Bernstein, Zvi Hirsch

views updated

BERNSTEIN, ZVI HIRSCH

BERNSTEIN, ZVI HIRSCH (1846–1907), publisher, editor, and pioneer of the Yiddish and Hebrew press in the United States. Born in Russia, he received a traditional education and contributed articles to Hebrew literary magazines. In 1870 he emigrated to the United States and founded the first Yiddish paper Di Post. (J.K. Buchner's Di Yidishe Tsaytung, although published earlier in 1870, appeared only three or four times.) In 1871 Bernstein founded the first Hebrew newspaper in the United States, Ha-Ẓofeh ba-Areẓ ha-Ḥadashah, which survived until 1876. Afterward he became a successful businessman and a patron of the Yiddish theater.

bibliography:

B.Z. Eisenstadt, Ḥakhmei Yisrael ba-Amerikah (1903), 20–22; M. Davis, in: Sefer ha-Yovel li-Khevod Alexander Marx (1950), 115–41; Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 374.

[Eisig Silberschlag]

More From encyclopedia.com