# Malka Locker

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**Malka Locker** (1887–1990; Hebrew: מלכה לוקר; Yiddish: מלכּה לאָקער) was a Ukrainian-born Israeli [poet](/source/Poet), writing primarily in [Yiddish](/source/Yiddish).

## Biography

Malka Locker was born in 1887 in [Kuty](/source/Kuty), known in Yiddish as Kitev, a town in what was then the [Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria](/source/Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria), now [Ukraine](/source/Ukraine).[1][2][3] She came from a long line of rabbis, and education was important to her family, with Malka receiving a secular education as well as a Yiddish one.[3] She went on to learn German, French, and English, as well as Polish, Ukrainian, and Hebrew.[3]

In 1910, she married the [Zionist](/source/Zionism) activist [Berl Locker](/source/Berl_Locker), who was her cousin.[1][4] The couple traveled the world together, spending a decade living in [London](/source/London) from 1938 to 1948.[1][2] They permanently settled in [Israel](/source/Israel) in 1948, having first spent time in then-[Mandatory Palestine](/source/Mandatory_Palestine) in the 1930s.[5][6]

Locker is best known for her work as a poet, but she did not begin writing poetry until she was 42 years old.[1][4] She began writing on the suggestion of a friend, who had identified a "poetic quality" in her correspondence.[1] As she began to publish poems in the 1930s, her work received some notice from Yiddish critics.[1]

She published at least six books of poetry, beginning with *Velt un mentsh* ("World and Man") in 1931.[1][7] Subsequent collections included *Du* ("You") in 1932; *Shtet* ("Cities"), about London, in 1942; and *The World Is Without a Protector: 1940–1945* in 1947.[1][2][3][7] While she wrote primarily in Yiddish, she also published one book of poems in German, and her writing was also translated into Hebrew and French.[1][8]

Locker also produced various works of literary criticism, with a focus on French [romantic](/source/Romanticism) and [symbolic](/source/Symbolism_(arts)) poetry, including a 1965 book on [Arthur Rimbaud](/source/Arthur_Rimbaud), a 1970 biography of [Charles Baudelaire](/source/Charles_Baudelaire), and a 1976 biography of [Paul Verlaine](/source/Paul_Verlaine).[1][3][7][9][10][11] She was also a composer, notably writing the choral works "Luekh trts"v" and "Luekh trts'kh" in 1938, and would sing in Yiddish locally and internationally.[2]

She died in [Jerusalem](/source/Jerusalem) in 1990, at age 103.[1]

## References

1. Turner, Ri. [""Does It Mean I Long for You?""](https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/yiddish-translation/does-it-mean-i-long-you). *Yiddish Book Center*. Retrieved 2021-08-26.

1. Brown, Katie; Lisky, I. A.; Kaizer, A. M. (2021-11-09). [*London Yiddishtown: East End Jewish Life in Yiddish Sketch and Story, 1930–1950: Selected Works of Katie Brown, A. M. Kaizer, and I. A. Lisky*](https://books.google.com/books?id=pxkaEAAAQBAJ). Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-4849-9.

1. Locker, Malka & Mazow, Julia (1993). ["The World Is without a Protector / ךצטיח אַ ןאָ זיא טלצװ יד"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/40357592). *Bridges*. **3** (2): 80–81. [ISSN 1046-8358](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1046-8358). [JSTOR 40357592](https://www.jstor.org/stable/40357592)

1. Landman, Isaac & Cohen, Simon (1942). [*The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia ...: An Authoritative and Popular Presentation of Jews and Judaism Since the Earliest Times*](https://books.google.com/books?id=9pwYAAAAIAAJ). Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Incorporated.

1. Schneiderman, Harry & Carmin, Itzhak J. (1955). [*Who's who in World Jewry*](https://books.google.com/books?id=Z41mAAAAMAAJ). Pitman Publishing Corporation.

1. "Palestine Greets Toscanini at Haifa". *The New York Times*. 1938-04-10.

1. ["Locker, Malka 1887-1990"](http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88616075/). *WorldCat*

1. Hellerstein, Kathryn (2014-07-23). [*A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987*](https://books.google.com/books?id=XvKyAwAAQBAJ). Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-9397-1.

1. ["The Leonard Bernstein Collection, circa 16th century-2001, bulk 1940-1990"](http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?brand=general&docId=VAD8042&doc.view=print). *Indiana University*

1. ["Mendele: Yiddish literature and language"](http://www.columbia.edu/~jap2220/Arkhiv/vol07%20(1997-8)/vol07051.txt). *Columbia University*. 1997-08-18.

1. Bandy, W. T. (1973). ["Baudelaire Today"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26279782). *L'Esprit Créateur*. **13** (2): 95–99. [ISSN 0014-0767](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0014-0767). [JSTOR 26279782](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26279782)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Malka Locker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malka_Locker) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malka_Locker?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.