Semkoff, Sheyne Rokhl
September 18, 1899-1969
She was born in Maytshit (Mołczadź), Grodno district, Russian Poland. Her father was a schoolteacher in the local community, and her mother ran a religious elementary school for young children in the town. Until age nine she studied with her mother, later after her mother’s death she studied with a female tailor and until age sixteen was raised by relatives.
In 1915 she immigrated with her brother and sister to the United States. She worked in a sweatshop during the daytime and continued her studies in school at night.
She wrote short poems and stories in her early youth, but she only began publishing them in
1925, in Fraye Arbeter-Shtime (Free Voice of Labor) in New York.
In the meantime, she published a series of plays which were, from 1916, produced on the Yiddish stage in various countries. Throughout the years she contributed poems, children’s tales, stories, and impressions, from the old country as well as from Jewish life in America, in:
Fraye Arbeter-Shtime,
Yidishes Tageblat (Jewish Daily Newspaper),
Der Tog (The Day),
Morgn-Zhurnal (Morning Journal),
Forverts (Forward),
Di Tsukunft (The future),
Der Amerikaner (The American),
Kinder-Tsaytung (Children’s newspaper),
Kinder-Zhurnal (Children’s Magazine), and
Nyu yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper),
among others, in New York;
Di Idishe Velt (The Jewish World) in Philadelphia;
Der yidisher kuryer (The Jewish courier) in Chicago;
Keneder Adler (Keneder Odler, Canadian Eagle) in Montreal;
Der Idisher Zhurnal (The Jewish journal) in Toronto; and
in the Yiddish newspapers of South America.
Her books include:
In Gerangl Fun’m Lebn, Dertseylungen un Noveletn (In the Struggle of Life, Stories and Novellas), 2 vols., with a preface by Gershom Bader, vol. 1 (New York: Shoulson Press, 1949), 253 pp., vol. 2 (New York: Shoulson Press, 1949), 287 pp., with appreciations from Shmuel Niger, Zalmen Shneur, M. Vityes, A. L. Baron, E. Almi, and Avrom Reyzen.
Of her twenty-five plays, the following were performed in Yiddish theaters:
Karbones fun libe (Victims of love) (1916);
A nomen nokh der mamen (Named after her mother) (1918);
Efn di oygn (Open your eyes) (1920);
Far der khupe (Before the wedding canopy) (1924);
Soydes fun yedn hoyz (Secrets in every house) (1926);
Far tate-mames zind (For the parents’ sin) (1927);
Meydl fun mayn harts (Girl in my heart) (1930);
Farvos meydlekh antloyfn (Why girls run away), produced in 1932 by Ludwig Satz;
Helo, mali (Hello, Molly), staged by Molly Picon in Argentina in 1932;
Der mazldiker almen (The lucky widower) (1964, performed on the stage in the State of Israel), among others.
She also prepared for publication two volumes of prose, entitled
Mayn lebn in teater (My life in theater).
Until 1930 she was working in a clothing shop, and later she earned a living from her staged plays.
She was last living in New York (1965).
She was the wife of Gershom Bader.
As Shmuel Niger wrote: “Her images of childhood over there were imbued with both idyll and drama.”
And, Avrom Reyzen noted: “Always accompanying her was the impoverished old country, which she painted faithfully and honestly.”
She wrote the following works:
In Gerangl Funm Lebn : Dertseylungen un Noveletn (In Struggle of Life: Stories and Novellas), New York: Shayne-Roḥel Poblishung Komite, 1949. 2 vol. with illustrations.
Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik : Myuzikal Komedye in 3 Akten mit a Prolog (His Wife's Lover: Musical Comedy in 3 Acts with a Prologue) New York, 190?. 57, 17 pp. In typewritten manuscript.
Glik Oyf der Elṭer oder Alts far Kinder: Drame in Fir Aktn (Good Luck in Old Age or Everything for Children: Drama in Four Acts) New York, 193?
Various other plays by her are listed in a Library of Congress bibliography (linked here) by Zachary Baker, pp. 128-130 under the name Jennie Semkoff.
His Wife's Lover, 1931. Credited as Shin Ra-chell.
Yente Serdatski wrote an article about her, “Ikh hob Geleynt” ([What] I Read), Nyu-Yorker Vokhnblat, vol. 16, n, 393, February 24, 1950, pp. 8-9. Serdatski writes there about her two volume collection of short stories.
We found a significant record of Bader (under the name Simkoff), with a bibliography, translated into English on the website of the Museum of Family History. One can't rely on the translaton because it was done by a machine, but you can catch the gist of it.
Her original record in Zalman Zilbertsvayg's Lexicon of Yiddish Theater, vol. 2, pp. 1491-1494 can be read here.