Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim ( Yiddish: רבקה באסמאן; 20 February 1925 – 22 March 2023) was a Lithuanian-born Israeli Yiddish poet and educator. She was the recipient of the Itzik Manger Prize in 1984. ^{[1] [2]} Basman was also awarded the Chaim Zhitlowsky Prize in 1998. ^{[1] [2]}

Early life

Rivka Basman was born in Vilkmergė, Lithuania on 20 February 1925, ^[3] to parents Yekhezkel and Tsipora (née Heyman). ^[1] While in school, she and her friends were excited to read the poems and stories of Kadya Molodowsky, a Yiddish woman writer. ^[1] Basman's father and her younger brother Arele were killed by the Germans in the Baltic. ^[4] During World War II, Basman spent about two years in the Vilna ghetto. ^[1] After that she was sent to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga. ^[1]

Basman started writing poetry at Kaiserwald in order to cheer up fellow inmates. ^[2] When the camp was liquidated, she saved her poems by smuggling them out in her mouth. ^[2] After liberation, Basman lived in Belgrade from 1945 to 1947. While there she married Shmuel "Mula" Ben-Hayim ^[1] and with him engaged in smuggling Jews out of Europe and past the British naval blockade to enter Mandate Palestine. ^[2]

Education

In 1947 Basman made aliyah and then joined Kibbutz HaMa'apil. ^[2] She received her teaching diploma from the Teachers' Seminary in Tel Aviv. ^[5] She also studied literature while in New York at Columbia University. ^[5] At her kibbutz she taught children and also joined the Yiddish poets' group Yung Yisroel ("Young Israel") ^[2] While on the kibbutz she wrote and published her first volume of poetry, Toybn baym brunem (Doves at the Well), in 1959. ^[2]

Writing career

During the years 1963 to 1965, her husband became the cultural attaché from Israel to the Soviet Union. ^{[1] [4]} Basman taught the children of the diplomats in Moscow during her time there. ^[1] She also met with Russian Yiddish authors. ^[1]

Basman Ben-Hayim wrote her poems mostly in Yiddish. ^[1] Since that time many of her poems have been translated into Hebrew. ^[1] While he was living, her husband did the design and all of the illustrations for her books. ^[1] After his death, she took his family name and added it in with hers. ^[1]

Basman Ben-Hayim continued to write poetry and was the head of the Union of Yiddish Writers located in Tel Aviv. ^[6]

Personal life and death

Basman Ben-Hayim resided in Herzliya Pituah. ^[6] She died in Herzliya, Israel on March 22, 2023, at the age of 98. ^[7]

Awards

Basman Ben-Hayim was the recipient of the Itzik Manger Prize in 1984. ^{[1] [2]} Basman was also awarded the Chaim Zhitlowsky Prize in 1998. ^{[1] [2]} Other prizes and awards include the Arie Shamri prize in 1980; the Fischman prize in 1983; the prize awarded by the chairman of the World Zionist Federation in 1989; the David Hofstein prize in 1992; The Beit Sholem Aleichem (Polack) prize in 1994; the Leib Malakh prize awarded by Beit Leivick in 1995; and the Mendele prize of the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 1997. ^[1]

Books of poetry

• Toybn baym brunem (Doves at the Well, 1959) ^[1]
• Bleter fun vegn (Leaves of the Paths, 1967) ^{[1] [8]}
• Likhtike shteyner (Radiant Stones, 1972) ^{[1] [9]}
• Tseshotene kreln (Scattered Beads, 1982) ^{[1] [10]}
• Onrirn di tsayt (To Touch Time, 1988) ^[1]
• Di shtilkayt brent (The Silence Burns, 1992) ^[1]
• Di erd gedenkt (The Earth Remembers, 1998) ^[1]
• Di draytsnte sho (The Thirteenth Hour, 2000) ^[1]
• Af a strune fun regn (On a Strand of Rain, 2002) ^[1]

References

External links

• English translations of Basman's poetry