Miriam Singer

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Miriam Singer (1970s)
Miriam Singer's grave

Miriam Irma Singer (born March 1, 1898 in Prague , Austria-Hungary ; emigrated to British Palestine in 1920; died January 13, 1989 in Degania Alef , Israel ) was an Israeli writer, poet, journalist, German language translator and kibbutz kindergarten teacher .

Life

Irma Singer grew up in a Czech-speaking Jewish family in Prague and attended German schools. She took part in the cultural life of the circles and associations of German-speaking Jews in Prague and was a member of the Blue-White Jewish hiking association . During the First World War, she and Franz Kafka and Felix Weltsch took private lessons in Hebrew for two years from Jiřί Langer , a relative of Max Brod . When she was in Prague again with Jakob Berkowski after emigrating in 1920, Kafka gave her the book A Country Doctor with the dedication: You are far too healthy, Irma, to be able to understand this. For Irma S. With to Daganiah. K. It was promoted by Max Brod, who introduced it to the publisher Richard Löwit, had belonged to the family of the philosopher Hugo Bergman since 1918 and attended lectures by Martin Buber .

During the First World War , she worked in Prague in 1915/16 in a home for East Jewish refugee children who had been brought to safety in western Austria-Hungary because of the war in Galicia . From the work with the kindergarten children, I created my own Jewish art fairy tales , which were printed in 1918.

Together with the Hugo Bergman family, she emigrated to Palestine in 1920 , where she was one of the first immigrants and pioneers of the kibbutz movement . She lived with Bergman in Jerusalem for the first six months and then became a worker in Kibbutz Degania Alef on the Sea of ​​Galilee . She later became a kindergarten teacher there. She married Jakob Berkowski, with whom she had two sons. She lived for seventy years in this "model kibbutz", in which Aharon David Gordon and the writer Rachel lived at times and which was visited by guests such as Albert Einstein , Lord Balfour , Max Warburg and TG Masaryk .

She wrote reports about life in the kibbutz for publications in Europe, now with the linguistic dualism between modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) and German, which she found "difficult" just like the one in Prague. She published a volume of poetry in Austria and wrote two children's books on the subjects of emigration and kibbutz life. Your children's books should strengthen the courage and self-confidence of the Jewish children, give them perspectives and, with the idea of ​​“ Erez Israel ”, show concrete alternatives to everyday life in Europe, where as Jews they always remained strangers. (Neubauer)

Her stories about Deganya were published in 1952 in a Hebrew translation in Tel Aviv as a children's book. Together with texts by the founder of Kibbutz Degania Joseph Baratz , they were published in Switzerland as a contemporary witness report.

Works (selection)

  • The closed book: Jewish fairy tales . With afterwards by Max Brod a. eight color lithogr. from Kosel-Gibson . Vienna; Berlin: R. Löwit Verlag, 1915
  • The closed book: Jewish fairy tales . With Nachw. V. Max Brod et al. 4 text images v. Agathe lion. Vienna; Berlin: R. Löwit Verlag, 1918
  • The closed book: Jewish fairy tales . With Nachw. V. Max Brod. Book decorations and illustrations by Jakob Löw . Vienna; Berlin: R. Löwit Verlag, 1920
  • Light in the camp: poems from the land of Israel . Vienna: Praeger, 1930.
  • The legend of Dilb , illustr. v. Grete Wolf Krakauer. Tel-Aviv: Omanuth-Verl. 1935
  • Trowel and sword: from the heroic days of Dagania . Tel-Aviv: Omanuth, 1935.
  • Benni flies to the promised land. A book for Jewish children . Illustrations by Franz Reisz . Vienna: Löwit 1936.
  • Encounters with Kafka , in: die horen , 1974, pp. 83–84
    • Hebrew lessons with Kafka , in: Hans-Gerd Koch (Ed.): "When Kafka came towards me ...": Memories of Franz Kafka . Berlin: Wagenbach, 1996, pp. 140-143
translation
  • Elieser Jeruschalmi: The Jewish Martyr Child: According to a diary. from d. Schaulen ghetto 1941-1944 . Translated from d. Hebrew by Mirjam Singer. Sign. by Abram Ameraut. Darmstadt-Eberstadt: Ecumenical Sisterhood of Mary 1960

literature

  • Birgit Schreiber: Singer, Irma , in: Killy Literaturlexikon , Volume 11, p. 28 f.
  • Rahel Rosa Neubauer: "HEDAD" - "Let's go!" The Jewish fairy tales of the Irma Singers against the background of Prague cultural Zionism, Diss. Vienna 2016.
  • Rahel Rosa Neubauer: Kafka on the coal box. The German-Jewish author Irma (Miriam) Singer, Franz Kafka and Max Brod , in: Praesent 2008. The Austrian Literature Yearbook . Ed. V. Michael Ritter. Vienna: Praesens Verlag, 2007, pp. 51–61, ISBN 978-3-7069-2008-7 .
  • Helge-Ulrike Hyams , Klaus Klattenhoff, Klaus Ritter, Friedrich Wißmann (eds.): Jewish children's life in the mirror of Jewish children's books . Oldenburg: Bis-Verlag, 1998 ISBN 3-8142-0644-4 (four books)

Web links

Commons : Miriam Singer  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Neubauer names Tochovice as the place of birth
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Rahel Rosa Neubauer: Dissertation project , 2008
  3. ↑ Patrick Gschwend: Rosa Neubauer. The exciting search for traces of the Jewish writer Irma Singer , on radio.cz, February 3, 2009
  4. ^ A b Ernst Pawel : The life of Franz Kafka . From the American by Michael Müller. Munich: Hanser, 1986, pp. 328, 416
  5. ↑ Miriam Singer: Hebrew hours with Kafka , 1996 (1974), pp. 140-143
  6. ↑ a b c Killy Literature Lexicon, Volume 11, p. 28 f.
  7. ^ Diana Birkenstock: Miriam Singer , in: Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (ed.): Jewish children's literature: history, traditions, perspectives. Exhibition catalog . Wiesbaden 2005, p. 122 f.
  8. ↑ Jakob Berkowski, also: Jakob Berkowitsch, Chaluz Ja'akov Berkovič
  9. ↑ Grete Wolf-Krakauer (1890 Witkowitz / Moravia - 1971 Jerusalem)
  10. ↑ Neubauer, Rahel Rosa (2016) Hedad - let's go! Dissertation, University of Vienna. Faculty of History and Cultural Studies. (PDF, 2MB) Retrieved April 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Singer, Miriam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Singer, Irma Miriam; Singer, Irma; Irma Miriam Berkowitsch; Irma Miriam Berkowski
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli writer, poet, journalist, translator and kibbutz kindergarten teacher German
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1989
Place of death Degania Alef , Israel