Herman Bernstein

Herman Bernstein (Yiddish: הערמאַן בערנשטײן, September 21, 1876 – August 31, 1935) was an American journalist, poet, novelist, playwright, translator, Jewish activist, and diplomat. He was the United States Ambassador to Albania and was the founder of Der Tog, the Jewish daily newspaper.

Biography

Herman Bernstein was born in Vladislavov, Russian Empire (today in Lithuania). Herman's parents were David and Marie Elsohn Bernstein. His uncle was the writer and publisher Hirsch Bernstein. His brother was a writer, Hillel, or Harry Bernstein. He also had two older sisters named Helen and Flora. When he was 6 years old, his parents moved to Mohilev, on the Dnieper river in present-day Belarus.

Herman emigrated to the United States in 1893 first arriving in Chicago. His father, a Talmudic scholar, became sick with tuberculosis shortly after they arrived in the United States. This illness required Herman and his siblings to work in sweatshops to support the family. He married Sophie Friedman in 1901. They had four children together, Violet Bernstein Willheim, Hilda Bernstein Gitlin, Dorothy Bernstein Nash, and David Bernstein. who became a long-time newspaper editor in Binghamton, New York.

Bernstein covered the Russian Revolution in 1917 for the New York Herald, which led him to both Siberia and Japan with the American Expeditionary Forces. He covered the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 for the same newspaper.

Herman Bernstein died in Sheffield, Massachusetts, on August 31, 1935. He was survived by his wife Sophie, and his brother the writer Hillel Bernstein.