Zelda Shneurson Mishkowsky

Zelda (Shneurson Mishkowsky) (1916 - 1984, b. Chernigoff, the Ukraine) was born into a famous Chassidic family. His father was a rabbi and her mother, devoutly Orthodox, was also well-read in modern Hebrew, Russian, and European literature. They immigrated to Jerusalem in 1926. She studied at a religious school for girls and then at a teacher`s seminary. She then studied art and painting in Tel Aviv and later moved to Haifa, where she worked with handicapped children. When her husband died she returned to Jerusalem and taught, retiring after almost 50 years.
Known simply as Zelda, she began composing poetry as a teenager but began publishing only in 1968. Awarded the Bialik Prize, she published six volumes during her lifetime before dying of an illness. A complete collection of her work was published posthumously.
Acclaimed for her directness, precision and simplicity, and well-loved by the predominantly secular Israeli readership, Zelda`s memory and symbolism are steeped in traditional and Chassidic allusions.

Books Published in Hebrew

Leisure, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1968 [Pnai]

The Invisible Carmel, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1971 [Ha-Carmel Ha-Ee Nir`a]

Be Not Far, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1975 [Al Tarhek]

Neither Mountain nor Fire, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1977 [Ha-Lo Har Ha-Lo Esh]

Tiny Poems, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979 [Shirim]

The Magnificent Other, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1981 [Ha-Sheni Ha-Marhiv]

Beyond All Distance, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1984 [She Nivdelu Mi-Col Merhak]

Zelda`s Poems, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1985 [Shirim]

Books in Translation

The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems of Zelda
English: Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College Press, 2004

Individual poems have been published in: Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish,,Russian, Spanish, Yiddish, and Vietnamese.

Last updated: 04.09.2005