Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur

לעקסיקאָן פֿון דער נײַער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור

She was born in the town of Ivankov, not far from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her father Yudl descended from a well-to-do merchant family, but he himself was impoverished and his family lived in a state of want. Rashel Veprinski studied for several years in a religious elementary school, later living with her parents in Kyiv and attending a Russian Jewish school and studying privately.

After her father’s death, she and her mother and the other children moved (1907) to the United States. In New York, she was compelled at age thirteen to work in a sweatshop. She later attended evening school, and she read the American Yiddish writers and poets, among whom Morris Rozenfeld left a strong impression on her.

At age fifteen she began to write on her own. She debuted in print in 1918 with a poem in Di Naye Velt (The New World), and from that point she published poetry and stories in: Shriftn (Writings), Fraye Arbeter Shtime (Free Voice of Labor), Dos Naye Lebn (The New Life), Inzikh (Introspective), Tsukunft (Future), Frayhayt (Freedom), and Forverts (Forward), among others—in New York.

From 1954 she published a series in Forverts of semi-fictional biographies of Karl Marx, La Salle, Heinrich Heine, Bertrand Russell, Isadora Duncan, Tchaikovsky, Gauguin, and others.

Among her books: Ruf Fun Fligl (Call of Wings) [nb in the 8 vol Leksikon - vol 3, the title is misidentified as Ruf fun Foygl], poetry (New York, 1926), 60 pp.; Di Palitre, Lider (The Palette, Poetry) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1964), 125 pp.; Lider (Poems) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1964), 42 pp.; Dos Kreytsn fun di Hent, (The Crossing of the Hands, autobiographical novel) (Tel Aviv, 1971), 254 pp. [2]; Tsum Eyntsikn Shtern (To the Single Star) (Tel Aviv, Perets Publ., 1971), 62 pp.; Nakhtfayern (Night Fires) (Tel Aviv, Perets Publ., 1978), 56 pp.

Prior to 1920 she became a life companion of the poet Mani Leyb. [1]  After his death in 1953, she collected his literary heritage, much of which until then had only been published, scattered,  in various magazines and newspapers. She was a principal participant in the compilation of two volumes: Lider un Baladn (Poems and Ballads) by Mani Leyb (New York, 1955).

She was involved in the trade union movement and for a time a member of the executive board of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union [unverified].

In 1958 she visited Israel.

Upon  her death, she was living  in Rockaway, New York. She is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, New York.

[1] Much insight and many details about the almost 35 year relationship between R. Veprinski and Mani Leib are noted in R. Veprinksi's autobiographical novel. Partial identification as to which characters in the novel represented which Yiddish writers is on p. 75 of  A Little Love in Big Manhattan, Ruth Wisse, Harvard University Press, 1988. 279 pp. Also, there is a photo of them in that book. /SRY

[2]  Dos Kreytsn fun di Hent was translated into English by Ellen Cassedy and Anita Norich as Hand in Hand, White Goat Press, 2025.