Shifra Kholodenko

Shifra Kholodenko (, ; 1909–1974) was a Russian- and Yiddish-language poet, writer and translator from the Soviet Union.

Biography She was born in 1909 as Shifra Hofshteyn (, ) in Bartkova Rudniya, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire (today Bartukha, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine; ). Her father, Nechemya Menakhem Hofshteyn, was in the timber trade. Her mother, Alte Chasya (née Kholodenko) was descended from A. M. Kholodenko, a famous Klezmer violin virtuoso, and it was that name that she would later use as her pen name. Her primary education was received in Yasnohorod, Volhynian Governate.

For a time she was also a Yiddish-language teacher with Yaacov Reznik, a Yiddish-language pedagogue in Kyiv.

In 1940 she became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, her mother, father and brothers (excepting Dovid) were killed at Babi Yar.

Vera Inber translated her poems into Russian.

In 1952 Dovid Hofshteyn was killed by Soviet authorities in the Night of the Murdered Poets. The death of her last brother was very difficult on her and greatly affected her work. (also known as ) (1974)