{{Short description|Lithuanian-born American writer}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata |fetchwikidata=ALL |dateformat=mdy }}

'''Bertha Wiernik''' (March 21, 1884 – 1951) was a [[Lithuania]]n-born American writer who wrote for Jewish publications in English and [[Yiddish]].

Bertha Wiernik was born on March 21, 1884 in [[Vilnius]], the daughter of Hirsch Wolf Wiernik, a ''[[maggid]]'', and Sarah Rachel (Milchiger) Wiernik, a merchant.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Bertha Wiernik |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wiernik-bertha |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=Jewish Women's Archive |language=en}}</ref> She was the younger sister of journalist and essayist [[Peter Wiernik]]. She emigrated to the United States in 1887 and grew up in Chicago.<ref name=":0" /> While living in Chicago, she attended public school and studied Hebrew and the Bible in private lessons with a rabbi. She worked at a Hebrew weekly ''Ha-Tehiyah'' as a [[typesetter]].<ref name=":1" /> In 1903, she relocated to New York City.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Kohn |first=Roger |title=Bertha Wiernik |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wiernik-bertha |access-date=2024-06-23 |website=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women |language=en}}</ref>

Initially writing under the pseudonym '''[[Shulamith|Shulamit]]''', she began publishing in Jewish publications in 1899. She published poems, stories, and translations of Yiddish literary classics in ''[[Der Kol]], [[Jewish Courier]], [[Jewish Herald]],'' and ''[[Yidishes Ṭageblaṭṭ]]'' (''[[Jewish Daily News]]'').<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Her [[Near future in fiction|near future]] [[science fiction]] story "The [[Temple menorah|Menorah]] Spangled Ship" appeared in the April 23 and 28, 1919 issues of ''Yidishes Ṭageblaṭt.'' In the story, Jewish refugees in London build a gigantic reconstruction of the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'' to bring Jews to the Land of the Chosen People.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=12 August 2018 |title=SFE: Wiernik, Bertha |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wiernik_bertha |access-date=2024-06-23 |website=Encyclopedia of Science Fiction}}</ref> Her translation work included ''[[Slavery or Serfdom]]'', a Jewish version of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by [[Isaac Mayer Dick]] and contributing to the ''English-Yiddish Encyclopedic Dictionary,'' edited by Paul Abelson (1915).

Wiernik's [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] drama ''Destruction'' premiered at the Chanin Auditorium on the 50th floor of the [[Chanin Building]] on June 30, 1932. Performed by the [[American Classic Players]], ''Destruction'' tells the story of Eleazur Amon ([[Claude Tosnik]]), the son of a minister who is recruited into communism by Dr. Porzowsky, but his father Josiah Amon rescues him from a communist meeting. Poorly reviewed, the play lasted for a single performance. ''Billboard'' called it "one of those earnest little dramas--so earnest it hurts--which are so incompetent that anybody but a theory-mad fanatic would realize their utter dramatic hopelessness at first glance."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leonard |first=William T. |url=http://archive.org/details/oncewasenough00leon |title=Once was enough |date=1986 |publisher=Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8108-1909-2}}</ref> The ''New York Times'' wrote it "was modestly described as 'the play that would unite the world.' Last night it did succeed in uniting its audience in one common desire - to escape to the exits and elevators as quickly as possible."<ref>J.B. "Destroying Communism." ''New York Times,'' 1932 Jul 01, p. 19.</ref> The play was reworked as ''Hate Planters,'' premiering at the [[Heckscher Theatre]] on May 23, 1933 starring [[Jules Dassin]] as Eleazur.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leiter |first=Samuel L. |url=http://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofne0000leit |title=The encyclopedia of the New York stage, 1930-1940 |date=1989 |publisher=New York : Greenwood Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-313-25509-0}}</ref>

Wiernik also wrote the Yiddish-language dramas ''Lomir makhn a pshore'' (Let’s make a compromise), ''Di teyve'' (The [Noah’s] ark), ''Misis peddler'' (Mrs. Peddler), and ''Nokh nisht'' (Not yet).<ref name=":3" />

After Wiernik's brother died in 1936, she withdrew from the public scene and became religious.<ref name=":2" /> She published the drama ''Gaysṭige aṭomen, a religyeze drame'' (Spiritual atoms, a religious drama) in book form in 1946.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Vyernik, Basye (Berte, Bertha Wiernik) (March 21, 1884–1951) &mdash; the Congress for Jewish Culture |url=https://congressforjewishculture.org/lexicon//people/4535/ |access-date=2024-06-23 |website=congressforjewishculture.org |language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}} == External links ==

* ''[[iarchive:nybc204515|Gaysṭige aṭomen, a religyeze drame]]''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiernik, Bertha}} [[Category:Created via preloaddraft]] [[Category:1884 births]] [[Category:1951 deaths]] [[Category:Writers from Vilnius]] [[Category:Yiddish-language dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Yiddish-language writers]] [[Category:20th-century American women writers]] [[Category:American women dramatists and playwrights]]