Rachel (Rokhl) Häring Korn (, 15 January 1898 – 9 September 1982) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

-born

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Yiddish language 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 ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

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. In total, she published eight collections of poetry and two of prose.

Seymour Mayne Seymour Mayne (born 1944 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian author, editor, translator of more than seventy books and monographs, and creative writing professor at the University of Ottawa. As he has written about the Jewish Canadian poets, his w ...

characterized her in 1985, three years after her death, as "the first major woman poet in Canadian literature."

Biography

Korn was born in

eastern Galicia Eastern Galicia (; ; ) is a geographical region in Western Ukraine (present day oblasts of Lviv Oblast, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil Oblast, Ternopil), having also essential historic importance in Poland. Galicia ( ...

on a farming estate near Pidlisky (now in

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), and started writing poetry at an early age. At the start of 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 ...

, her family fled to

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, returning to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1918. It was in this year that Korn's first published works appeared, in ''Nowy Dziennik'', a

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 ...

newspaper, and in ''Głos Przemyski'', a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

journal. These items were published in

, but a year later she published her first Yiddish poem in the ''Lemberger Tageblatt''. Her recognition grew with the publication of her first volumes of poetry: ''Dorf'' (Village, 1928) and ''Royter mon'' (Red Poppies, 1937). Her first collection of prose, ''Erd'' (Land), was published in 1936. Korn was in

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

when the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a ...

took place in June 1941; she was evacuated by Soviet authorities to

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along with other prominent Jewish writers. She eventually relocated to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where she remained until the end of the war. She returned to Poland in 1946, immigrating to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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in 1948. In Canada she emerged as one of the top Yiddish poets of the postwar era. Korn's fourth collection of poetry, ''Heym un heymlozikayt'' (Home and Homelessness), was published in 1948. She remained in Montreal, writing poetry, until her death in 1982.

Awards

*Louis Lamed Prize for poetry and prose (1950 and 1958) *Jewish Book Council of America Certificate of Honor and Award for Yiddish Poetry (1969) *The H. Leivick Prize (1972) *The

Itzik Manger Prize The Itzik Manger Prize for outstanding contributions to Yiddish literature (, ) was established in 1968, shortly before Itzik Manger's death in 1969. Manger "was and remains one of the best-known twentieth-century Yiddish poets." The Prize has bee ...

of the State of Israel (1974)

References

External links

Korn, Rachel Häring
" at the Jewish Virtual Library. Source: 2nd Ed. The Gale Group, 2008
Korn, Rohkl
The

YIVO YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...

Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Rokhl Häring Korn
at the Jewish Women's Archive
Rokhl Korn books (in Yiddish)
in the

Yiddish Book Center The Yiddish Book Center (formerly the National Yiddish Book Center), located on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, is a cultural institution dedicated to the preservation of books in the Yiddish language, ...

digital library
English/Yiddish Literary Evening in memory of Rokhl Korn on the occasion of the Rokhl Korn Archives of the JPL

Jewish Public Library (Montreal) The Jewish Public Library or JPL (, ) is a public library in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, founded in 1914. The library contains the largest Circulating library, circulating collection of Judaica in North America. The JPL has close to 4000 members, an ...

, October 13, 1985. On the site of the

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Korn, Rachel 1898 births 1982 deaths Yiddish-language poets Polish emigrants to Canada Jewish Canadian writers Writers from Montreal Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish women poets 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian writers Yiddish culture in Quebec 20th-century Polish women Itzik Manger Prize recipients Burials at Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, Montreal