Ruchoma Shain

{{Infobox writer

| name = Ruchoma Shain

| embed =

| honorific_prefix = Rebbetzin

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| native_name = רוחומה שיין

| native_name_lang = he

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Ruchoma Herman

| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|12|06}}

| birth_place = Lower East Side, Manhattan

| death_date = {{death date and age|2013|03|16|1914|12|06}}

| death_place = Lakewood Township, New Jersey

| spouse = Rabbi Moshe Shain

| children = Yisrael Meir
Mashi
Refoel Yitzchak

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Ruchoma Shain ({{Langx|he|רוחומה שיין}}; 6 December 1914 – 16 March 2013) was an American-born rebbetzin, English teacher, and author. She is best known for her first book, All for the Boss (1984),{{cite news|date=September 16, 2013|title=Year in Review 5773|newspaper=Hamodia|page=31}} a biography of her father, Yaakov Yosef Herman, which she wrote in her late sixties. In detailing her father's life, she also describes Orthodox Jewish life in America in the early 1900s. All for the Boss became one of the all-time best-sellers for Feldheim Publishers, and Shain's stories and observations are quoted by numerous authors.

Her second book, Reaching the Stars (1990), chronicles her experiences as a teacher. She also authored Dearest Children, All for the Best, and Shining Lights.{{cite web|url=http://matzav.com/rebbetzin-ruchoma-shain-ah/|title=Rebbetzin Ruchoma Shain a"h|date=March 16, 2013|website=matzav.com|access-date=October 20, 2016}}

Biography

Ruchoma Herman was born on New York's Lower East Side to Rabbi Yaakov Yosef and Aidel Herman.{{cite news|last=Borchardt|first=F.|date=March 2013|title=Rebbetzin Ruchoma Shain, a"h|url=http://hamodia.com/2013/03/17/rebbetzin-ruchoma-shain-ah/|newspaper=Hamodia|access-date=October 20, 2016}} She was the youngest of her parents' five children. She had three sisters and one brother.

At seventeen years old, she married Moshe, the eldest son of Rabbi Shimon and Geneshe Shain. Shortly after their wedding, the couple, at the behest of her father, traveled to Mir, Belarus, where they spent nearly six years while her husband studied at the Mir yeshiva under Rabbis Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, Yeruchom Levovitz, and Yechezkel Levenstein. Her sister, Basya (Bessie), wife of Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, and her brother, Rabbi Nochum Dovid, also joined them in Mir. Later they returned to the East Side. When their children were grown, the Shains moved to Jerusalem, purchasing an apartment in the new development of Kiryat Mattersdorf.

In the United States, Shain taught English to several grades.{{cite news|last=Schulman|first=Malkie|date=April 4, 2014|title=Living For The Boss|url=http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/living-for-the-boss/2014/04/04/0/|newspaper=The Jewish Press|access-date=October 20, 2016}} In Jerusalem, she became a popular lecturer to women and girls. After the publication of her books, Shain received visitors seeking her counsel regarding various topics.

Shain wrote her first book, All for the Boss, in her late sixties upon the request of Yaakov Feldheim, one of the founders of Feldheim Publishers. Published in 1984, her book about growing up in New York City and the influence of her father became one of the all-time best-sellers for the publishing company,{{cite web |url=http://jewishwriting.com/pages/95.pdf|title=Will it Sell in New York?|first=Esther|last=Heller|page=22|work=Mishpacha|date=15 February 2006|accessdate=20 October 2016}} which until then had concentrated on Torah and rabbinic literature. All for the Boss was revised and expanded in 2001, and Feldheim published a "Young Readers Edition" in 2006. Feldheim translated the book into Hebrew in 2002.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jwpNQEACAAJ|title=הכל לאדון הכל|language=Hebrew|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|year=2002}} It was also translated into Yiddish. In 2010 a Ynet reporter called the book "one of the most read, talked about, and widely studied in the Haredi street".{{cite news |url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3897781,00.html|title=לא תמצאו בדוכנים: המלצות לספרות חרדית|language=Hebrew|trans-title=You Won't Find it in the Stalls: Recommendations of Haredi Books|first=Eliezer|last=Heivan|date=2 June 2010|accessdate=20 October 2016|work=Ynet}} Shain went on to write four more books, drawing on her personal and teaching experiences.

About ten years before her death, she returned to the United States to be near her children in Adelphia, New Jersey, where she continued to welcome visitors. She died in 2013 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.

Her children are Rabbi Yisrael Meir Shain, Mrs. Mashi Wilner, and Rabbi Refoel Yitzchak Shain.

Influence

Shain's stories about her childhood, and her viewpoints on teaching, have been quoted by numerous authors.{{cite web |url=http://torah.org/torah-portion/dvartorah-5758-noach/|title=Hide the Shame: Parshas Noach|first=Rabbi Dovid|last=Green|date=7 June 2002|accessdate=20 October 2016|work=Torah.org}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1A5m925ECsC&pg=PA132|title=Beyond a Reasonable Doubt|first=Shmuel|last=Waldman|page=132|year=2005|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=1583308067}}{{cite web |url=https://yated.com/rav-sholom-shachne-zohn-zt/|title=Rav Sholom Shachne Zohn|first=Dovid|last=Hoffman|date=26 December 2012|accessdate=20 October 2016|work=Yated Ne'eman}}{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishaz.com/religiouslife/torahstudy/esau-s-head/article_144186ec-9075-11e4-aeb9-f77d5d9904ff.html|title=Esau's Head|first=Rabbi Yosef|last=Alden|date=31 December 2014|accessdate=20 October 2016|work=Jewish News of Greater Phoenix}}{{cite journal|url=https://issuu.com/jewishhomela/docs/la_jh_1-29-15_lo|title=Book Review: Letters from Mir|first=Rebecca|last=Klempner|date=29 January 2015|accessdate=20 October 2016|journal=The Jewish Home|page=24}}

Bibliography

{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F64XAAAAIAAJ|title=All for the Boss: An Affectionate Family Chronicle of Yaakov Yosef Herman, a Torah Pioneer in America|year=1984|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=0873063465}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=QdxHnvnHdtMC Revised edition] published 2001
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-o7PQAACAAJ|title=Reaching the Stars: The Well-loved Educator and Author Reminisces on a Lifetime of Teaching—in and Out of the Classroom|year=1990|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=0873065131}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUYsAgAACAAJ|title=Dearest Children|year=1992|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=0873066103}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Cdwm4yHdwIC&q=ruchoma+shain|year=1995|title=All for the Best|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=0873066871}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1WRUAAAACAAJ|title=Shining Lights: Illuminating Stories of Faith and Inspiration|year=1997|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=0873067916}}
{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajtasuV8yeoC|title=All for the Boss|year=2006|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=1583308555|edition=Young Reader's}}

References

External links

{{Google books author|Ruchoma Shain}}
[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/536444.Ruchoma_Shain Ruchoma Shain's Books] at Goodreads
[https://books.google.com/books?id=5cPmDvKMVn8C&pg=PT85 "Tzippie" by Ruchoma Shain] in Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul, 2012

Category:1914 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:Teachers of English

Category:Haredi writers

Category:Jewish women non-fiction writers

Category:People from the Lower East Side

Category:Rebbetzins

Category:Writers from Manhattan

Category:Schoolteachers from New York (state)

Category:American women educators

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American women writers