Shoshana Persits

Born in Kiev (Kyiv) to the wealthy Zlatopolski family, Shoshana Zlatopolski Persits was provided an unusually well-rounded mix of traditional and modern national education at the behest of her father, Hillel Zlatopolski, one of the foremost patrons of Hebraist causes in the Russian Empire. Persits became fluent in Hebrew at a time when such a path was still largely closed to girls, and she shared her father’s passion for Zionism and the Hebrew revival. Pursuing advanced studies in Germany, she returned to the Russian Empire in 1911 and lived in Moscow for a number of years. A committed Zionist and Hebraist patron, in 1916 she established the Omanut publishing house in Moscow with the mission of producing attractive and exciting Hebrew educational materials and children’s literature on a large scale. She plowed her own family money into the press to ensure that the books produced were deluxe and beautiful, and she oriented its focus toward translating the best works of European children’s literature. In 1917, Persits cofounded the ambitious Hebraist Tarbut organization, which sought to unify all Hebraist activity across Russia and Ukraine under its aegis. Driven from Russia by the Bolshevik takeover, Persits and her family moved first to Kiev and Odessa, and then to Paris, where she earned a degree in literature from the Sorbonne. Moving to Frankfurt a few years later, she reestablished her publishing business and hosted literary salons that included such notables as Chaim Nahman Bialik (whom she had worked with in Russia) and S. Y. Agnon. She immigrated to Tel Aviv in 1925, continuing to publish there and becoming involved with Jewish politics and cultural activities. Persits went on to serve in the Knesset during its first three terms. She was awarded the Israel Prize in Education in 1968.