Shifra Kholodenko (russian: Шифра Наумовна Холоденко, yi, שפרה כאלאדענקא) (1909-1974) was a Russian- and Yiddish-language poet, writer and translator from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Biography

She was born in 1909 as Shifra Hofshteyn ( yi, שפרה האָפשטיין, russian: Шифра Наумовна Гофштейн) in Bartkova Rudniya, Volhynian Governorate,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(today Bartukha,

Zhytomyr Oblast Zhytomyr Oblast ( uk, Жито́мирська о́бласть, translit=Zhytomyrska oblast), also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna ( uk, Жито́мирщина}) is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the obla ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

; uk, Бартуха). Her father, Nechemya Menakhem Hofshteyn, was in the timber trade. Her mother, Alte Chasya (née Kholodenko) was descended from A. M. Kholodenko, a famous

Klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

violin virtuoso, and it was that name that she would later use as her pen name. Her brother,

Dovid Hofshteyn Dovid Hofshteyn ( yi, דוד האָפשטיין ''Dovid Hofshteyn'', russian: Давид Гофштейн; June 12, 1889 in Korostyshiv – August 12, 1952), also known as David Hofstein, was a Yiddish poet. He was one of the 13 Jewish intellectua ...

, also became a well-known Yiddish poet and literary figure later in life. Her primary education was received in Yasnohorod, Volhynian Governate. After that she received a degree in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from Moscow State University. Her first poems were published in 1922 in the Yiddish-language literary magazine , which was edited by her brother Dovid. Among the topics she developed in her poetry were themes about the natural world and biology, including

Menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...

and its link to the cycles of nature. For a time she was also a Yiddish-language teacher with Yaacov Reznik, a Yiddish-language pedagogue in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. In 1940 she became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. During the

Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II, the Second World War. The operation, code ...

in 1941, her mother, father and brothers (excepting Dovid) were killed at Babi Yar.

Vera Inber Vera Mikhailovna Inber (russian: link=no, Вера Михайловна Инбер), born Shpenzer (10 July 1890, Odessa11 November 1972, Moscow), was a Russian and Soviet poet and writer. Biography Her father Moshe owned a scientific publishing ...

translated her poems into Russian. In 1952 Dovid Hofshteyn was killed by Soviet authorities in the Night of the Murdered Poets. The death of her last brother was very difficult on her and greatly affected her work. She continued to live in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in the 1960s. She died in Moscow in July 1974.

Selected works

* (1937) * (poems, 1940) * (short stories, 1940) * (1941) * (1960) * (also known as ) (1974)

References

External links

A poem by Shifra Kholodenko
in , 1922 (in Yiddish).
A selection of poems by Shifra Kholodenko
from an anthology (in Yiddish).
Lider
book of Kholodenko's poetry (in Yiddish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kholodenko, Shifra 1909 births 1970 deaths People from Volhynian Governorate Yiddish-language poets Soviet Jews Soviet women poets Moscow State University alumni Soviet educators Jewish educators Jewish women writers