Malka Heifetz Tussman

Malka Heifetz Tussman (1893–1987) was a Ukrainian-American Yiddish poet and teacher.

Life

Tussman was born in Volhynia in 1893, the second of eight children. As a young child, she was educated in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, and English. She immigrated to America in 1912, and moved to Chicago, where several family members already resided. At the age of 18, Tussman married Shloyme Tussman, a cantor, and had two sons in 1914 and 1918. Her son Joseph Tussman (4 December 1914 – 21 October 2005) became an eminent educator. She taught at a Yiddish school while studying at the University of Wisconsin. She also briefly studied at University of California, Berkeley.

Tussman moved to Los Angeles in 1941 or 1942 and taught at a Yiddish school at the Workmen's Circle School in Boyle Heights. She subsequently became a Yiddish language instructor at the University of Judaism. She lived in Israel for a year upon her husband's death in 1971, then returned to Berkeley where she lived until her death.

Tussman won the Itzik Manger Prize for Yiddish literature in 1981.

Selected works Bleter Faln Not (1972) Haynt Iz Eybik: Lider (1977) Lider (1949) Mild Mayn Vild (1958) Shotns fun Gedenkn (1965) Unter Dayn Tseykhn: Lider (1974)