Zalman Shneour (Yiddish:זלמן שניאור; bornShneur Zalkind; 1887 – 20 February 1959) was a prolificYiddish andHebrew poet and writer. In 1955, he was nominated for theNobel Prize in Literature.^[1]

Zalman Shneour
Shneour in 1949
Native name	זלמן שניאור
Born	1887 (1887) Shklow,Belarus (then inRussian Empire)
Died	20 February 1959 (aged 71–72) New York City
Occupation	Poet, writer
Language	Yiddish, Hebrew

Zalman Shneour was born inShklow (Škłoŭ) inBelarus (then part of theRussian Empire) in 1887. His parents were Isaac Zalkind and Feiga Sussman. At age 13, he left forOdessa, the center of literature and Zionism during this time. Shneour moved toWarsaw in 1902 and was hired by a successful publishing house. He moved toVilnius in 1904, where he published his first book and a collection of stories.

In 1907, Shneour moved toParis to study Natural Sciences, Philosophy, and Literature, at theSorbonne. He traveled throughout Europe from 1908 to 1913 and visited North Africa. WhenWorld War I erupted, Shneour was inBerlin where the Germans detained him as a Russian citizen. There he wrote his famous Hebrew epic, “Vilna”, a poetic reconstruction of bygone Jewish life.^[2] During the years of the war, he worked in a hospital and studied at theUniversity of Berlin. Shneour returned to Paris in 1923. He stayed there until 1940, when Hitler's troops invaded France. Shneour then fled to Spain, and from there he went toNew York City in 1941. Heimmigrated to Israel in 1951.^[3]

He died in 1959 in New York.^[4]

He is remembered among lovers of Yiddish songs for his expression of longing and lust, “Tra-la-la-la,” known as Margaritkelekh, Daisies. Artists such asChava Alberstein have recorded it.

Shneour had two children: the American neurochemist and biophysicistElie A. Shneour, and Renée Rebecca, who became the Spanish dancer Laura Toledo.

• Song of the Dnieper, translated byJoseph Leftwich. Roy Publishers: New York, 1945.
• Restless spirit: Selected Writings of Zalman Shneour, translated byMoshe Spiegel. Thomas Yoseloff: New York, 1963.
• A Death: Notes of a Suicide, translated byDaniel Kennedy. Wakefield Press: Cambridge, 2019.ISBN 9781939663450.

• In 1951, Shneour was awarded theBialik Prize for Literature.^[5]
• In 1955, he was awarded theIsrael Prize for literature.^[6]

• List of Bialik Prize recipients
• List of Israel Prize recipients
• Hebrew literature
• Yiddish literature