Lives of the First World War

Edward J Sperling (1889 – July 22, 1946), was a 20th-century writer, humourist, and Zionist. Born in 1889 in a Jewish community in Slutsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. As a boy, he and his family fled Russia to avoid the state-sponsored pogroms, emigrating to the United States, where he changed his name to Edward. His family eventually settled in Sioux City, Iowa. As a boy – and throughout his life – Edward was described as quiet, gentle, and fairly introverted, spending most of his time reading or writing. As a result, he took to writing professionally, writing articles for local Jewish newspapers. When World War I broke out in 1918, Edward went to Canada to join the British Army, and ended up enlisting in the Jewish Legion under Joseph Trumpeldor,