Lily Tobias

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.

Lily Tobias
Born
Lily Shepherd

1887
Swansea
Died1984
Haifa
NationalityBritish
OccupationWriter, activist
RelativesDannie Abse (nephew)
Leo Abse (nephew)

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.[1] Her parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants,[2] and the family spoke Yiddish at home.[3] 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.[4]

Career

Tobias wrote articles for Llais Llafur, a Welsh socialist newspaper, in 1904.[4] campaigned for women's suffrage, conscientious objectors, the rights of working people and a Jewish national home in Palestine.[5] She served on the executive council of the Foundation of Women Zionists of Great Britain, and active in the Women's International Zionist Organization while she lived in Palestine.[6]

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.[6][7] 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."[8]

Two of her novels have been reprinted by Honno Press,[9] which also published a biography of Tobias by Jasmine Donahaye in 2015.[5]

Publications by Lily Tobias
  • The Nationalists (short stories)
  • My Mother's House (1931)[10]
  • Eunice Fleet (1933)[11]
  • Tube (1935)
  • The Samaritan (1939)

Personal life

Lily Shepherd married Philip Valentine Tobias in 1911, and the couple emigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. She was widowed in 1938, when Philip Tobias was fatally stabbed.[12] She lived for a time in South Africa.[6] She died in 1984, aged 96 years, in Haifa, Israel.[1]

Tobias's nephews included poet Dannie Abse, psychoanalyst Wilfred Abse, and Labour MP Leo Abse.[5]

References
  1. "Obituary of Lily Tobias, Swansea, 8 June 1984". Peoples Collection Wales. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  2. Parry-Jones, Cai (1 June 2017). The Jews of Wales: A History. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78683-086-9.
  3. Newman, Catrin (26 March 2015). "Award-winning university lecturer publishes new book examining life and troubled times of the author and political activist Lily Tobias". Swansea University News. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  4. Maggie (7 December 2016). "The Shepherd Family of Ystalyfera and Pontypridd in the First World War". WCIA Voices. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  5. Donahaye, Jasmine (2015). The Greatest Need: The Creative Life and Troubled Times of Lily Tobias, a Welsh Jew in Palestine. Honno. ISBN 978-1-909983-23-6.
  6. Landman, Isaac (1943). The Universal Jewish encyclopedia ...: an authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, inc. p. 259.
  7. JS (15 April 1929). "Daniel Deronda". The Guardian. p. 12. Retrieved 23 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. DFA (5 April 1935). "London Transport". The Guardian. p. 7. Retrieved 23 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Lily Tobias". Honno Press. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  10. Tobias, Lily, 1887-1984 (19 March 2015). My mother's house. Donahaye, Jasmine. Aberystwyth. ISBN 978-1-909983-21-2. OCLC 907239235.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. Tobias, Lily, 1887-1984. (2004). Eunice Fleet. Dinas Powys: Honno Classics. ISBN 1-870206-65-7. OCLC 56451580.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. "Yet More Troops Stand by to go to Palestine". The Guardian. 12 July 1938. p. 11. Retrieved 23 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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