PINKHES BERNIKER (April 12, 1908-1956)
He was born in Lyubtsh (Lubtsha, Lubča), Byelorussia. His father, Shmuel, was the local rabbi. He studied in religious primary school, as
well as in the yeshivas of Navaredok (Navahrudak),
Eyshishok (Eišiškės), and Vilna. He graduated from the Hebrew high school of
Dr. Epstein in Vilna and from the pedagogical course offered by Tarbut. He worked as a teacher. In 1925 he emigrated to Cuba, where he served
as a teacher in the Havana Jewish School.
His first publication (1927) was a sketch which appeared in Amerikaner
(American). He published stories in Keneder
odler (Canadian eagle), as well as a series of pedagogical articles in Dos
kind (The child) in Warsaw. Late in
1931 he moved to the United States. He
published stories and articles in Forverts (Forward), Tog (Day), Yidisher
kemfer (Jewish fighter), Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine), and Meksikaner
shriftn (Mexican writings), as well as in the Warsaw publications: Ekspres
(Express), Dos naye vort (The new word), and Literarishe bleter
(Literary leaves). He also wrote in
Hebrew. In Havana, he edited (as head of
a board) Kubaner yontef bleter (Cuban holiday leaves) and Oyfgang
(Arise) (forty issues). Among his books:
Shtile lebns, dertseylungen (Quiet lives, stories) (Vilna, 1935), 228
pp.; Ershte trit (First step), about
Jewish life in Cuba, was to be published in the late summer of 1939 in Vilna by
Kletskin Farlag, but with the outbreak of WWII, the manuscript was lost. Only a few chapters were published in Meksikaner shriftn (Mexican writings) in
1937 and thereafter in Havaner lebn
(Havana life) in 1944. Berniker’s
Hanukkah play A nes (A miracle) was published in
New York by Vaad hameḥankhim haivrim
lemaan erets yisrael haovedet. He was
living in Rochester, where he worked as the director of a Talmud-Torah.
Sources:
Dos yidishe vort (special issue, dedicated to Pinkhes Berniker) (Havana)
(December 1931); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (January 9,
1936); Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (March 13, 1936); M. Glikovski, in Veg
(Mexico) (September 6, 1936); Ts. Tarlovski, in Dos naye vort (Warsaw)
(October 11, 1935); D. Tsharni (Charney), Literarishe bleter (Warsaw)
(March 13, 1936); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 11,
1936); M. Melamed, in Yidishe velt (Philadelphia) (February 9, 1936);
Dr. Sh. Shteyman, in Yidisher kemfer (New York) (May 6, 1936); G.
Pomerants, in Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (December 18, 1936); Y.
Kisin, in Forverts (New York) (March 22, 1936); Sh. Rabinovitsh, in Tsukunft
(New York) (June 1937).
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), cols. 109-10.]
While in the United States, the man now known mainly as Pinkhes Berniker actually anglicized his name as Pincus Bernikier. In the 1960s, he moved from Rochester to Hartford, CT, where he taught for many years at a conservative synagogue, often organizing extra-curricular classes in Torah reading. After his death in New York in 1984, the University of Hartford presented an endowed bi-annual "Pincus Bernikier Memorial Lecture Series," though it appears that the series is no longer active. Bernikier had two children, one of whom was a rabbi for many years in New York.
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