Hirsch Bernstein

Zvi Hirsch Bernstein (Yiddish: צבי הירש בערענשטין; March 25, 1846 – August 6, 1907) was a Russian-American editor and publisher. He was the founder of the first Yiddish and the first Hebrew periodicals in the United States.

Hirsch Bernstein
Born	Zvi Hirsch Bernstein (1846-03-25)March 25, 1846 Vladislavov, Augustów Governorate, Congress Poland
Died	August 6, 1907(1907-08-06) (aged 61)[1] Tannersville, New York
Language	Hebrew, Yiddish
Relatives	Herman Bernstein (nephew)[1]

Biography

Hirsch Bernstein was born in Vladislavov (Neustadt-Schirwindt), then part of the Russian Empire. He received a traditional Jewish education and became fluent in written Hebrew. He emigrated to the United States in 1870, settling in New York City.^[2]

That same year, he launched Di Post, the first Yiddish-language periodical in the United States,^[3] using Yiddish type imported from Vilna and Vienna.^[4] The publication lasted only six months.^[4] Also in 1870, Bernstein founded Ha-Tzofeh be-Eretz ha-Ḥadashah ('The Observer in the New Land'), the first Hebrew-language publication in the United States, which was published weekly for five years.

Bernstein was a frequent contributor to prominent European Hebrew periodicals such as Ha-Maggid, Ha-Lebanon, and Ha-Karmel. Alongside Ch. G. Vidaver, he was among the earliest regular American correspondents to these publications.^[5][2]

Bernstein later became a successful businessman in New York and a patron of the Yiddish theatre.^[3] He died in 1907 at the Fairmount Hotel in Tannersville, New York, in the Catskill Mountains.^[6]