Devorah Baron (also Dvora Baron) (; 27 November 1887 20 August 1956) was a pioneering Jewish writer, noted for writing in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

and for making a career as a Hebrew author. She has been called the "first Modern Hebrew woman writer". She wrote about 80 short stories, plus a novella titled ''Exiles''. Additionally, she translated stories into Modern Hebrew.

Biography

Devorah Baron was born in Uzda, about 50 kilometers south-southwest of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, which was then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Her father, a rabbi, allowed her to attend the same Hebrew classes as boys, which was highly exceptional for the time, although she had to sit in the screened women’s area of the synagogue. Also, and again unusual for girls at the time, she completed high school and received a teaching credential in 1907. Baron published her first stories in 1902, at the age of 14, in the Hebrew-language newspaper '' Ha-Melits'', which was edited at that time by Leon Rabinowitz. She appears in a photo of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

writers in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

in 1909, when Mendele Moykher Sforim was visiting there, which is exceptional both because she is the only woman in the photo and because she does not appear in a similar photo of Vilna's Hebrew writers who posed with Mendele during his visit (the Hebrew writers having refused to have her—a woman—appear in their photo). She was engaged to the author Moshe Ben-Eliezer, but he later broke it off. In 1910, after her father’s death and later the destruction of her village in a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

, she immigrated to Palestine, settling in

Neve Tzedek Neve Tzedek (, ''lit.'' Abode of Justice) is a Jewish neighborhood in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Judaism, Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the old city of the ancient port of Jaffa. It was founded by a group of 48 J ...

, a neighborhood the on outskirts of Jaffa that became part of Tel Aviv in 1909. In Palestine she became the literary editor of the Zionist-Socialist magazine ''Ha-Po’el ha-Za’ir'' (The Young Worker).Lieblich, Amia (March 1, 2009).
Devorah Baron
" ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia''. Jewish Women's Archive. www.jwa.org. Retrieved 2016-06-26. She soon married the editor, the Zionist activist Yosef Aharonovitz (1877–1937). Along with other Jews in Palestine, they were deported to Egypt by the Ottoman government, but returned after the establishment of the British Mandate after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1922, Baron and her husband both resigned from the magazine. At this point, she went into seclusion, staying at her home until she died.

Literary career

When the

Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel, for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate p ...

for writing was first established in Israel in 1934, she was its first recipient. She later was awarded the Rupin Prize in 1944 and the

Brenner Prize The Brenner Prize is an Israeli literary prize awarded annually by the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and the Haft Family Foundation. It recognizes and honors Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern w ...

for literature in 1951. Although she wrote and published throughout her life, she went through two phases, first as an active, socially daring young woman, and then as a recluse. When she was ailing and dependent on others, she referred to some of her earlier stories as “rags”. The common thread throughout her life was her dedication to the art of writing. "Seclusion" is not an exaggeration: She chose "not to set foot out of her house" even for her husband's funeral, although one eyewitness reported, "I saw her descend three steps and return to her house." During this period she remained intellectually sharp and continued to write, composing "a group of stories depicting the world as seen through the window of an 'invalid's room' ("Be-Lev ha-Kerakh," in ''Parashiyyot'')". Rachel Shazar notes that her stories, "animated by a deep empathy for the weak and the innocent," reflect profound learning: "No other woman writer in Israel was as familiar with the sources of Judaism as Devorah Baron." During the latter part of her life she did some important literary translations into Hebrew, including

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

’s ''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...

''. Though part of the

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

movement, she wrote much about village life in the ''

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

s'' of Lithuania, "sometimes in near-poetic tones."

Commemoration

In Israel, there is a street named after her in the City

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

Published works

*Stories, Davar, 1927 (Sipurim) *Hiding (story), Omanut, 1930 (Gniza) *Small Things (stories), Omanut, 1933 (Ktanot) *What Has Been (stories), Davar, 1939 (Ma She-Haya) *For the Time Being (stories), Am Oved, 1943 (Le-Et Ata) *From Over There (stories), Am Oved, 1946 (Mi-Sham) *The Brickmaker (stories), Am Oved, 1947 (Ha-Laban) *Sunbeams (stories), Am Oved, 1949 (Shavririm) *Chapters (stories), Bialik Institute, 1951; ext. ed. 2000 (Parshiyot) *Links (stories), Am Oved, 1953 (Chuliyot) *From Yesterday (stories), Am Oved, 1955 (Me-Emesh) *By the Way (stories), Sifriat Poalim, 1960 (Agav Orcha) *Selected Stories, Yachdav/ The Hebrew Writers Association, 1969 *The Exiles (two novellas), Am Oved, 1970 (Ha-Golim) *Three Stories, World Zionist Organization, 1975 (Shlosha Sipurim) *Early Chapters (stories), Bialik Institute, 1988 (Parshiyot Mukdamot) *Divorcing and Other Stories, Am Oved, 1997 (Kritot Ve-Sipurim Acherim) *Shifra (stories), Babel, 2001 (Fradel; Shifra) *Chapters (Parshiot), (Jerusalem 1951) *The First Day and Other Stories. Translated by Naomi Seidman and Chana Kronfeld. Berkeley: 2001 *The Thorny Path and Other Stories, trans. Joseph Shachter (Jerusalem, 1969); Also, translations into Hebrew, including ''

Works about Baron

*Aharonovitz, Zipporah. ''By the Way'' . Merhavyah: 1961. (Biography by her daughter) *Bernstein, Marc. 2001. "Midrashj and marginality: The ‘Agunot of S. Y. Agnon and Devorah Baron." ''Hebrew Studies'' 42: 7-58. doi:10.1353/hbr.2001.0017 *Baram, Einat Eshel. 2011. "Outline of a Gender Conflict: Notes on an Early Story by Dvora Baron." ''Women in Judaism'' 8.2
online
*Govrin, Nurit. ''Ha-Maḥatsit ha-ri’shonah arly chapters Devorah Baron'' . Jerusalem: Mosad Byaliḳ, 1988. *Jelen, Sheila. ''Intimations of Difference: Dvora Baron in the Modern Hebrew Renaissance''. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2007. * Jelen, Sheila and Shachar Pinsker, eds. ''Hebrew, Gender, and Modernity: Critical responses to Dvora Baron’s fiction'' (Studies and texts in Jewish history and culture, 14). Bethesda, MD: University Press of Maryland, 2007. *Lieblich, Amia. ''Conversations with Dvora: An Experimental Biography of the First Modern Hebrew Woman Writer.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. *Lieblich, Amia. ''Embroideries: Conversations with Devorah Baron'' . Jerusalem: Shoken, 1991. *Pagis, Ada, ed. ''Devorah Baron: Mivḥar ma’amare bikoret ‘al yetsiratah'' . Tel Aviv: ʻAm ʻoved, 1974. *Pinsker, Shachar. "Unraveling the yarn: intertexuality, gender, and cultural critique in the stories of Dvora Baron." ''Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues'' (2006): 244-279. *Rahman, Asmaa Abdel Karim Abdel. "Feminist trends in the products of Devorah Baron." ''LARK JOURNAL FOR PHILOSOPHY, LINGUISTICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 2, no. 33 (2019). *Seidman, Naomi. ''A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. *Zierler, Wendy. 1999. "In What World? Devorah Baron’s Fiction of Exile." ''Prooftexts'' 19: 127–150.

References

External links

biographical article from the Jewish Women's ArchiveInstitute for the Translation of Hebrew LiteratureBaron "in the Closet" An Epistemology of the "Women's Section"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron, Devorah Brenner Prize recipients Israeli women short story writers Israeli short story writers 1887 births 1956 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire 20th-century Israeli women writers Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery Jewish women writers Immigrants to Ottoman Palestine Immigrants of the Second Aliyah Bialik Prize recipients