Aliza Greenblatt

Aliza Greenblatt (Yiddish: עליזה גרינבלאַט‎, September 8, 1888 – September 21, 1975) was an American Yiddish poet. Many of her poems, which were widely published in the Yiddish press, were also set to music and recorded by composers including Abraham Ellstein and Solomon Golub and were recorded by Theodore Bikel and Sidor Belarsky, among others.^[1] Greenblatt published five volumes of Yiddish poetry and an autobiography in Yiddish, Baym fentsṭer fun a lebn (A Window on a Life Yiddish: ביים פענצטער פון א לעבן‎) and her works include such well-known Yiddish songs as Fisherlid, Amar Abaye, and Du, Du. She had five children, Herbert (1908), David (1914), Gertrude (1915), Marjorie (1917), and Bernard (1921).^[2] Her daughter Marjorie, a dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, was for a time married to folk musician Woody Guthrie. Greenblatt was the grandmother of folk musician Arlo Guthrie,^[3] Woody Guthrie archivist Nora Guthrie,^[4] and computer programmer Richard Greenblatt. Greenblatt also helped found the Atlantic City, NJ chapters of the Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah and the Yidish Natsionaler Arbeter Farband, and was the president of the Women's Pioneers. She was also involved with fundraising for the Jewish National Fund and Histadrut.

Aliza Greenblatt was born in Azarenits, in the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), to Brokhe Bas-Tsion Rozovsky (Yiddish: ברכה בת־ציון ראָזאָװסקי‎) and Abraham Aronson (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם אַהרונזאָן‎). After her father died unexpectedly, her mother remarried and the family moved to Soroca. Aliza, her step-father, and her three step-brothers came to Philadelphia in 1900.^{[5] [6]} Her mother and her younger sister immigrated in 1904 while her older sister arrived with her own family in 1922.^[7]

Her husband Isadore Greenblatt, whom she married in 1907, was born Isadore Stukelman, a cousin of Shifra Stukelman, whose grandson is Canadian composer Jan Randall.

Books by Aliza Greenblatt

• Lebn mayns (My Life). Farlag Kadime-Central Philadelphia 1935.
• Tsen lider mit gezang (Ten Poems with Music). Alizah Greenblatt: Brooklyn 1939.
• Ikh zing (I Sing). Farlag Aliza: New York, 1947.
• Ikh un du (Me and You). Farlag Aliza: New York, 1951.
• In si-geyt baym yam (In Sea Gate by the Ocean). Farlag Aliza: New York, 1957.
• Baym fenster fun a lebn (At the Window of a Life). Farlag Aliza: New York, 1966.

References

1. ↑ Guide to the Papers of Aliza Greenblatt and the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, NY
2. ↑ Jewish Women's Archive
3. ↑ A Jewish Visit to Guthrie's Land, Jewish Journal, Dec. 2, 2004
4. ↑ The Official Woody Guthrie Website
5. ↑ Greenblatt, Aliza. Baym Fentster fun a Lebn. Farlag Aliza, 1966, p. 9.
6. ↑ Jewish Women's Archive
7. ↑ Guide to the Papers of Aliza Greenblatt and the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, NY