Vays, Shifre
September 1889–December 12, 1955
She was born in Kelm (Kelmė), Kovno district, Lithuania. At age twelve she was orphaned with the death of her father (Nakhmen Royf, he was murdered in a nearby town on his way to the United States). She joined the Bund at age fifteen and distinguished herself as a speaker.
Persecuted by the police, she took off for the United States in 1905. She lived for a time in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and from 1917 in California. She was active in the Jewish labor movement. She participated in the founding of a Workmen’s Circle school in Hollywood, later becoming active in the camp of Jewish Communists.
She published poetry and articles in: Fraye Arbeter Shtime (Free Voice of Labor), Idishe Arbeter Velt (World of Jewish Labor), Frayhayt (Freedom), Dos Vort (The Word), Ineynem (Altogether), and Yidishe Kultur (Jewish Culture)—in New York; Yidishe Shriftn (Yiddish Writings) in Warsaw; and elsewhere.
Her books would include: In Gang (In Progress), poems with drawings by Dovid Munis (Los Angeles, 1932), 145 pp.; Tsu der Velt, Lider (To the World, Poetry) (Los Angeles, 1943), 118 pp.; Tsum Morgndikn Tog, Geklibene Lider (To Tomorrow’s Day, Selected Poems) (Los Angeles, 1953), 136 pp.
She also wrote under the pseudonym: “A heymisher mentsh.”
She died on the way from Los Angeles to Florida.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Ezra Korman, Yidishe Dikhterins (Jewish Women Poets) (Chicago, 1928), pp. 238, 241, 342; A. H. Byalik, in Yidish (New York) 12 (1932); Al. Pomerants, in Proletpen (Proletarian Pen) (Kiev, 1935), p. 205; Antologye Amerike in Yidishn Vort (Anthology of America in Yiddish) (New York, 1955), pp. 469-72.