Hersh Dovid Nomberg (1876–1927)

Hersh Dovid Nomberg was born to a family of Hasidic Jewish rabbis in Poland. After receiving a traditional Jewish education, at age 21, with the help of a socialist organization, he moved to Warsaw for a secular education. He taught himself Russian, Polish, and German. He became part of the literry circle of I.L. Peretz, which also included Abraham Reisen and Sholem Asch. Peretz persuaded Nomberg to write in Yiddish, and his first poem in this language appeared in 1900. Nomberg also wrote for the Hebrew paper Ha-Ẓofeh and was its editor for a time. His first collection of Hebrew stories appeared in 1905, followed by five collections in Yiddish. The anonymous hero of his psychoanalytical tale "Fligelman" ("Winged Man," 1908) served as a symbol for the Jewish generation of this period. After 1910, Nomberg devoted himself almost entirely to political activism and journalism. He wrote articles for many periodicals as well as translations of his own work and that of others. However, in 1912 he published the popular drama, Di Mishpokhe (The Family). Nomberg helped provide a welcome home for Jewish writers in Warsaw, and was for many years the president of the Society for Jewish Writers and Journalists. In 1922–1923, Nomberg visited Argentina, where he was impressed by the idealism and attachment to Yiddish culture of Jewish immigrants there. He helped to organize a Yiddish writers association in Buenos Aires.