Literatureאלישבע

Elisheva Bichovsky

Elisheva Bichovsky was a Russian-born poet, writer, literary critic and translator who wrote mostly in Hebrew and settled in the Land of Israel in 1925.

1888 to 1949Hebrew poetryTranslating Hebrew literature into RussianThe poetry collection Haruzim

Died: 26 March 1949, Tiberias
Occupation: writer, poet, translator, literary critic

Elisheva Bichovsky was born in 1888 in Spassk-Ryazansky

Elisheva was born Elizaveta Zhirkova in Spassk-Ryazansky, Russia, in 1888. Her father, a Russian Orthodox Christian, was a village teacher who later became a bookseller and publisher. Her mother, of Irish Catholic descent, died in 1891, and Elisheva was raised by her aunt in Moscow.

She attended a girls' school in Moscow and qualified as a teacher in 1910. Jewish friends introduced her to their culture, and she studied Yiddish and then Hebrew, taking evening classes from 1913.

She married the publisher and journalist Simeon Bikhovski, and they had a daughter. She did not convert and remained a Christian. She translated Hebrew writers such as Yosef Haim Brenner and Gershon Shofman into Russian and wrote original Hebrew poems.

In 1925 the family settled in the Land of Israel, where literary evenings were held in her honor. She published poetry, stories and a novel in Tel Aviv. After her husband died in 1932 she lived in poverty in Tel Aviv.

She moved to Tiberias to treat arthritis and died there in 1949. She was buried in the Kinneret cemetery. Some of her poems were later set to music.