Ida Maze (1893‒1963) was born on 9 July in Ugli. Before immigrating to North America with her parents in 1905 at the age of 12, Maze received about one year of schooling. Beyond this, she learned Russian and Hebrew by listening in on her brothers’ lessons, and later garnered significant knowledge of classical English, European, American, and world literature. Maze married Alexander Massey in 1912, and they had three sons. Living in Montreal, Maze became very involved in the city’s Jewish cultural activities; her home became a popular meeting spot for artists of all kinds, and Maze became known as the mother of Jewish writers. Maze published several works, many of them either about or for children ‒ the death of her eldest son, Bernard, having inspired her to write children’s poems and songs. Her works include A Mame [A Mother] (1931), Lider for kinder [Songs for Children] (1936), Naye lider [New Songs] (1941), and Vakhsn mayne kinderlech [My Children Grow] (1954). She has appeared numerous times in various journals in Canada, Israel, and Paris. Maze’s autobiographical novel of poems, Dineh: Autobiografishe dertseylung [Dina: An Autobiographical Story] (1970), written while she was sick, was posthumously published. Ida Maze died in Montreal on 13 June.
Sources:
Fuerstenberg, Adam. “Ida Maze.” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women’s Archive, 27 February 2009, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/maze-ida.
“Ida Maze.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Maze.