Martha Wolfenstein
{{Short description|Prussian-born American writer (1869–1906)}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2022}}
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{{Infobox writer
| name = Martha Wolfenstein
| image = Martha_Wolfenstein.png
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1869|08|05}}
| birth_place = Insterburg, Gumbinnen, Kingdom of Prussia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|03|17|1869|08|05}}
| death_place = Cleveland, Ohio, United States
| resting_place = {{Ill|Willet Street Cemetery|qid=Q112834017}}, Cleveland{{cite news|title=Talented Writer Dead|newspaper=The Jewish Outlook|location=Denver, Colorado|date=March 30, 1906|volume=3|issue=22|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/667181293/|url-access=subscription}}
| occupation = Author
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Martha Wolfenstein (August 5, 1869 – March 17, 1906){{cite book|author=Board of County Commissioners|title=Death Records from Cuyahoga County, Ohio|location=Cleveland, Ohio|date=1906–1907|via=Ancestry.com|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1595:62075}} was a Prussian-born American author. She was once described as "the best Jewish sketch writer in America."{{r|maccabaean}}
Early life
Martha Wolfenstein was born in 1869 in Insterburg, East Prussia, the eldest daughter of Dr. Samuel Wolfenstein (1841–1921) and Bertha Brieger ({{circa|1844}}–1885).{{r|gartner}} Her father, who served as rabbi in that city from 1865 to 1870, had received rabbinic ordination under Zvi Mecklenburg.{{r|ajyb}} During her infancy the family emigrated to the United States, after her father's election as director of the local Höhere Töchterschule was overturned by the Prussian government.{{r|ajyb}} They eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as superintendent of the Jewish Orphan Asylum.{{r|gartner}} She resided at the orphanage and received a public school education.{{r|jwa}}{{r|JE}}
Career
Wolfenstein's first publications were translations from German of short fiction by Leopold Kompert.{{r|jwa}} She went on to write short stories based on her father's experiences in a Moravian Judengasse, which she contributed to many of the leading American Jewish journals, and to other magazines like McClure's and Lippincott's.{{r|clevelant_hist}}{{r|pastmasters}} Among her writings were A Priest from the Ghetto and A Sinner in Israel (in Lippincott's) and The Renegade (in the Outlook).
In 1901 the Jewish Publication Society of America released her first novel, Idyls of the Gass. A German translation was later published in Die Zeit of Vienna. It is noted for its strong female characters,{{r|jwa}} and sympathetic depiction of ghetto Jews.{{r|pastmasters}} The work received praise from Henrietta Szold, Israel Zangwill, Simon Wolf, Kaufmann Kohler, and other Jewish public intellectuals.{{r|jwa}}{{r|pastmasters}}{{r|oxford}}
At the time of her death, she was working on a play.{{r|polster}}
Death and legacy
Wolfenstein died from tuberculosis on March 17, 1906, after a prolonged illness.{{r|menorah_obit}} The Central Conference of American Rabbis extended official condolences to her family in recognition of her literary talents.{{r|ccar}} Martha House, a residence for poor women and girls, was established in her memory the following year by the Cleveland Council of Jewish Women.{{r|greenberg}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|title=Idyls of the Gass|date=1901|location=Philadelphia|publisher=The Jewish Publication Society of America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOFqe2VDf_IC&pg=PA1}}
- {{cite book|title=A Renegade and Other Tales|date=1905|location=Philadelphia|publisher=The Jewish Publication Society of America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQo4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1}}
References
{{Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Wolfenstein, Martha|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14984-wolfenstein-martha|first1=Cyrus|last1=Adler|first2=Frederick T.|last2=Haneman|volume=12|page=550}}
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite book|chapter=Biographical Sketches of Jewish Communal Workers in the United States | editor-last=Adler | editor-first=Cyrus | editor-last2=Szold | editor-first2=Henrietta | publisher=The Jewish Publication Society of America |location=Philadelphia| title=The American Jewish Year Book | year=1905–1906 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqFKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117| page=117}}
{{cite book|title=Year Book of the Central Conference of American Rabbis|volume=16|editor-first=Tobias|editor-last=Schanfarber|editor2-first=Samuel|editor2-last=Hirshberg|date=1906|publisher=Central Conference of American Rabbis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2-sLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA35}}
{{cite web|title=Wolfenstein, Martha|publisher=Case Western University|website=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|date=June 25, 2020 |url=https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/wolfenstein-martha|access-date=June 30, 2022}}
{{cite web|title=Martha Wolfenstein|first=Jonathan D.|last=Sarna|website=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women|date=1999|publisher=Jewish Women's Archive|access-date=June 30, 2022|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wolfenstein-martha}}
}}
External links
{{Archival records|title=Martha Wolfenstein Collection|location=Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland, Ohio|description_URL=https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll9/id/41215/}}
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Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Category:American women short story writers
Category:Jewish American short story writers
Category:People from Insterburg
Category:Prussian emigrants to the United States
Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Ohio