Galin was born and raised in Lekhevitch, White Russia in a family of scholars and salesmen. At the age of 10, her mother died and Rifka was raised by an uncle. She studied privately both Jewish and general studies and became acquainted with Hebrew and Yiddish writers. In 1907 she emigrated to America and worked in a N. Y. factory until she became ill. In 1910 she was sent to the Denver hospital for lung treatment. There she met Yehuesh and at 20, began to write poetry and prose. She married, traveled with her husband to Harbin, China where she became a Yiddish teacher and wrote Yiddish poetry for children which was taught world wide in Yiddish schools. In 1921 she went to Palestine (Israel) and 1922 returned to New York. She was now published extensively and her work for children was anthologized worldwide. Many of her poems were set to music. In 1925 her six year old daughter, Taibele, died and after that Galin’s fragile health deteriorated. After her death in 1935 several collections of her work were published including Lider Un Dertseylungen, (“Poems and Stories”), 1937, Warsaw, Kinder-Fraynd, (“Childhood Friends”), 1938, New York.