KATERINA MERISON-YEVZEROV

KATERINA MERISON-YEVZEROV (March 22, 1870-October 25, 1928)

            The wife of Y. A. Merison, she was born in Nevel, Vitebsk district, Byelorussia.  She received an ardently traditional education, studied Hebrew in her childhood, and at age ten had mastered the language.  In 1882 she moved with her parents to Velizh, and there she turned her attention to secular education.  As an external student, she passed the examinations for a high school course of study.  In 1888 she immigrated to the United States and settled in New York, where she became active in the Jewish labor movement, while at the same time studying medicine at New York University, receiving her medical degree in 1893.  From 1895 she joined the campaign for women’s rights and herself, as a doctor, on many occasions helped the Jewish working population of New York’s East Side.  With the founding of the Workmen’s Circle, she examined candidates for membership.  During WWI she was secretary of the “aid organization for Russian prisoners of war in Germany and Austria” and a delegate from the organization to the International Red Cross.  She published articles on women’s issues in the monthly Fraye gezelshaft (Free society) in New York (1900), and later published articles on medicine, children’s education, and societal issues, as well as stories, sketches, and surveys of Russian literature in: Tsukunft (Future), Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Di glaykhhayt (Equality), Der arbayter (The worker), and Der tog (The day), among others, in New York.  She was the author of the anarchist “confessional prayers” which were published for “Kol Nidre Balls” over the years 1889-1893 in New York.  In book form: Di froy in der gezelshaft (Women in society) (New York: Zherminal, 1907), 82 pp., initially published in the journal Fraye gezelshaft in New York.  She also published under such pen names as: K. Yevzerov, Roze Ziserman, and Ezra Sofer.  She died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; G. Botvinik, in Forverts (New York) (October 26, 1928); Elye (Elias) Shulman, Geshikhte fun der yidisher literatur in amerike (History of Jewish literature in America) (New York, 1943), p. 70; Y. Yeshurin, in Yoyvl-numer tsukunft (Jubilee issue of Tsukunft) (New York, 1962); obituary notices in the Yiddish press.

Khayim Leyb Fuks