Zelda Schneersohn Mishkovsky

Zelda Schneersohn Mishkovsky (1914-1984), ( _he. זלדה שניאורסון-מישקובסקי) commonly known simply as Zelda, is a 20th century Israeli poet. She was born in the city of Yekatrinoslav to Sholom Shlomo and Rachel Schneersohn. Her father was the great-great grandson of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek (Menachem Mendel Schneersohn) and she grew up in a household with a strong Chabad heritage. The family later moved to Jerusalem in 1925, where she remained for the rest of her mostly peaceful life. Her first book of poems was published in 1967.

Zelda is a rarity in having a deep and traditional faith, without the doubts and irony about Halacha that are so common among Hebrew poets of the 19th century, 20th century and 21st century. Her poems reflect her abiding faith - for example in "Kaasher berakhti 'al hanerot" - "When I said the blessing over the Shabat candles".

Zelda worked as a teacher in Jerusalem. The most famous of her students is a young boy named Amos Klausner, who had a strong schoolboy crush on his teacher, and who grew up to be the famous novelist Amos Oz. Years after his education he paid her a visit. She was still living at the same address. He was deeply touched that in spite all of the time that had passed, she still remembered exactly how he liked his lemonade, and politely asked him if he still liked it that way.

Further reading

* "The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself", (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1