Literatureינטה מאש

Yente Mash

Yente Mash was a Yiddish-language writer from Bessarabia who settled in Israel and wrote stories about the Siberian labor camps and immigrant life.

1922 to 2013Yiddish short storiesStories of Siberian labor campsBessarabian Motifs

Born: 17 March 1922, Zgurița
Died: 31 March 2013, Haifa
Occupation: writer
Education: Ion Creangă Pedagogical State University

Yente Mash was born in 1922 in Zgurița

Mash was born Yente Roytman in 1922 in Zgurița, Bessarabia, now in Moldova. She grew up in a Yiddish-speaking family and studied Hebrew as a child. She finished high school in Soroca and studied for one year at a teachers' institute in Chișinău.

In 1941 Soviet authorities exiled her and her parents to labor camps in Siberia. Both of her parents died there. In 1948 she returned to Chișinău with her husband, Mikhail Mash, and worked as a bookkeeper.

She wanted to write but was afraid to leave a record of her life as a prisoner. In 1977 she immigrated to Israel and settled in Haifa, where she began writing stories in Yiddish. Her work dealt with Bessarabia, the camps and life as an immigrant in Israel.

In Israel she married David Gurevich, a widower from her hometown. She published 4 books in Yiddish, and one was translated into Hebrew. She died in Haifa in 2013.