Esther Kreitman
| Esther Kreitman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
31 March 1891 Biłgoraj, Congress Poland |
| Died | 13 June 1954 (aged 63) London, UK |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Language | Yiddish |
| Ethnicity | Polish Jew |
| Genre | fictional prose |
Hinde Ester Singer Kreytman (31 March 1891 – 13 June 1954), known in English as Esther Kreitman, was a Yiddish-language novelist and short story writer. She was born in Biłgoraj, Congress Poland to a rabbinic Jewish family. Her younger brothers Israel Joshua Singer and Isaac Bashevis Singer also became writers.
Kreitman was the daughter of Pinchos Menachem Singer (Pinkhas Mendl Zinger) and his wife Basheve (Bathsheba), née Zylberman. Her father was a rabbi and an avid Hasid with a passion for mysticism. Kreitman's mother also came from a rabbinic family. The daughter of the rabbi of Biłgoraj, who was renowned in his day for his intellectual and spiritual character, she had benefited from an education comparable to that of her brothers.
Kreitman had an unhappy childhood. According to her son, her mother gave her to an uncaring wet nurse for the first three years, who left her under a dusty table where she was visited once a week by her mother, who did not touch her. Later, as a highly gifted child, she had to watch her younger brothers being taught, while she was relegated to menial household duties. Kreitman's first novel includes numerous scenes depicting the main female character's desires for education: scenes in which she waits with great anticipation for the bookseller to arrive in their town, dreams of becoming a scholar, and hides a Russian text-book from the male members of her family so that they won't find out she is studying in secret. It is likely that these incidents reflect Kreitman's own story.
In 1912 she agreed to an arranged marriage, and went to live with her husband, a diamond cutter, to Antwerp, Belgium. The events surrounding this marriage are both described by her in Deborah and by Isaac Bashevis Singer in his autobiographical collection In my Father's Court.
In Antwerp her son, Morris Kreitman, was born. (He later was known by his journalistic pen name, Maurice Carr, and his novelistic pen name, Martin Lea.) The outbreak of World War I forced the family to flee to London, where Kreitman lived for the rest of her life, except for two long return visits to Poland.
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