Miriam Markel-Mosessohn

Brought up in Suwalki, Poland, in a wealthy merchant’s family, Miriam Wierzbolowska was driven by a passion for learning encouraged by her family. Her mastery of literary and journalistic Hebrew was complemented by her knowledge of French and German. In 1863 she married Anshel Markel-Moses-sohn, who shared her interest in Jewish cultural revival. Markel-Mosessohn was encouraged in her literary efforts by men involved in Jewish letters. These included Judah (Yehudah) Leib Gordon (Yalag), who responded enthusiastically to her Hebrew translation of a German poem about English Jews in the time of Richard the Lionheart. At Gordon’s insistence she became a Viennese correspondent for the Hebrew newspaper Ha-melits. She is most known for her translation, in two volumes, of Eugen Rispart’s Ha-yehudim be Angliyah (1859 and 1895).