Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim Dies

On March 22, the Yiddish poetess Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim passed away.

She was the last surviving member of the literary group Yung Yisroel (Young Israel). Born in 1925 in the Lithuanian town of Ukmergė, called Vilkomir in Yiddish, she graduated from high school before the Holocaust, then survived the Vilna ghetto and the Kaiserwald concentration camp, where she started writing poetry.

In 1947, Rivka Basman immigrated to the Land of Israel and took part in the War of Independence. In the 1950s, she began publishing her poems, which first appeared in periodical. Her first poetry collection, “Toybn baym brunem” (“Doves at the Well”) was published in 1959. Rivka Basman Ben-Chaim remained an active author until the last years of her life. May her memory be blessed!