Reserve
THE JEWISH NE
Reproduction
Of First U. S.
English-Jewish
A Weekly Review
Weekly
Page 20
Monday, Feb. 28
For Detroit's
Welcome to
Eliahu Epstein,
Israel's Envoy
To U. S.
of Jewish Events
1E1
2114 Penobscot Bldg.—Phone WO. 5 1155
VOLUME !4—NO. 23
-
Detroit 26, Michigan, February 18, 1949
34
22 $3.00 Per Year; Single Copy, 10c
Israel Parliament egins Action
Under Weizmann s Leadership
Direct JTA Teletype Wires to The Jewish News.
JERUSALEM (JTA).—Jews
Exclusive in Michigan
The Autobiography of
DR. CHAIM WEIZMANN
First President of Israel
Will Appear in The Jewish News
Starting Next Friday, Feb. 25
No one can afford to miss reading this authentic back-
ground story on Israel, the story of the fabulous life of a man
who rose to world-wide recognition and respect ... the story
of the 2,000-year-old struggle to end Jewish homelessness.
in Jerusalem and throughout Israel long will re-
member the opening session of the Constituent Assembly which marked the es-
tablishment of the latest democratically elected Parliament in the world and the
first in the Middle East.
Actual business of opening the session included listening to a moving opening
statement read by President Weizmann in his capacity as head of the Provisional
State Council, the election of Joseph Sprinzak, one of the leading members of the
Israeli Labor Party, as speaker, lively discussion over the number of vice-speak-
ers to be elected and the amusing airing of a split within the four-member Com-
munist representation.
It was an unusually colorful gathering that jammed the assembly hall. Seated
in the center facing the President and members of the Provisional government
were the elected representatives, including intense young and elderly men of the
religious bloc and men on whose heads the British mandatory government had
placed heavy rewards, one Arab wearing a red fez, and another dressed in cere-
monial robes and turban.
On one side were government officials, representatives of international Zionist
organizations, aged religious leaders and the press. On the other side the Russian
diplomatic delegation, made conspicuous by the absence of all other big powers,
sat among bearded plainly dressed dignitaries of various Eastern Christian churches
and Moslem sects and diplomatic representatives of a number of minor countries.
(Continued on Page 14)
President Truman Acclaims English-Jewish Press
On Its One-Hundredth Anniversary in This Country
History of English-Jewish Weekly Press
THE WHiTE HOUSE
WAS
February 2 1949
In the U.S. Dating Back to Asmonean
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
—
(Copyright; 1949, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
There are several stages in Jewish journalism in which Ladino
and English were the language media.
(Judeo-Spanish),
German, Hebrew, Yiddish
My dear Mr. Slomovitzt
Please give my warm greetings to all those
who are attending the contention of the American Associa-
tion of Bhglish-Jewish Nowspapers February eighteenth to
twenty-first. The 100th anniversary of the publication
of 00The Asmonean" is a eignificant occasion, and I am
delighted to have a part in it.
The century that has passed since that date
'has witnessed our country's rise to a commanding world
position. This has been possible because we were richly
endowed by nature; but even more because we have drawn to
ourselves from all the nations of the earth those who
loved _freedom best.
It is our people who have nude America great,
and I am proud of the fact that' there have always been
many of Jewish origin among us. In the development of
our country, in its defense, and in upholding its high
ideals, American Jewry has played a distinguished role.
For one hundred years, the Jewish press has
been a potent force in building the America we love. May
it long continue to uphold the highest ideals of human
dignity and social justicel
Very sincerely yours
Mr. Philip Slomavits,
President,
'American Association of Shglish-Jewish newspapers,
2114 Penobscot Building,
Detroit 26, Michlon.
President Truman, in a message to the annual convention of the American
Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, to be held at the Willard Hotel,
Washington, D. C., Feb. 18 to 21, greets the editors and publishers of English-
Jewish weeklies on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the English-Jewish
Press in America. The President makes note of the fact that the first Jewish
weekly to appear in English was The Asmonean, published in New York in 1849.
The first Jewish periodical in the world, which made its appearance at about
the same time that the general European pr ess was born, was published in the Ladino
language, in Amsterdam, in 1678, under the name Gazeta de Amsterdam. It is in-
teresting to note that the second Jewish pub lication in the world on record was pub-
lished in 1687, also in Amsterdam, in Yiddish, and was known as the Tuesday and
Friday Courant. It was short-lived—it survived only 16 months—and its text was in
the Judeo-German known as lyre Taitsch, its actual name having been Dinstagishi
and Freitagishi Courantin.
In the following century, Hebrew publications began to - make their appear.
ance. Moses Mendelssohn published a Hebrew weekly, Kohelet Musar, in 1750. Dur.
ing the Haskalah period, Hebrew dailies were published and were the media for
spreading modern ideas among Jewish communities, meanwhile setting into motion
the movement for the revival of the language of the Bible.
Towards the end of the last century, Yiddish dailies assumed the leadership and
became the dominant factors in guiding the thinking of the Jewish masses through-
out the world. This was as true of the United States as it was of European countries.
In this country and in Poland the Yiddish dailies predominated, although newspapers
and periodicals also appeared in other languages in the Jewish communities of both
countries.-There were Polish and Hebrew journals in Poland. In the United States,
Jewish periodicals appeared in German, Hebrew and Ladino. La Vara, a Ladino per-
iodical, edited by Albert S. Torres, was pu blished in New York from 1922 to 1948,
and it was only about a year ago that this Judeo-Spanish weekly finally ended an in-
teresting existence in the declining community of Spanish Jews.
Prior to the era of Yiddish journalism in America, there were a number of
German-Jewish periodicals and attempts also were made to foster a Hebrew press. At
present, there is one Hebrew weekly, Had oar, now prospering, in its 26th year, under
the editorship of Menahem Ribalow. There are four Yiddish dailies—the Forward,
Der Tog, Yiddisher .Morgen Journal and Freiheit. Daily Yiddish newspapers at one
time appeared in Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and for a very short period in
Detroit. All of them disappeared. In Chicago and Cleveland Yiddish weeklies, off-
shoots of the earlier daily nwespapers, still are circulated. But in the main the Yiddish
press began to decline with the cessation of immigration to this country. A new era,
although slow-moving, therefore began for the Jewish newspaper published in
English.
The first English-Jewish periodicalpublished in English in this country was
The Occident and American Jewish Advocate which made its appearance in Philadel.
phia in April of 1843 under the editor ship of the able Rabbi Isaac Leesser of
Congregation Mikeh Israel. The Occident, about which Rabbi Leeser reported that
"we circulate scarcely above 510," for 25 years struggled to advance cultural Jewish
ideals and to clarify religious issues. But The Occident, like earlier periodicals
which appeared both in English and in German, was a monthly, publication.
The first English-Jewish weekly newspaper to make its appearance in this
country was The Asmonean, which was published in New York by Robert Lyon in
1849. From that year, therefore, begins the history of the Jewish weekly press in
America, published in the English language.
The Asmonean, a "family journal of commerce, politics, religion and litera.
ture," lasted only nine years. Before it suspended publication it added occasional
,
(Continued on Page 20)