Rebekah Gumpert Hyneman
1812—1875
The daughter of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, Rebekah Gumpert lived near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She married a Jewish businessman named Benjamin Hyneman who disappeared on a business trip out West, five years after they were married, and was presumed murdered. Hyneman raised their two sons alone, writing short stories, novellas, serial novels, and essays. Her collection of poems, The Leper and Other Poems, was published in 1853.
Her marriage to Hyneman solidified her devotion to the Jewish faith. Her writing reflects the special role that women, especially mothers, play in the Judaic tradition, within the lens of single mothers in 19th-century Americana. In “Female Scriptural Characters,” a series of poems first published in the Occident and American Jewish Advocate from 1846 to 1850, her subjects were biblical female figures such as Ruth, Judith, and Esther.
Hyneman continued to mourn her lost husband for the rest of her life, and never remarried. She died in 1875.
Her marriage to Hyneman solidified her devotion to the Jewish faith. Her writing reflects the special role that women, especially mothers, play in the Judaic tradition, within the lens of single mothers in 19th-century Americana. In “Female Scriptural Characters,” a series of poems first published in the Occident and American Jewish Advocate from 1846 to 1850, her subjects were biblical female figures such as Ruth, Judith, and Esther.
Hyneman continued to mourn her lost husband for the rest of her life, and never remarried. She died in 1875.