Rachel Boymvol, sometimes spelled Baumwoll ( Russian: Рахиль Львовна Баумволь, Yiddish: רחל בױמװאָל, Hebrew: רחל בוימוול, March 4, 1914, Odessa - June 16, 2000, Jerusalem) was a Soviet poet, children's book author, and translator who wrote in both Yiddish and Russian. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} Because of the popularity of her Soviet children's books, they were translated into multiple languages. After 1971 she emigrated to Israel and published a number of books of poetry in Yiddish.

Biography

Boymvol was born in Odessa, Russian Empire on March 4, 1914. ^{[6] [7] [3]} She was the daughter of Judah-Leib Boymvol, a playwright and Yiddish theatre director who was murdered in 1920 by anti- Bolshevik Polish soldiers during the Polish-soviet war. ^[6] He and members of his touring Yiddish theatre were pulled off the train at Koziatyn which was then under Polish control; he and troupe members Epstein and Liebert were killed in front of their families. ^{[8] [9] [3]} Rachel was also injured in the attack and remained bedridden for several years after. ^{[10] [2]} Rachel grew up in a culture fluent in both Yiddish and Russian and showed an aptitude for rhyming and storytelling from a young age. ^[6] She began to write at age six; at around this time she and her mother relocated to Moscow. ^[10] Her first Yiddish poems were published in a Komsomol magazine when she was nine. ^[3] Her first published book was a book of children's songs entitled Kinder-lider, published in 1930 with the support of Shmuel Galkin. ^{[2] [11]} She then studied in the Jewish department at the Second Moscow State University; she met her husband, Ziame Telesin, while in Moscow and they were married there. ^{[12] [3]} After they graduated in 1935 they were sent to work in Minsk, where she quickly became well-known as a children's literature author. ^{[6] [2] [10]}

During World War II, she went with her family to Tashkent, except for her husband who enlisted in the Red Army; it was during the war the she began to publish in Russian. ^{[3] [12] [2] [7]} She later wrote, "The Bolsheviks saved me from death, and I was a fervent Bolshevik. I drew five-cornered stars, but also six-cornered, Jewish ones, because the Bolsheviks loved Jews and would give us a country that would be called Yidland. In my head was a confusion that would last many years..." ^[13] After the war she settled in Moscow, and starting in 1948 she published many poems, children's songs, and stories in Russian, as well as translating from Yiddish to Russian, including a novel by Moshe Kulbak in 1960. ^{[14] [4] [2]} Her dozens of books and pamphlets of Russian-language children's songs and short stories became very popular, with some reaching a circulation of a million copies. ^{[5] [3]} From 1961 onwards, she became a regular contributor to the Yiddish-language journal Sovyetish Heymland, both in original pieces and in translations of Soviet poetry. ^{[6] [15]}

Boymvol's son Julius, who was a dissident, applied to emigrate to Israel in 1969. ^[2] His parents decided to follow him, and in 1971 Rachel was allowed to emigrate to Israel. She left as part of a large wave of Soviet Jewish writers who settled in Jerusalem, which also included Meir Kharats, Yosef Kerler, and Dovid Sfard. ^{[16] [17] [18]} Her husband was able to follow her there during Passover 1972. ^[12] After arriving there, she lost her main source of income which was writing children's books, and she turned increasingly to publishing books of Yiddish poetry. ^{[4] [11]} She also continued to publish in Russian, and some of her Yiddish collections were translated into Hebrew during the following decades by Shelomo Even-Shoshan. ^[6]

Selected publications

• Kinder-lider (1930) ^{[11] [19]}
• A briv fun di arbeṭndiḳe fun der Sovetisher Gruzye dem firer fun di felḳer - dem groysn Sṭalinen (1936, with Ziame Telesin) ^[20]
• Bertshik Brud: a kinder maysele un 6 ferzn (1936) ^[21]
• Oysderveylte dertseylungen (1938) ^[22]
• Dos tanele (1938) ^[23]
• Lider (1940) ^[24]
• Libshaft: lider (1947) ^[25]
• Skazki dli︠a︡ vzroslykh (1963) ^[26]
• Pod odnoĭ krysheĭ (1966) ^[27]
• Gli︠a︡di︠a︡ v glaza: stikhi i poėma (1968) ^[28]
• Oysgebenkt (1972) ^[29]
• A mol iz geṿen a helfand mayselekh far ḳleyn un groys (1973) ^{[30] [31]}
• Fun lid tsu lid (1977) ^{[32] [33]}
• Dray heftn (1979) ^[34]
• Aleyn dos lebn (1983) ^[35]
• Mayn yidish (1988) ^[36]
• Lider fun farsheydene tsayṭn 1935-1978 (1989) ^[37]
• Vundervelt (1990) ^[38]
• Treyst un troyer: hundert naye lider (1998) ^[39]

References

External links

• Rachel Boymvol books in the Yiddish Book Center digital library (in Yiddish)