Shira Gorshman (April 10, 1906 – April 4, 2001) was a

Yiddish language Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

short story writer and memoirist.

Biography

She was born in the small town of

Krakės Krakės (formerly ''Krakiai'', pl, Kroki, russian: link=no, Кроки) is a small town in Kėdainiai district, central Lithuania. It is located on the Smilgaitis River. In the town, there are Catholic church of St. Matthew the Evangelist (bui ...

in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

) to an extremely poor family and began working at a young age. She was able to achieve a basic education, and like many Lithuanian Jews was multi-lingual. She was self-supporting by the time she was 14, and had her first daughter when she was 16. At a young age, Gorshman moved to

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

, where she became active in Zionist organizations. In 1924, she moved to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

as a pioneer, and there worked doing heavy labor with

Gdud HaAvoda Gdud HaAvoda ( he, גדוד העבודה) was a socialist Zionist work group in Mandate Palestine. History Officially known as the Yosef Trumpeldor Labor and Defense Battalion ( he, גדוד העבודה וההגנה על־שם יוסף טרו ...

, a short-lived, left-wing Zionist organization intended to create mobile labor pools for the nascent Jewish colonies in Palestine. In Gdud ha-Avodah, members worked and lived together, pooling all income, while completing major construction projects such as road-building. In 1928, with others from this group, Gorshman returned to the Soviet Union to build another utopian commune, this one an agricultural colony in Crimea. Her much later memoir, (In the Footsteps of Gdud ha-Avodah), published in 1998, describes both communal undertakings. In Crimea, Gorshman met Mendl Gorshman, a painter, and they moved to Moscow together. There, she began writing. Her stories were published in Yiddish newspapers in

Kiev 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 ...

and Moscow, and in numerous anthologies. Gorhsman remained in Moscow for many years, writing short stories and memoirs. "The central hero in her work is the woman as a folk-figure in this uneasy historical epoch," wrote '' The Forward'' in her

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

. "This particular figure, through whom the writer embodied the important problems of reality, always appears in a time when the foundations of old forms of social organization are broken, and new relationships and alliances in social life and in the life of a new kind of family are being constructed." Gorshman moved to Israel in 1990, where she continued to write and publish her stories. She died in

Ashqelon Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew language, Hebrew: , , ; Philistine language, Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel on the Medite ...

in 2001. Her books include (The Power of Life), (33 Stories), (Life and Light), (Mid-Week Holiday), (Resistance), (Chana's Sheep and Cows), (I Love to Wander), (As If For the First Time), (Without Malice), and the aforementioned . Very little of her work is available in English translation, but a story of hers appears in the

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

''Found Treasures'' and another is found in ''Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars''.

References

Bibliography

* Obituary, ( The Forward), April 13, 2001. (In Yiddish). * Author biography, ''Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers''. Toronto: Second Story Press, 1994. * Jones, Faith.
Shira Gorshman: A Life in Three Acts
" JBooks.com. * . Moscow, 1995. (In Russian).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorshman, Shira 1906 births 2001 deaths People from Kėdainiai District Municipality People from Kovensky Uyezd Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Soviet Jews Soviet emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century short story writers Israeli women short story writers Israeli short story writers Soviet women writers Soviet writers Yiddish-language writers 20th-century Israeli women writers