Yente Mash

Yenta Mash (1922 — 2013) was a Yiddish-language author from modern-day Moldova. After moving to Haifa, Mash began writing short stories based on her experiences in Bessarabia, gulags in Siberia, and as an immigrant to Israel.

Early life Mash was born Yente Roytman in 1922 in Zguritse, Bessarabia, present-day Moldova. During World War II, Mash and her family were sent to a labor camp in Siberia by Soviet forces. Mash was 19 years old, and during her time in the labor camp, she lost both of her parents. Her father died in the Ural Mountains and her mother after getting lost in the tundra near the Ob River.

Mash escaped the gulag in 1948 and moved to Chișinău, where she sold books. She married, changing her name to Yente Mash. At the time, Chișinău was a center of Jewish literary life, and Mash befriended other Jewish literary figures like Yekhiel Shraybman, Yankl Yakir, and Motl Sakzier.

Literary career

In the 1970s, after Soviet Moldovan Jews were allowed to immigrate to Israel, Mash moved to Haifa. Mash then began writing stories, now in her 50s. She wrote in her native language, Yiddish, and occasionally, Russian. Mash's decision to write in Yiddish, rather than the more widespread Hebrew, was Mash's way to honor her family and culture. She translated Mash's work while a fellow at the Yiddish Book Center.

Awards and honors

Hersh Segal Prize (1994) Mit der letster hakofe , 2007, translated by Ellen Cassedy A Seder in the Taiga