Marie Syrkin (March 23, 1899 – February 2, 1989) was an American writer, translator, educator, and
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 ...
activist.
[Fowler, Glenn (February 3, 1989).]
Marie Syrkin, 89; Author and Teacher Promoted Zionism
" ''New York Times''.
Biography
Born in
Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
, Switzerland, she was the daughter of the
Socialist Zionist theoretician
Nachman Syrkin
Nachman Syrkin (also spelled ''Nahman Syrkin'' or ''Nahum Syrkin''; ; 11 February 1868 – 6 September 1924) was a political theorist, founder of Labor Zionism and a prolific writer in the Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German and English languages.
...
and his wife Bassya Syrkin (née Osnos), a feminist socialist Zionist.
After stays in Germany and France, and the city of Vilna, in the Russian Empire (today, Vilnius, Lithuania), the family immigrated to the United States in 1908, settling in New York City, where Marie attended public school.
Syrkin's mother died of tuberculosis, at the age of 36, in 1914. The day Syrkin turned 18 she eloped with the 22-year-old Zionist activist
Maurice Samuel just before he was posted to serve the US Armed forces in Europe. however, Her father intervened and had the marriage annulled claiming she was underage. He did permit them to be engaged and the couple maintained a long distance relationship via mail after Samuel enlisted in the US Army, which gradually cooled until Syrkin broke it off on Feb 4, 1919.
[Kessner, Carole. (March 20, 2009).]
Marie Syrkin
" ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia''. Jewish Women's Archive. www.jwa.org. Retrieved 2025-4-19.[ ]
In 1918 she began studies at Cornell University, completing a bachelor's degree and going on to a master's, in English literature.
During her time at Cornell she met
Aaron Bodansky, a biochemist; the couple married in 1919, and had two sons.
Their first child, Benya, who was born in 1921, died of whooping cough in late 1923, when Marie was pregnant with their second child, David, who was born in March 1924.
[Green, David B. (February 2, 2016).]
This Day in History 1989: Marie Syrkin, Advocate for Israel Who Wouldn't Live Here, Dies
. ''Haaretz''. Retrieved 2017-06-28. (David Bodansky, 1924–2012, later became a physicist and chaired the Physics Department at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in 1976-1984.
) Around that time Syrkin and her husband separated and then divorced. In 1925 she moved to New York City with her infant son David,
and became an English teacher at the Textile High School in Manhattan, a job she held for over two decades.
In 1930, Syrkin married the poet
Charles Reznikoff, whom she had first met in 1927. Sometimes living in different cities, they remained married until his death, in 1976.
In the summer of 1987 Syrkin visited Naropa Institute in Boulder, to take part in a week long conference on the Objectist Movement in American poetry of which her husband was an important member, Syrkin then in her late 80's was a lively participant, often disagreeing with Allen Ginsberg on the subject of her husband's poetry.
She visited Palestine for the first time in 1933.
In this period she also began to publish English translations 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 ...
poetry.
In 1934, she was a co-founder and joined the editorial staff of the New York-based Labor Zionist journal ''Jewish Frontier''.
From this time on she regularly published articles on Jewish cultural and political life, and current issues, in the ''Jewish Frontier'' and other publications, including the ''New York Times'' and the ''Jerusalem Post''.
From 1937 to 1942 she reported on the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
persecution of European Jewry, and advocated for the opening of Jewish immigration to
British Mandate Palestine, and for the liberalization of the
quota system that governed American immigration policy.
Syrkin's first book, ''Your School, Your Children'', published in 1944, was an influential study of the American school system, in which she argued that schools should actively foster democratic values.
After the war, in 1947, she interviewed Jewish
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
survivors in
displaced persons
Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displaceme ...
camps in Germany, on behalf of
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International ( ; from ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the se ...
's Hillel program, to recruit candidates for scholarships to American universities.
She traveled to Palestine around that time as well, and conducted interviews of Holocaust survivors there; these interviews became the basis of her book ''Blessed Is the Match'' (1947), which told the story of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...
and other acts of Jewish resistance against the Nazis.
She became the editor-in-chief of ''Jewish Frontier'' in 1948, and continued to lead the journal for 25 years.
In 1950 Syrkin was appointed associate professor of English literature at
Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
, two years after it was founded; she continued teaching there until 1966, when she retired as professor emerita.
["Marie Syrkin." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database 2016-06-26.] Among the courses she taught at Brandeis were courses on the literature of the Holocaust (possibly the earliest such university course), and American Jewish fiction.
Syrkin was a long time friend of
Golda Meir
Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government.
Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...
and was the first to write a biography of her. In 1955 she edited and partially wrote ''Arnold Toynbee and the Jews: A Symposium'',
a collection of articles that first appeared in ''Jewish Frontier'', taking issue with Toynbee's antisemitic characterization of Jews representing a fossilized culture. It also featuring authors such as theologian
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...
, biblical archeologist
William F. Albright
William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...
, diplomat
Abba Eban
Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was a History of the Jews in South Africa, South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages.
D ...
,
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983) was an American Conservative rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism al ...
and
Horace Kallen
Horace Meyer Kallen (August 11, 1882 – February 16, 1974) was a German-born American philosopher who supported pluralism and Zionism.
Biography
Horace Meyer Kallen was born on August 11, 1882, in the town of Bernstadt, Prussian Silesia (now B ...
.
[
]
Works
Books
* ''Your School, Your Children: A Teacher Looks at What's Wrong with Our Schools''. New York: L. B. Fischer, 1944
*''Blessed is the Match: The Story of Jewish Resistance''. New York: Knopf, 1947. Reprinted, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1976.
* ''Way of Valor: A Biography of Golda Myerson''. New York: Sharon Books, 1955
* ''Nachman Syrkin, Socialist Zionist: A Biographical Memoir / Selected Essays''. New York: Herzl Press, 1961
* ''Golda Meir: Woman with a Cause''. New York: Putnam, 1963. Revised edition published as: ''Golda Meir: Israel's Leader'', 1969
* ''Gleanings: A Diary in Verse''. Santa Barbara, CA: Rhythms Press, 1979
* ''The State of the Jews'' ollection of previously published essays Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1980.
Awards
* 1981: Solomon Bublick Award, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syrkin, Marie
1899 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American writers
American Zionists
University of Texas at Austin faculty
20th-century American women writers
Solomon Bublick Award recipients
Writers from Bern
Schoolteachers from New York (state)
Swiss emigrants to the United States
Swiss Zionists
Brandeis University faculty
Labor Zionists
Zionist activists
Cornell University alumni
Jewish women writers
20th-century Swiss Jews