JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

secular subjects. In 1901 and again in 1907–08, he studied as an
external student in Kiev, but failed the examinations, and then
audited courses in dentistry, without taking a diploma.
Bergelson read Hebrew and Russian literature before he
was in his teens, and began writing in both those languages.
His early literary efforts, a Hebrew story “Reikut” (“Emptiness”)
and a Yiddish story “Der Toyber” (“The Deaf Man”),
submitted to several periodicals, initially did not meet with
success. “Der Toyber,” however, was later published in the first
edition of his collected works (Berlin, 6 vols., 1922–23); it was
dramatized under the title Di Broyt Mil (“The Mill,” 1930), and
was staged with some success in both Russia and America.
His first full-length work, Arum Vokzal (“At the Depot”), published
in Warsaw in 1909 at his own expense, was warmly received
by major critics; Bergelson thereafter wrote only in Yiddish,
devoting himself to Yiddish literature and belles lettres.
The novel Nokh Alemen (“After All is Said and Done,”1913) was
justly hailed as a masterpiece and established his reputation as
both a gifted author of prose and the leading modernist prose
writer in Yiddish, whose major theme was the slow decay of
the Jewish bourgeoisie in village and town.
Bergelson was very active in Jewish cultural circles and
one of the founding directors of the dynamic Kultur Lige, a
Jewish cultural organization established in Kiev immediately
after the Russian Revolution. He coedited two of its most influential
publications: the literary miscellanies Oyfgang (1919,
in which his work “In Eynem a Zumer,” “During One Summer,”
appeared) and Eygns (1920, in which his novella Opgang,
“Descent,” was first published).
In 1920, Bergelson moved to Berlin where he coedited the
journal Milgroym with *Der Nister, and then two issues of the
short-lived literary journal In Shpan (“In Harness”), the title
of which suggested a new leftist political orientation. In Berlin,
he also published a series of short stories dealing with the
theme of exile. Writing for the New York Jewish daily Forverts
until 1925, he later became a correspondent for the Moscow
Emes and the New York communist newspaper, Morgn-Frayhayt.
In marked contrast to his earlier views, in which he originally
argued that art should not provide “naked abstractions”
for propaganda purposes, his writings of this period came increasingly
to identify with Soviet ideology, and in his critical
writing as well as his fiction he insisted that literature should
be committed to the cause of the Revolution, the Communist
Party, and the interests of the proletariat. His short novels and
stories of those years dealt with revolutionary themes.
Bergelson traveled widely: in 1924, through the Jewish
communities of Romania, under the auspices of ORT; to the
Soviet Union in 1926, where he declared himself a “Soviet
writer”; to Paris; to the United States for six months during
1929 where he was able to witness at first hand the Wall Street
crash and the beginning of the Great Depression; through Poland
on a lecture and reading tour; and to Copenhagen for a
brief stay, in 1933. In 1934, he settled in Moscow after a visit to
the Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan. His major work
of the 1930s, Baym Dnieper (“On the Dnieper”), is a modified,
bergen, polly
partly autobiographical Bildungsroman (2 vols., 1932–40). Like
most Jewish and other Soviet writing of the decade, Bergelson’s
work adapted itself increasingly to the thematic and stylistic
demands of Socialist Realism.
After 1941, and for the duration of World War II, Bergelson
was active in the Jewish *Anti-Fascist Committee; his
wartime stories appeared in its publication, Eynikeyt. Two
dramas, Prints Reuveni (“Prince Reuveni”) and Mir Viln Lebn
(“We Want to Live”), were written during this time: the first
was never performed in Russia; the second was staged by the
Habimah Theater in Tel Aviv. Early in 1949, Bergelson was
imprisoned (apparently without trial) with other leading
Yiddish writers – including P. *Markish, I. *Feffer, D. *Hofstein
– and together with them was shot on August 12, 1952,
his 68th birthday. A Soviet edition of selected works from his
oeuvre, published in 1961, indicated the extent of his subsequent
“rehabilitation.”
Bergelson’s early theme – the decline of individual initiative
in a period of widespread stagnation – finds its precise
tonal correlative in his style: indirect quotation, passive verb
forms, adjectival repetition, periodic sentences, and similar
devices create a fatalistic atmosphere in his fiction that subtly
suggests character while foregrounding the pessimistic curve
of the plot. This style persists even in his “revolutionary” writing
of the 1920s, but becomes more straightforwardly dramatic
in his stories about Birobidzhan and Soviet progress. His wartime
fiction, collected in Naye Dertseylungen (“New Stories,”
1947), shows an interesting variation of his early impressionism.
Yiddish criticism considers Bergelson one of its foremost
modern prose writers.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 1 (1926), 347ff.; LNYL, 1
(1956), 379–83; Y. Dobrushin, David Bergelson (1947); B. Finkelstein,
in: Sovetish Heymland, 4 (1964), 148–50 (bibliography); Kressel, Leksikon,
1 (1965), 317–8; B. Harshav, et al. (eds.), A Shpigl oyf a Shteyn
(1964) (complete bibliography on life and works); I. Howe and E.
Greenberg (eds.), A Treasury of Yiddish Stories (1953); C. Madison,
Yiddish Literature (1968). Add. Bibliography: A. Novershtern,
in: Di Goldene Keyt, 94 (1977), 132–43; 115 (1985), 44–58; J. Sherman
(ed. and trans), Opgang/Descent (1999).
[Ruth Wisse / Joseph Sherman (2nd ed.)]
BERGEN, POLLY (Nellie Paulina Burgin; 1930– ), U.S. actress,
singer, entrepreneur. During her long professional life,
Bergen distinguished herself as an extremely versatile entertainer
and business executive. She enjoyed enduring success
as an actress on the stage and screen, as a singer, and as the
founder of her own cosmetic and jewelry lines. Born in Bluegrass,
Tennessee, Bergen began working in radio at the age
of 14. She arrived in Hollywood at age 19, making her feature
film debut in Across the Rio Grande (1949). Bergen subsequently
starred in three films alongside legendary comedy
duo Dean Martin and Jerry *Lewis, including At War With
the Army (1950), That’s My Boy (1951), and The Stooge (1953)
as well as making her Broadway debut with a starring role in
the revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. Bergen released
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