Rokhl Brokhes

Born in Minsk (in present-day Belarus) and educated in the tradition of the Haskalah, Rokhl Brokhes was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, plays, and children’s literature in Yiddish. Her work was known for its rich depictions of women’s lives and the poverty of the Jewish working class writ large in a style blending realism with a certain lyricism. The bulk of her work appeared in periodicals, including Der fraynd, Di tsukunft, Der shtern, and Oktyabr. An eight-volume comprehensive edition of her collected works was slated for publication in the Soviet Union, but the plans were never fulfilled due to the Nazi invasion. She died in the Minsk ghetto.