ARN (AARON) BERGMAN

ARN (AARON) BERGMAN (October 4, 1890-May 2, 1953)

He was born in Shavel (Šiauliai), Lithuania.  He attended secular middle school and high school.  As a youth, he joined the revolutionary movement, and as a result he lived undercover in Libave (Liepāja), Tula, and Lodz.  He was in Lemberg, 1921-1922, and from 1927 in Brazil.  He was active in the Poale-Tsiyon movement, a lecturer on political and economic issues, a fighter for Jewish culture, and a pioneer in the Yiddish press in Brazil.  He began publishing in the Russian provincial press under the name A. Naumov.  He wrote several pamphlets in Russian, which were published by Lutsh Publishers in Lodz.  He served as editor of the Poale-Tsiyon weekly Dos vort (The word) in Lemberg (1921-1922), and later editor of the first Yiddish newspaper in Brazil: Yidishe prese (Jewish press) from June 19, 1930 to May 1950.  During upheavals in Brazil, on several occasions he was arrested for supporting Jewish interests and the rights of the Yiddish language.  Among his pseudonyms: A, Naumov, Ben-Nokhum, and A Vanderer (a wanderer), among others.  He died in São Paulo.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; L. Shmeltsinger, in Yidishe prese (Rio de Janeiro) (August 20, 1954); M. F. Silva Reile, in Yidishe prese (Rio de Janeiro) (August 20, 1954); P. Shteyvaks, in Yidishe prese (Rio de Janeiro) (August 20, 1954); K. Harmats, in Yidishe prese (Rio de Janeiro) (August 20, 1954).