TANYE ZISMAN

TANYE ZISMAN (April 30, 1897-January 8, 1983)

            She was a poet who was born in Odessa.  She graduated from a Russian high school and studied music.  In 1922 she moved to Romania and settled in Bricheva (Briceva).  She supported herself by giving piano lessons.  In 1924 she moved to Paris.  She wrote poems at first, but she only began to publish them from 1953 in: Parizer tsaytshrift (Parisian periodical), Naye prese (new press), Unzer eynikeyt (Our unity), and Unzer kiem (Our existence)—in Paris; Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York; Goldene keyt (Golden chain) in Tel Aviv; and Parizer heftn (Parisian notebooks).  She also penned articles on art and wrote book reviews.  In book form: Lider (Poetry) (Paris, 1961-1977), 2 parts.  Concerning the first volume, Yankev Glatshteyn wrote: “In her successful poems, she possesses a personal tone and even stature that transcends the narrow coquettish tone of average women’s poems in our poetry.”  She died in Paris.

Sources: Rivke Kope, in Unzer vort (Paris) (September 10, 1977); Kope, Intim mitn bukh (Intimate with books), vol. 2 (Paris, 1983), pp. 115-20; Yudes Kalman, in Naye prese (Paris) (October 15, 1977); Yankev Glatshteyn, Prost un poshet (Plain and simple) (New York, 1978), pp. 271-77.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 264-65.