"permission for me to write
the play along with you. I had agreed, and when I had
completed my writing, I had the play given over to
Miriam. Not only had she improved it and perfected the
dialogue, but also in an artistic way, portrayed the
experiences and reflections of a woman and mother, who
she had known and understood much more than me, her
unmarried sister; and so our play was born, which we had
given the name 'Eyne fun folk.'"
From there both sisters
wrote together the future plays: "Di makht fun gezets
(The Power of Law [?])," "Di tsirkus meydl (The Circus
Girl)," "and "Der zingendiker gonev (The Singing Thief
[?])," which were all staged. [For more details about
this, see Rose Shomer-Bachelis' biography and
bibliography.]
Sh. also wrote by herself
the plays "Der epel-boym (The Apple Tree)," "Man un vayb
(Man and Wife)," and together with Dr. Ida Badanes a
children's play in English "Goldie Laks." The play was
never staged.
In 1931 Sh. was interested,
through the composer Prof. Shlomo Rozovsky, in the
Yiddish of a society for the dissemination of Yiddish
music in America, and in the Land of Israel, and founded
that society under the name "Miliam" (Mkhun eretz israel
lmdey hamusikh," Eretz Israel Institute for Musical
Science). "Miliam" soon had excited a great number of
musicians, among them also Mischa Ellman, Bronislov
Huberman, and a section of the famous Yiddish
compositors, such as Arnold Shenberg, Gurowitz, Ernst
Bloch, the pianist Osip Gabrilovich et al (for details
about "Miliam," see Rose Shomer's book, "Vi ikh hob zey
gekent," pp. 50-53). After eleven years of existence,
the organization was transformed into a "Yiddish music
forum," in which Sh. also participated.
The composer A. W. Binder
wrote about her:
"Miriam Shomer Zunser
occupied an honorable place in the history of Yiddish
music in America. Thanks to her, Yiddish music became
recognized as a living, national art. Thanks to her
Yiddish music began to take its place among the arts of
other nations. Through Miriam Shomer Zunser, for the
first time, the greatest Yiddish personalities of the
music world came together, in order to help develop and
promote Yiddish music. Thanks to her they were
encouraged to create Yiddish music. No history of
Yiddish music would be complete, would it not deliver
Miriam Shomer Bachelis to her place, which she had
earned."
Sh. also published a number
of poems and articles in the "Tog."
In 1939 in New York's "Stackpole
Sons" publishing house, there was issued her book in
English, "Yesterday" ("Nechtn"), a
book of memoirs in a fictional form, in which she
depicts the various members of her family, her
environment, and the lifestyle. The book had received a
very warm reaction from the Yiddish and English critics.
In 1947 Sh. translated from
her English book into Yiddish the set of her father's
childhood years and youth, and it, together with the
subsequent chapters of her father's life (written
through her sister Rose), published in "Tog," then the
work was issued in a book "Our Father Shomer" ("Ikuf"
Publishers, New York, 1950), and in 1953 in the Hebrew
translation of Aaron Vaysman (Jerusalem, "Akhisf").
For the last five years of
her life Sh. suffered from a cancer of the breast, but
she had, almost until her last days, didn't give up her
social activism. On 11 October 1951 she passed away in
New York.
Sh.'s brother, Abraham, and
sister, Rose, were associated with Yiddish theatre, and
his sister Anna Shomer-Rotenberg is an interpreter of
Yiddish folk-songs.
Her sister Rose
characterizes her this way:
"Miriam was an
extraordinary talented and fine human being. Besides
being a fine writer, lecturer, speaker and organizer,
she also was a sculptor, who created a number of various
figures and very fine busts of her husband and children.
She knew the arts of ceramics and created various
vessels for the house in various designs and colors. She
was a passionate chess player. She could play the piano
well, was a wonderful housewife, ... Her house always
was often for members of her and her husband's families,
for friends and acquaintances, for musicians, composers,
actors and artists, who often used to gather there and
enjoy her and her husband's warmness and hospitality."
-
Zalmen Reyzen --
"Lexicon of Yiddish Literature," Vol. IV, pp.
453-55.
-
Jacob Mestel -- "Undzer
foter shm"r," "Yidishe kultur," N. Y., October,
1950.
-
Nachman Mayzel --
"Yidishe tematik, yidishe melodies bay bavuste
muziker," New York, 1952, pp. 53-54.
-
Rose
Shomer-Bachelis -- "Vi ikh hob zey gekent," Los
Angeles, 1955.
-
Ber Green -- "A
shtik kolirfule fargangeheyt fun der yidisher
amerike," "Morgn frayhayt," N. Y.. June 12,
1955.
-
Jacob Mestel -- A
tsushteyer tsu yidisher teater-geshikhte, "Yidishe
kultur," N. Y., October 1955.
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