Dr. Simon Bernstein, prominent author, scholar and veteran Zionist, died here last night at the age of 80. He was an expert on Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages, and the author of numerous works on the subject.
Born in Latvia, Dr. Bernstein attended yeshivas in Poland and thereafter Universities of Berlin and Strasbourg. He received his Ph. D at the University of Berne, Switzer land, in 1906. Soon after his graduation, Dr. Bernstein embarked upon his civil service career to further the cause of Zionism which was so dear to him. He became secretary of the Central Committee of the Zionist Organization in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1908, a position which he held for three years.
From 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War he served as secretary of the World Zionist Executive in Berlin, Germany. Later he served in London as secretary of the Organization Department of the World Zionist Organization.
He came to the United States in 1922 where he served as director of the Palestine Bureau of the Jewish Agency until his retirement in 1949. He edited Dos Yiddishe Folk, organ of the ZOA, since 1922. Dr. Bernstein was also an outstanding authority on Dr. Herzl and his works. He was the first to translate Herzl’s “Judenstaat” into Yiddish.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
