BERGNER, HERZ

BERGNER, HERZ (1907–1970), Yiddish novelist. The younger brother of melech ravitch , Bergner grew up in Radimno, Galicia. After a short stay in Warsaw, he immigrated to Melbourne in 1938. From 1928 he published short stories in leading Yiddish periodicals in Europe, Israel, Australia and the United States. In Warsaw he published the collection Shtubn un Gasn ("Houses and Streets," 1935) and was co-editor of Shriftn (1936). His novels, Tsvishn Himel un Vaser (Between Sky and Sea, 1946) dealing with a boatload of Jewish refugees, and Likht un Shotn (1960; Light and Shadow, 1963) describing the struggle of a Jewish family for acceptance in an Australian community, were translated into English. Bergner's Australian short stories, especially his volume Vu der Emes Shteyt Ayn ("Where the Truth Lies," 1966), realistically mirror various aspects in the life of Jewish immigrants in Melbourne. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: LNYL, 1 (1956), 379; M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon (1945), 43–45. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Kahan, in: Australian Jewish Historical Society, 7/4 (1973), 286–90; I. Turkov-Grudberg, in: Di Goldene Keyt, 56 (1966), 248–50. (Sol Liptzin)