Shining; foreword by Menachem Z. Rosensaft.

Glueckel of Hameln

Glikl: Memoirs 1691-1719 edited & annotated with an introduction by Chava Turniansky ; translated by Sara Friedman
The Life of Glückel of Hameln, 1646-1724, written by herself; translated from the original Yiddish and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams.
The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln translated by Marvin Lowenthal; introd. by Norma and Robert Rosen.

Vladka Meed

From Both Side of the Ghetto Wall, introduction by Elie Wiesel.

Puah Rakovska

My Life as a Radical Jewish Woman: Memoirs of a Zionist Feminist in Poland edited and with an introduction by Paula E. Hyman; translated from the Yiddish by Barbara Harshav with Paula E. Hyman.

Poetry

Hayah Rahel Andres

For whom do I sing my songs Far ṿemen zing ikh mayne lider. an araynfir un opshatsung fun Shalom Shṭern; iberzetsungen oyf English fun Yudl Ḳohen; [redaḳṭirṭ fun Dzshaneṭ Ḳohen]. Bilingual text.

Rivka Basman Ben-Haim

The thirteenth hour = di draytsnte sho, translated from Yiddish by Zelda Kahan-Newman.

Celia Dropkin

The Acrobat: Selected Poems, translated from the Yiddish by Faith Jones, Jennifer Kronovet, and Samuel Solomon; foreword by Edward Hirsch.

Sara Fell-Yellin

Songs of Days and Years; Poems. Translated from the Yiddish by Herman Eichenthal, Lila B. Hassid and Max Rosenfeld.

Rukhl Fishman

I Want to Fall Like This = Azoy ṿil ikh faln: selected poems, translated from the Yiddish by Seymour Levitan; with an introduction by David G. Roskies.

Troim Katz Handler

Śimḥe: episṭolarishe libe-lider = Simkhe (Celebration): Love-Letter Poems; poetry translated by Shimon Beyles

Irena Klepfisz

A Few Words in the Mother Tongue: Poems Selected and New (1971-1990); introduction by Adrienne Rich

Rokhl Korn

Generations: Selected Poems edited by Seymour Mayne; In praise of Rachel Korn by Elie Wiesel; translated from the Yiddish by Rivka Augenfeld et. al.
Paper Roses = Papirene royzn translated by Seymour Levitan

Anna Margolin

Drunk From the Bitter Truth: The Poems of Anna Margolin translated, edited, and with an introduction by Shirley Kumove.

Kadya Molodowsky

Papirene briḳn = Paper bridges: Selected Poems, translated, edited, and introduced by Kathryn Hellerstein.
Paper Towers = Papirene ṭurems prints by Sarah Horowitz; poems by Kadya Molodowsky; translation by Kathryn Hellerstein.

Kady Molodowsky, Anna Margolin, Malka Heifetz Tussman

The Other Voice: Twentieth-Century Women's Poetry in Translation edited by Joanna Bankier; foreword by Adrienne Rich.

Sarah Moskovitz

Ḳumṭ tsum ṭish = come to the table

Chava Rosenfarb

Exile at Last: Selected Poems Goldie Morgentaler, editor.

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

Poems = Lider. Bilingual ed., translated byThomas E. Bird.

Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath

Plutsemdiḳer regn: lider, iberzetsungen fun Yeḥiel-Abo Sandler un Sholem Berger; haḳdomeh fun Sheve Tsuḳer

Songs to a moonstruck Lady: women in Yiddish poetry [collection] - selected and translated by Barnett Zumoff ; with an introductory essay by Emanuel S. Goldsmith [includes a significant amount of work by women].

Sylvia Siegel-Schildt

Tsayṭṿayliḳe lider: gezamlṭe poezye = Temporary Songs: Collected Poetry.

Dora Teitelboim

All My Yesterdays Were Steps. Edited and translated by Aaron Kramer; illustrations by Stan Kaplan.

Malka Heifetz Tussman

Am I Also You? translated from the Yiddish by Marcia Falk.
With Teeth in the Earth: selected poems translated, edited, and introduced by Marcia Falk. Editions published in 1992 and 2011

Rosa Newman Walinska

Ink and Clay

R. Zychlinska

God Hid His Face. Translated from the Yiddish by Barnett Zumoff, Aaron Kramer, Marek Kanter, and others; with an introductory essay by Emanuel S. Goldsmith.

Religious writings

Women such as Sore bas Tovim, Seril Rappaport, Sore of Krasny, and Rokhl Ester bas Avikhayl, as well as men, wrote and published tkhines—described in the YIVO Encyclopedia as “private devotions and paraliturgical prayers usually in Yiddish, primarily for women.”

Ṭiḳṭiner, Rivḳah bat Meʼir. Meneket Rivkah: A Manual of Wisdom and Piety for Jewish Women; edited with an introduction and commentary by Frauke von Rohden; translation by Samuel Spinner; translation of introduction and commentary by Maruce Tszorf.

A Book of Jewish Women's Prayers: Translations from the Yiddish; Selected and with Commentary by Norman Tarnor.

The Merit of Our Mothers: A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women's Prayers = Bizkhus imohes compiled and introduced by Tracy Guren Klirs; translated by Tracy Guren Klirs, Ida Cohen Selavan, and Gella Schweid Fishman; annotated by Faedra Lazar Weiss and Barbara Selya.

Seyder tkhines: The Forgotten Book of Common Prayer for Jewish Women, translated and edited with commentary by Devra Kay.

Teḥinah = Techinas: A Voice From the Heart: "As Only a Woman Can Pray" selected and translated by Rivka Zakutinsky.