WIERNIK, PETER:

By: Cyrus Adler, Frederick T. Haneman

Russo-American journalist; born at Wilna, Russia, in March, 1865. He received the customary Jewish education. From 1878 to 1882 he was in Riga; in 1882 he lived at Kovno; and in the following year he joined his parents at Byelostok, where he stayed for two years. His father, a maggid, instructed him in the Talmud and rabbinica, but otherwise he was self-taught. In 1885 he emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Chicago. Two years later he became a compositor on the "Jewish Courier," and in five years rose to be its editor. In 1898 he left for New York, where he has since resided. In that city he has been connected with the "Jüdisches Tageblatt," and he is at present (1905) on the staff of "Das Morgen Journal."

In addition to his collaboration on several American and Yiddish journals and his contributions to The Jewish Encyclopedia, Wiernik is the author of "History of the Jews," New York, 1901.

A. F. T. H.