Rachel Häring Korn (15 January 1898 - 9 September 1982) was a Yiddish poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. In total, she published eight collections of poetry and two of prose.

Biography

Korn was born near Podliski, East Galicia and started writing poetry at an early age. At the start of the First World War, her family fled to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, returning to Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 in 1918. It was in this year that Korn's first published works appeared, in Nowy Dziennik, a Zionist newspaper, and in Glos Przemyski, a socialist journal. These items were published in Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, but a year later she published her first Yiddish poem in the Lemberger Tageblatt. Her recognition grew with the publication of her first volumes of poetry: 'Dorf' ('Village', 1928) and 'Royter mon' ('Red Poppies', 1937). Her first collection of prose, 'Erd' ('Land') was published in 1936.

Following the German invasion of eastern Galicia in June 1941, Korn fled to Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, before moving to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, where she remained until the end of the war. She returned to Poland in 1946, immigrating to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

in 1948. Her next collection of poetry, Heym un heymlozikayt (Home and Homelessness) was published in 1948. She remained in Montreal, writing poetry, until her death in 1982.

Awards

• Louis Lamed Prize for poetry and prose (1950 and 1958)
• Jewish Book Council of America Certificate of Honor and Award for Yiddish Poetry (1969)
• The H. Leivick Prize (1972)
• The Manger Prize of the State of Israel (1974)