BERTA NAGLE

BERTA NAGLE

            She lived in Philadelphia.  She was laborer.  Her poems—“Der shloflozer arbeter” (The sleepless worker), “Eyn lebnsbild” (One life story), “Der letster ady” (The last good-bye), “A bakanter keyver” (A known grave), and others—all about workers’ lives, were published in Folks-advokat (People’s advocate) in New York (late 1888).  She also published poems in Nyu yorker yudishe folks-tsaytung (New York Jewish people’s newspaper) and Morgnshtern (Morningstar).  She was the first Yiddish women’s writer in the United States.  Together with Toyve Segal, she organized literary groups in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other cities.  Detailed information about her life remains unknown.

Sources: Kalmen Marmor, “Der onheyb fun der yidisher literatur in amerike” (The beginning of Yiddish literature in America), Almanakh fun internatsyonaln arbeter-ordn (Almanac of the International Labor Order) (New York, 1940), pp. 356, 364; Marmor, Der onheyb fun der yidisher literatur in amerike (The beginning of Yiddish literature in America) (New York, 1943), pp. 35, 49, 52; Marmor, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York) (December 17, 1944).

Benyomen Elis