Emma Nechama Shieber nee Lazruf

Emma Lazruf-Schieber was born in 1905 to Yaacov and Zipa-Henia Valinsky in the village of Zaporizhia in the Ukraine. Her parents, Chabad Chasidim, immigrated to the United States shortly before World War I, together with their 7 children, and settled in Detroit. In 1942 she married Moshe (Morris) Schieber who was born in Warsaw (1898), the son of Yitzchak Austashober and Hindal-Yehudit Picarnik. Schieber moved to America in 1917 and became a successful business man. Emma became a well known singer in America. The Jewish American public liked her performances that were mostly of Jewish folk songs. She also appeared in the opera. The second focus of her life, after her successful singing career, was her Zionist activities. She, her husband Moshe and her brother were very active supporters of Israel. They supported and built factories in Israel, contributed to cultural activities and institutions and to the Chabad organization. In 1946, at the end of the Second World War, Emma Schieber travelled to Germany as a member of the Cultural Delegation. The delegation was under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – UNRRA. Emma Schieber went from one displaced Persons Camp to another trying to encourage the survivors with her singing. She sang in Yiddish, English and Hebrew. In her book, ("Mir Zeinin Do") "We are Here" she describes how her trip, that was planned to last three weeks, continued for 6 months!! The survivors held onto her and would not let her go. Many of the people remember her performances as the first sign of humanity after the horrors of the Holocaust. Emma dedicated the rest of her life combining between music and activities to strengthen the Jewish people. Upon the death of her husband in 1953 she took over running the business and was quite successful. She helped the Zionist Movement in America and other Jewish organizations, including Chabad, schools (including some in Israel, Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh), orchestras and music academies. All these organizations, and others in Israel, benefitted from her extreme generosity. She eventually moved to Yemin Moshe. She sought a worthy way to memorialize her husband's memory. A good friend, the journalist Yehoshua Yustman, a member of the Jerusalem Journalists Union, convinced her to donate money to build the auditorium in Beit Agron (The Journalist's Union Building) in the city center. In 1952 Aharon Zvi Propis founded the 'Zimria" an international gathering of Jewish choirs (similar to the Maccabiah that caters to Jewish athletes). Emma Scheiber was involved with the Zimriah from its inception and in 1968 was appointed Honorary Chairwoman. In 2002 a festive concert of the Zimriah, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the choir, took place in Tel Aviv. Emma Scheiber sent the following greeting: "May G-d give to the family of the Zamir years of good health and strength (Gezunt and Koach) to join the community through music." Emma Scheiber passed away in 2003 and was buried in Har Hamenuchot in Jerusalem. Her photo album includes pictures of her many Zionist activities in Israel. It starts with a series of 20 caricatures by Yaakov Biklis, of Zionist personalities who attended the 19th Zionist Congress in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1935. The album also includes photos from the kibbutz settlement in the valleys and the Gallil: Tel Yosef, Geva, Kfar Gilad, Kinneret, Degania Aleph and Bet and more. Other pictures are of the laying of the cornerstone of the General Workers Union building in Ramle and of the beginning years of the "Max Fine Vocational School" in Tel Aviv. Read more