Ida Maze

Ida Maze (, Aydeh Mazeh) (9 July 1893 – 13 June 1962), also known as Ida Maza and Ida Massey, was a Canadian Yiddish-language poet. Her home in Montreal became a literary salon and she became a maternal figure to Canadian Yiddish language authors.

Biography Early life Maze was born Ida Zhukovsky in Ugli (or Ogli), a village south of Minsk in Tsarist Belarus, one of seven children of Shimon Zukofsky, an innkeeper, and Musha Govezniansky. She was also related to Yiddish author Mendele Mocher Sforim. She had about a year of cheder education but was otherwise self-taught. At the age of fourteen, she, her parents, and one sister emigrated to New York and settled in Montreal the following year. In 1912, she married Alexander Massey (born Ellie-Gershon Maze, c. 1893–1961), a travelling salesman of men's clothing accessories and relative of Zionist leader Jacob Maze. They had three sons, Bernard (c. 1913–1923), Israel (1918–1962) and Irving Massey (b. 1924). She went on to publish Lider far kinder (, 'Songs for Children', 1936), Naye lider (, 'New Songs', 1941), and Vaksn mayne kinderlech (, 'My Children Grow', 1954). A novel based on her childhood memories, Dineh: Autobiografishe dertseylung (, 'Dina: An Autobiographical Story', 1970), was published posthumously. She published poems in a number of journals and anthologies, including Yidish amerike ('Yiddish America', edited by Noah Steinberg, 1929) and The Golden Peacock (edited by Joseph Leftwich, 1939). She also co-edited the journal Heftn from 1935 to 1937.

Maze was at the center of Montreal's Yiddish language artistic community, both through the salon at her home and through reading groups and other programs she ran at the Jewish Public Library. She assisted others in the Jewish community with their literary work, finding employment, or arranging visas and permits.