Yiddish writer Esther Shumiatcher-Hirschbein was born in Belarus in 1899 and emigrated to Calgary, Canada, with her family in 1911. Her poetry devoted to her pregnancy and childbirth were considered groundbreaking, along with other themes in her work, including grief, marriage, sexuality, and widowhood.

Esther Kreitman was the sole female writer in what many consider to be the most prominent family in the history of Yiddish literature, that of brothers I.B. and I.J. Singer. Krietman’s most notable contributions to Yiddish literature include her writings in support of the Haskalah and her autobiographical novel, Der Sheydim Tants (Deborah).