HINDE ZARETSKI

HINDE ZARETSKI (b. July 14, 1899)

            She was born in Petrikov (Pyotrków), Minsk district, Byelorussia.  She was raised in traditional religious surroundings.  She studied with itinerant religious teachers and secular subjects with private tutors.  In 1914 she moved to the United States.  She studied there in evening schools in New York, such as Washington Irving High School.  She obtained scholarships to support her studies at: Barnard College, 1928-1930, and Art Workshop, 1930-1931.  She was later a teacher in a kindergarten.  She debuted in print with a cycle of poems in Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York (June 5, 1931).  From that point, she published poems, stories, and essays, initially under the name Anna Zaretski and later as Hinde Zaretski, in Yiddish and English in: Tsukunft (Future), Fraye arbeter shtinme, Idishe kemfer (Jewish fighter), Kinder zhurnal (Children’s magazine), Unzer tsayt (Our time), Vayter (Further), Der tog (The day), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Gerekhtikeyt (Justice), Proletarisher gedank (Proletarian idea), Undzer veg (Our way), Kindervelt (Children’s world), and Unzer tsaytung (Our newspaper)—in New York; Shikago (Chicago); Der khaver (The comrade) in Vilna; Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw; Havaner lebn (Havana life) in Cuba; Di prese (The press), Der shpigl (The mirror), and Argentiner beymelekh (Little Argentinian trees)—in Buenos Aires; The Road to Freedom in New York; and The Writing Table in which he published an essay entitled “Three Yiddish poets” (concerning D. Edelshtadt, Y. Bovshover, and M. Rozenfeld).  She also contributed work to: Der lebediker, a zamlbukh lekoved zayn 50 yorikn yubiley (Der Lebediker, an anthology commemorating his fiftieth birthday), edited by A. Mukdoni (New York, 1938); Di yidishe landsmanshaftn (The Jewish native place associations), a publication of the Y. L. Perets Writers’ Union (New York, 1938); Moyshe Shtarkman’s Hemshekh-antologye (Hemshekh anthology) (New York, 1945); Histadrut (Jewish Federation of Labor) (New York, 1949); Hemshekh af kubaner erd (Continuation on Cuban soil), edited by Leyzer Ran (Cuba, 1948); and Almanakh habana (Havana almanac), edited by S. M. Kaplan and A. Y. Duberman (Cuba, 1950).  The composers Leo Lyov, Mikhl Gelbart, and B. Alterman wrote music to accompany some of her poetry.  In book form: Krotona park brigade, lider un mayses (Crotona Park brigade, poems and stories) (New York, 1949), 94 pp.; Der ferter nign (The fourth melody) (New York, 1960), 256 pp.; Un er hot gezungen (And he sang) (New York, 1968), 177 pp.; Der oysgekholemter nign (The dreamed up melody) (New York, 1973), 128 pp.; Tsu di bregn fun tel-aviv (From the shores of Tel Aviv) (New York: Brider shulzinger, 1979), 64 pp.  She was last living in New York.

Sources: Hemshekh-antologye (Hemshekh anthology) (New York, 1945); Amerike in yidishn vort (America in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955).

Zaynvl Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 259.]