Lily Tobias

{{Infobox person

| name = Lily Tobias

| birth_name = Lily Shepherd

| birth_date = 1887

| birth_place = Swansea, Wales

| death_date = {{Death year and age|1984|1887}}

| death_place = Haifa, Israel

| nationality = British

| occupation = Writer, activist

| relatives = Dannie Abse (nephew)
Leo Abse (nephew)

}}

Lily Shepherd Tobias (1887–1984) was a Welsh writer and activist for suffrage, labour, peace, and a Jewish national home in Palestine. She wrote four novels, short stories, and plays.

Tobias was born in Swansea to Polish-Jewish immigrants. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the rights of conscientious objectors, and workers' rights. She was a Zionist, joining first the Foundation of Women Zionists of Great Britain, and later the Women's International Zionist Organization. In the 1930s, Tobias moved to Mandatory Palestine. In 1984, she died in Haifa.

Early life

Lily Shepherd was born in Swansea, to Tobias Shepherd (born Tevia Rudinsky) and Chana Beila Shepherd. She grew up in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley.{{Cite web|url=https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/1103661|title=Obituary of Lily Tobias, Swansea, 8 June 1984|website=Peoples Collection Wales|language=en|access-date=2020-03-23}} Her parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants,{{Cite book|last=Parry-Jones|first=Cai|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vb2rDwAAQBAJ&dq=Lily%20Shepherd%20Ystalyfera&pg=PT139|title=The Jews of Wales: A History|date=2017-06-01|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-1-78683-086-9|language=en}} and the family spoke Yiddish at home.{{Cite web|url=http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/news-archive/2015/award-winninguniversitylecturerpublishesnewbookexamininglifeandtroubledtimesoftheauthorandpoliticalactivistlilytobias.php|title=Award-winning university lecturer publishes new book examining life and troubled times of the author and political activist Lily Tobias|last=Newman|first=Catrin|date=26 March 2015|website=Swansea University News|access-date=2016-01-15}}

Her father had a business selling wallpaper and glass decor items. Her brothers Isaac, Solomon, and Joseph were all arrested and jailed as conscientious objectors during World War I. Another brother, Moss, was arrested and jailed for lying about his age to avoid military service.{{Cite web|url=https://wciavoices.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/the-shepherd-family-of-ystalyfera-and-pontypridd-in-the-first-world-war/|title=The Shepherd Family of Ystalyfera and Pontypridd in the First World War|last=Maggie|date=2016-12-07|website=WCIA Voices|language=en|access-date=2020-03-23}}

Career

Tobias wrote articles for Llais Llafur, a Welsh socialist newspaper, in 1904. campaigned for women's suffrage, conscientious objectors, the rights of working people and a Jewish national home in Palestine.{{Cite book|last=Donahaye|first=Jasmine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FbwfogEACAAJ|title=The Greatest Need: The Creative Life and Troubled Times of Lily Tobias, a Welsh Jew in Palestine|date=2015|publisher=Honno|isbn=978-1-909983-23-6|language=en}} She served on the executive council of the Foundation of Women Zionists of Great Britain, and was active in the Women's International Zionist Organization while she lived in Palestine.{{Cite book|last=Landman|first=Isaac|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMBtAAAAMAAJ&dq=Lily%20Shepherd%20Tobias&pg=PA259|title=The Universal Jewish encyclopedia ...: an authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times|date=1943|publisher=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, inc.|pages=259|language=en}}

Tobias wrote four novels and a collection of short stories. Her adaptation of George Eliot's Daniel Deronda for the stage, the first such adaptation, was performed in London in 1927 and 1929, the later cast including Sybil Thorndike, Marie Ney, and Esme Percy.{{Cite news|last=JS|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47177451/daniel-derondajs/|title=Daniel Deronda|date=1929-04-15|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-23|pages=12|via=Newspapers.com}} Her novel My Mother's House (1931) is about a Jewish Welshman who moves to Palestine. Eunice Fleet (1933) is about conscientious objectors during World War I. "Miss Tobias's imagination... is young and exuberant and romantic," commented a reviewer about Tube (1935), a novel set on the London Underground. "But she can write individual scenes on occasion surprisingly well, and some of her character drawing would not disgrace a more realistic story."{{Cite news|last=DFA|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47177195/london-transportdfa/|title=London Transport|date=1935-04-05|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-23|pages=7|via=Newspapers.com}}

Two of her novels have been reprinted by Honno Press,{{Cite web|url=https://www.honno.co.uk/authors/t/lily-tobias/|title=Lily Tobias|website=Honno Press|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-23}} which also published a biography of Tobias by Jasmine Donahaye in 2015.

Published works

The Nationalists (short stories)
My Mother's House (1931){{Cite book|last=Tobias |first=Lily |title=My Mother's House|others=introduction by Jasmine Donahaye |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-909983-21-2|location=Aberystwyth |publisher=Honno Press |oclc=907239235}}
Eunice Fleet (1933){{Cite book|last=Tobias |first=Lily |title=Eunice Fleet |others=introduction by Jasmine Donahaye |date=2004|publisher=Honno Classics|isbn=1-870206-65-7|location=Dinas Powys|oclc=56451580}}
Tube (1935){{Cite book|last=Tobias |first=Lily |title=Tube: A Novel |date=1935 |location=London |publisher=Hutchinson |id=National Library 003644574 |oclc=613476466}}
The Samaritan (1939){{Cite book|last=Tobias |first=Lily |title=The Samaritan: An Anglo-Palestinian Novel |date=1939 |location=London |publisher=R. Hale |id=National Library 002325105 |oclc=234133162}}

Personal life

Lily Shepherd married Philip Valentine Tobias in 1911, and the couple emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s. She was widowed in 1938, when Philip Tobias was fatally stabbed.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47177013/yet-more-troops-stand-by-to-go-to/|title=Yet More Troops Stand by to go to Palestine|date=1938-07-12|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-23|pages=11|via=Newspapers.com}} She lived for a time in South Africa. She died in 1984, aged 96 years, in Haifa, Israel.

Tobias's nephews included poet Dannie Abse, psychoanalyst Wilfred Abse, and Labour MP Leo Abse.