Jacob Adler

Jacob Adler (December 12, 1874 – December 31, 1974), also known by his pen name B. Kovner, was a native of Austria-Hungary and a Galician Jew who became a Yiddish language writer, poet, and humorist in the United States.

Life Adler was born on December 12, 1874, in Dynów, Galicia (at the time, a governorate of Austria, now part of Poland), the son of Hersh Melech Adler and Zisel Adler. He emigrated to the United States in 1892, initially settling in New Haven, Connecticut, where he apprenticed as a tailor.

He later moved to New York City and worked in a factory there. He first wrote for The Forward in 1897, when he contributed two short workers' poems under the name Nesher. Over the next several decades, he contributed publications to 54 different magazines and newspapers, including The Forward, Di Varhayt, the Jewish Morning Journal, Fraye Arbeter Shtime, Tsukunft, Yugnt, Literatur un Lebn, Amerike, Yidisher Kemfer, Der Groyser Kundes, Kibetser, Der Beyzem, Fraye Shtunde, Der Arbiter, Fraye Gezelshaft, Dos Naye Lebn, Di Tsayt, Arbeter Fraynd, Yidisher Arbeter (Krakow), Folks-Fraynd (Sanok), Roman-Tsaytung (Warsaw), and Yidishe Velt (Wilno). In 1906, he became editor of the Yiddish weekly Brownsville Progress. He also edited Traumen un Wirklichkeit and Der Yiddisher Gazlen. In 1908, he founded Der Groyser Kundes with Moyshe Nadir.

Over the course of his literary career, Adler wrote a dozen books, 18,000 poems, numerous plays, and over 30,000 humorous articles. Many of his works were translated into German, Polish, Hungarian, Hebrew, and English. One of his stories, "Why Doesn't Hellil Move," was translated into Italian by Enrico Caruso in 1919. He continued to write a humor column for The Forward until his retirement in 1936. He then moved to Gulfport, Florida, where he continued to write poems and stories for The Forward. He stopped writing three years before his death, when he entered the nursing home, although he had a backlog of work that continued to be published after he died.

Jacob Adler died in Pasadena, St. Petersburg, Florida, on December 31, 1974, aged 100. He was buried in Chapel Hill Cemetery in St. Petersburg. He was survived by his children: Bertha Klausner, Clara Rubin, Emil and Julius; 14 grandchildren, 26 greatgrandchildren, including Marty Rubin and at least two greatgreat‐grandchildren, Jordan and Noah Rubin.