HERSHL MARGOLIS

HERSHL MARGOLIS (1886-1944)

            He was born in Brisk (Brest), Lithuania, into a laboring family.  He attended religious elementary school and a Russian public school, and later he became a carpenter.  In 1906 he came to the United States.  He lived for a time in New York and worked at his trade.  He studied at the Educational Alliance on the East Side, later graduating from school as a dentist.  From 1920 he was living in Newark.  He contributed to: Der shtern (The star), Morgenshtern (Morningstar), Nyu-dzhoyrzi-shtern (New Jersey star), Nyu-dzhoyrzi moskito (New Jersey mosquito), and Dr. B. Forenberg’s Nyuarker shtime (Voice of Newark), in which he published poems, feature pieces, and stories (also under the pen name “Der Brisker Takhshitl fun Nyuark” (The Brisk Brat from Newark).  He also placed work in: Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Tog (Day), and other serials in New York.  He composed a series of poems that were sung as folksongs, among them the popular “Unter a kleyn beymele” (Under a little tree).  He died in Newark.

Sources: Information from M. Naks in Newark and from Sh. D. Zinger and Yosl Kohn in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks