Ulinover, Miriam
February 22, 1890-August 18, 1944
Born in Lodz in 1890* (according to some sources - 1888). Her parents, Shimen and Sheyndl (née Gerzon) Hirshbeyn, divorced in 1905. She spent some of her childhood with her maternal grandfather, Talmudic scholar Shaye Gerzon, in the shtetl Krzepice (near modern-day Czestochowa, Poland). She was orphaned early in life. She received a traditional education, graduating from a public school.
She married Wolf Ulinover in 1912 and gave birth to their first daughter Dine-Rokhl in 1915 and the second one - Hinde-Makhle in 1922. She worked in the family shop. From the 1920s she was active in the Yiddish literary life in Lodz, attending Yitskhak Katzenelson's gatherings and hosting her own.
Sholem Aleichem inspired Ulinover to start writing when he met her in Łódź in 1905. From 1916 she published songs in Gezangen (Songs) (Lodz, 1919-1920), Lodzher Folksblat (Lodz People’s News), and Lodzher Tageblat (Lodz Daily). Among her books: Der Bobes Oytser (Grandmother’s Treasure), poems (Warsaw, 1922), 115 pp., with an introduction by Dovid Frishman; rpt., Der Bobes Oytser, Haotsar Shel Hasavta (Grandmother’s Treasure), Hebrew translation by Yehoshua Tan Pai (Jerusalem: Mosad harav Kook, 1975), 11, 116 pp. She prepared a second volume with the title Shabes (Sabbath) (a small part of these poems were published in Ezra Korman’s Yidishe Dikhterins (Jewish women poets).
Other publications include:
“Overnight,” “The Encounter,” “Sabbath Candles,” “Alphabet.” Translated by Joseph Leftwich. In The Golden Peacock: A Worldwide Treasury of Yiddish Poetry, edited by Joseph Leftwich. New York–London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1961, 660–662.
“Havdolah Wine,” “The courtyard.” Trans. by Seth Wolitz. In Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, edited by Howard Schwarts and Anthony Rudolf. New York: Avon Books, 1980, 366–367.
A Grus Fun Der Alter Heym/un Bonjour Du Pays Natal, bilingual Yiddish-French, edited and introduction by Natalia Krynicka, poems translated into French by Batia Baum. Paris: Bibliothèque Medem, 2003.
One of the few folk poetesses, she hit the mark in poetry with something in her use of Yiddish language and speech. With the refined naturalness of her folk tone, she had no equal in the realm of Yiddish poetry. According to one statement of testimony, she was extremely creative in the Lodz ghetto and wrote a great deal. Five handwritten poems were found in the Warsaw Ghetto Ringelblum Archives. She had apparently sent them to Itsik Manger at Haynt, a Warsaw daily. They are included in Poetry in Hell: Yiddish Poetry in the Ringelblum Archives, translations by Sarah Traister Moskovitz. She held literary gatherings in Lodz ghetto from 1940 to 1944. She was murdered by the Nazis in a crematorium, it appears, in Auschwitz**.
Bibliography#1 by K. Hellerstein: Kathryn Hellerstein, “Songs of Herself: The Lineage of Women Yiddish Poets,” Studies in American Jewish Literaure 9 (Fall 1990): 138–150; Kathryn Hellerstein, “Beyond the Purim Shpil: Reinventing the Book of Esther in Modern Yiddish Poetry,” in Jews and the Creation of Modern Jewish Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Gabriella Safran and Benjamin Nathans (Philadelphia, forthcoming); Natalia Krynicka, ed. and intro., “Araynfir” (Introduction [in Yiddish and French]), in A Grus fun der Alter Heym: Lider / Un Bonjour Du Pays Natal: Poèmes, by Miriam Ulinover, trans. Batia Baum (Paris, 2003), pp. xiii–lxxxvii and 13–94; Miriam Uli[a]nover, Der Bobes Oytser (Warsaw, 1921/22); Miriam Ulinover, Der Bobes Oyster / Ha-Otsar Shel Ha-Savta, trans. Yehoshu‘a Tan Pai (Jerusalem, 1975), see in particular these articles: Dov Sadan, “Shomeret Ha-Otser: ‘Al Miryem Ulinover,” and David Frishman, “‘Al Shiratah Shel Miryem Ulinover.”
Bibliography#2 by N. Krynicka: Fuks, Khaim-Leyb. “Miryam Ulinover un ir Shrayber Krayz.” Lodzh Shel Mayle: Dos Yidishe Gaystike un Derhoybene Lodzh. Tel Aviv: Y.L. Perets, 1972, 53–55.
Goldkorn, Yitskhok. “Miryam Ulinover.” In Lodzher Portretn: Umgekumene Yidishe Shrayber un Tipn. Tel Aviv: Farlag ha-Menorah, 1963, 58–62.
Hellerstein, Kathryn. “Miriam Ulinover.” In Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality, ed. by Ellen Umansky and Dianne Ashton. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992, 153–154.
Korman, Ezra. “Der Bobes Oytser.” Bikher-Velt, 1 (January–February 1922), 35–37.
Krynicka, Natalia. (Introduction to) A Grus fun der Alter Heym/un Bonjour Du Pays Natal. Paris: Bibliothèque Medem, 2003, ה-צד XIII–LXXI.
Mayzil, Gitl. “Miryam Ulinover.” Eseyen. Tel Aviv: Y.L. Perets, 1974, 175–183.
Shpigl, Yeshaye. “Mit der Dikhterin fun Der Bobes Oytser.” Geshtaltn un Profiln: Literarishe Eseyen, Vol. 1, Tel Aviv: Farlag ha-Menorah, 1971, 219–223.
Turko, Yoysef. “Bay Miryam Ulinover,” Literarishe Bleter 551 (November 30, 1934): 803.
Sources: Dr. Y. Shatski, in Nasz Kurier (Warsaw) (January 31, 1922); Kh. L. Fuks, in Folksblat (May 31, 1923); Sh. Niger, in Tsukunft (November 1928); Yoysef Turko, in Literarishe Bleter, no. 48 (1934); Rikudah Potash, in Nayvelt (Tel Aviv), no. 46 (1946); Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder Adler (June 8, 1953); Y. Y. Trunk, in Poylishe Yidn (Polish Jews), yearbook (1942); Z. Segalovitsh (Segalowicz), Tlomatske 13 (Tlomatskie 13) (Buenos Aires, 1946); Ber Mark, Umgekumene Shrayber fun di Getos un Lagern (Murdered Writers from the Ghettos and Camps) (Warsaw, 1954).