De la Russie à Paris : autobiographie d’une immigrée et d’une sioniste, Rachel Hermann (1887-1979)

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Born in the Ukraine, living in Paris since 1917, Rachel Hermann’s memoir was written late in life in Yiddish, and until now has remained in the private papers of her family. This article presents passages from its translation by Henry Bulawko, accompanied by a critical analysis. Thirsty for knowledge, member of Jewish intellectual circles in Odessa, fervent Hebrew scholar, this Zionist provided for herself by giving private Hebrew lessons in Palestine in 1914-1915, then in Cairo and Paris, where she married Nahum Hermann, an active Zionist. At his side, she participated in the major events of Zionist and Jewish life in interwar Paris, volunteered for the “Union hébraïque mondiale” and travelled, especially to Palestine. After World War II, having lost her husband in the Shoah, she courageously took up her former life as a Hebrew activist and sought to fulfill the dream of her youth to write by contributing to the Yiddish press, and travelled again to Israel and the USSR, not without some bitterness. A destiny that was both singular and representative of an entire generation of Eastern European women immigrants.