Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Access Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Rukhl Fishman Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1940-1990
Collection number: M0778
Creator:
Fishman, Rukhl, 1935-1984.
Extent:
5.5 linear ft.
Repository:
Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
Abstract: Collection includes the papers of an American-born Yiddish poet living in Israel until her death in 1984. Includes incoming
and outgoing correspondence, poetry manuscripts, newsclippings, subject files, personal documents, and school/youth activities.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
Partially restricted. For more information, contact the Manuscripts Librarian.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights
reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To
obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
Rukhl Fishman Papers. M0778. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Acquisition Information
Deposited by Dr. and Mrs. Joshua A. Fishman, 1993.
Biography
Rukhl Fishman (RF), the younger sister of Joshua A. Fishman (JAF), was born June 10, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
was raised in a secular Yiddish-speaking home and her parents, Aaron and Sonia Fishman (AF and SF), were dedicated activists
in local Yiddishist circles. RF attended Workmen's Circle elementary and high school from 1941-1949 and was a camper at Camp
Boiberik, where her friends included Bina Silverman (later Weinreich) and Gella Schweid (later Fishman) (GSF). RF's early
literary efforts were encouraged by the poet Malke Heifetz-Tusman in Los Angeles, California, where the family moved in 1949.
While in Los Angeles RF became active in the Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatsair and attended hakhsharot (agricultural
training colonies) in New York and New Jersey after the family's return to the East Coast in 1953. In 1953 she met Theodor
Holdheim, a mathematician and musician who had come to the U.S. as a shaliakh (emissary) from Hashomer Hatsair. They were
married in 1954 and moved to Holdheim's kibbutz in Israel, Kibbutz Bet-Alpha. RF particularly loved the outdoor agricultural
work on the kibbutz, which was to influence much of her poetry. RF continued her Yiddish literary activities in Israel. She
was the youngest member of the group Yung yisroel (Young Israel) and often published in their journal of the same name. Avrom
Sutzkever, one of the most distinguished modern Yiddish poets, encouraged her writing. Starting in 1956 he published her work
in the leading Yiddish literary journal Di goldene keyt (The Golden Chain), of which he is the editor. RF spent the year 1972
in Jerusalem taking private lessons with the scholar Yudl Mark and courses in Yiddish and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew
University. In 1978 she won the Itsik Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature. From about 1957, RF showed signs of illness which
was eventually diagnosed as Lupus. Her husband was also frequently ill during these years. RF had 9 miscarraiges, after which
the couple adopted two sons, in 1964 and 1967. RF died on August 26, 1984. Theodor Holdheim died six months later. Four volumes
of RF's poetry were published during her lifetime: Zun iber alts (Sun Over Everything) (1962), Derner nokhn regn (Thorns After
the Rain) (1966), Himl tsvishn grozn/Shamayim be-eysev (Heaven Among the Grass) (1968), and Vilde tsig/Iza pziza (Wild Goat)
(1976). The last two were published in bilingual editions with Hebrew translations by Arye Aharoni. A selection of her work
in Yiddish and English translation, Azoy vil ikh faln/I Want To Fall Like This, was published in 1994 by Wayne State University
Press (Detroit, Michigan).
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Incoming and outgoing correspondence, poetry manuscripts, newsclippings, subject files, personal documents, and school/youth
activities.
Access Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Aharoni, Arye.
Ash, Khayele.
Basman Ben-Haim, Rivka.
Birstein, Yossel.
Eisenman, Tsvi.
Glanz-Leyeles, Aron.
Glatstein, Yankev.
Grade, Chaim.
Grosbard, Herts.
Grosman, Moyshe.
Heller, Binim.
Heifetz-Tusman, Malke.
Kazdan, Ch. Sh.
Korn, Rokhl.
Lehrer, Leybush.
Litvin, Mordkhe.
Mark, Yudl.
Meed, Vladke.
Miron, Dan.
Mlotek, Yosl.
Molodowsky, Kadia.
Noy, Dov.
Sadan, Dov.
Schaechter, Mordhke.
Shmeruk, Khone.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis.
Sutzkever, Avrom.
Turkow, Zigmunt.
Weinreich, Bina Silverman.
Weinreich, Max.
Weinreich, Uriel.
Yungman, Moyshe.
Yunin, Volf.
Zelitch, Yehude.
Yung yisroel.
Yiddish literature--Israel.
Yiddish poetry.