100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials may be under copyright. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission. If you have questions about the collection, please contact the Bentley Historical Library at bentley.ref@umich.edu

January 08, 1988 - Image 2

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1988-01-08

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

PURELY COMMENTARY

The Newest Image Of World Jewish Journalism

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

D

Editor Emeritus

wring the sessions of the
World Jewish Congress in
Stockholm, Sweden in 1959, a
group of us, representing Jewish
newspapers in some 30 countries,
mobilized forces to create the World
Union of Jewish Journalists.

Many eminent personalities were in
our organizing group. Nahum
Goldmann, as president of the World
Jewish Congress, gave us encourage-
ment. Zalman Shazar, who was later to
become the third president of Israel,
was in our ranks.

We began to mobilize a global
membership. We created a small tri-
lingual periodical, the Jewish Jour-

Detroit Distaff Triumph:
JNF Council President

Sue Eisenberg

I

t is no longer sensational or in
any sense revolutionary for women
to attain high ranking positions
politically or in the social services.
They are in the Supreme Court, in
both houses of Congress, in guber-
natorial positions.
In the Jewish communities they are
presidents of synagogues and
federations.
When a woman is chosen to head an
organization in which a counterpart
already heads a woman's auxiliary, the
news becomes more striking and more
interesting.
This is the case with the Jewish Na-
tional Fund Council of Detroit which
already has a 65-year-old women's aux-
iliary. Now the JNF Council itself is
woman-led.
The selection of Sue Eisenberg for
the JNF Council presidency would be
less striking if it were not for the pater-
nal background that gives her added
status.
For Sue, the movement over which
she presides is a family legacy. Her
parents, Ann and Sol Eisenberg, made
the JNF Blue-White Box a symbol of
their Jewish devotions, and Zionism
became a duty for all the Eisenbergs.
Her father, the late Sol Eisenberg,
had a major community position as
chairman of the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign in the challenging 1970s. For two
decades he was among the leading ac-

2

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1988

tivists in the Jewish Welfare
Federation.
In his home, Sol Eisenberg elevated
the Jewish National Fund among the
most obligatory causes in Jewish Life.
If the JNF Blue-White Box did not ex-
ceed the hundred-dollar quarterly gift
in mere coins, as a supplementary
gesture to support land redemption in
Israel, he was not fully satisfied.
That's how the spirit was attained
for the movement. Sue emphasized it in
the years of her involvement in the
Jewish National Fund Council of
Detroit, and her labors led to the
recognition that made her the move-
ment's president in the recent election.
Sue Eisenberg earned her
bachelor's and Juris Doctor degrees
from the University of Michigan and is
practicing law with her husband,
Leonard M. Mazos, with offices in Bir-
mingham and Ann Arbor. In addition
to Michigan, she is admitted to practice
law in the District of Columbia. Her
specialty is in the area of labor law with
primary emphasis on employment
discrimination.
In Washington, she served as
special assistant to the General
Counsel of the Equal Employment Op-
portunity Commission from 1976 to
1978, and was actively involved in
developing an interpretation of the
Civil Rights Act which prohibits
discrimination in employment based on
gender, race or national origin. She was
especially active in drafting the sexual
harassment affirmative action and
testing guidelines.
Mrs. Eisenberg was guest lecturer
on federal employment discrimination
law at the George Washington Univer-
sity in Washington, D.C. and was a
panel lecturer representing the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
at the National Women's Legal Rights
Convention in Atlanta, Ga. In 1978, she
received the Chairman's Outstanding
Performance Award and the Certificate
of commendation. She has been instruc-
tor at Walsh College for Accountancy in
business law.
Mrs. Eisenberg wrote a book on
domestic violence which was published
in law review format under the title The
Assaulted Wife: Catch 22 Revisited.
These are thumb-nail sketches of an
active life with new assignments. The
emphasis on Israel, with the JNF as a
particular commitment, is her embrac-
ing of the legacies she considers
family-blessed.

nalist, with articles in English, Hebrew
and Yiddish. It continued for several
years. The movement functioned for
about 15 years, with frequent sessions
in Jerusalem. Then it faded. A suc-
cessor world Jewish journalists'
organization emerged some weeks ago,
at an organizing session in Jerusalem.
The differing conditions on a world
scale, the new journalists in action,
represent an important chapter in the
history of the Jewish people in this cen-
tury. Therefore, what has happened
since the Hitler tragedies and in the
four decades that followed encourage
study and scrutiny for an understan-
ding of what may be judged as in-
evitable destiny.
Reproduction of the first page of our
official organ at the time, The Jewish
Journalist, will be recognized at once
for its statistical values. Our organizing
session was held Aug. 9, 1959, in the
Speaker's Office of the Swedish Parlia-
ment in Stockholm. The state of affairs
in Jewish journalism, worldwide, at the
time, is listed on the reproduced page.
It is important that the record of
Jewish newspapers existing at the time
should be known. Therefore the impor-
tance of reproducing an old record.
Actually, the chronology is not so
old. It may have been forgotten and
overlooked in Jewish historical studies.
After all, only a quarter of a century
has elapsed since the event of the for-

The

Continued on Page 36

ewish Journalist

uo,'7grnw ■ nywrr,

No. 1.

mation of the World Union of Jewish
Journalists in Stockholm. But the fact
must be acknowledged that many, very
many, of the newspapers that function-
ed in 1959 are no longer in existence.
Therefore, the recollection of what
happened to one of the most important
functions in Jewish life must be analyz-
ed and must represent an important
responsibility for research and study.
The publishing record of three
decades ago provided in the reproduc-
ed journal provides valuable data for
linguistic and related studies. If a com-
plete, similar, current accounting were
available there would be drastic revela-
tions. While the Yiddish newspapers
and magazines then shared a predomi-
nance, there is a new condition. The
English language press now enjoys a
leading role. Yiddish is the greatest suf-
ferer in readership and therefore in cir-
culation. The daily newspapers publish-
ed in Yiddish have vanished. The
English language newspapers and
periodicals have increased in an im-
mense fashion. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the organizational forces
of the new journalistic movement, the
International Jewish Media Associa-
tion, stems from the American Jewish
Press Association, whose president,
Robert Cohen, editor of the St. Louis
Jewish Light, also has assumed that
presidency.

LONDON, DECEMBER 1960

"

1171'71 ni21111771

Published on behalf of the Preparatory Committee for the
establishment of a 'World Union of Jewish Journalists

THE STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE

OVER 1100

'JEWISH

NEWSPAPERS

English

348

French

64

German

38

Hebrew

384

Spanish-
Portuguese 54

Yiddish 168

Other
Languages 88

Geographical

Europe

161

Africa

43

Asia (including
5 2"81 534
Israel udi

Among those around the table are: Alter Trus (Stockholm).
Mr. & Mrs. Philip Stomovitz (Detroit), Wolfgang von Weis
(Israel), Rabbi Dr. M. Nurock (Israel), Josef Fraenkel (London),
Metz- Grossman (Israel). Dr. Henry Shoskes (New York),
Joel Cang (London), Baruch Graubart (Munich), Marc Turkow
(Buenos Aires), Jacob Fessel (Stockholm).

Australasia

16

Canada

19

United Stat. 247

Central and
9th. America 1 24

WORLD UNION OF JEWISH JOURNALISTS

Communique issued by the Preparatory Committee to
establish a World Union of Jewish Journalists after the
nieeting in the Speaker's Office of the Swedish Parliament
.
held on 9th August, 1959.

DURING the Fourth Assembly of the World Jewish Con-
gress in Stockholm seventy journalists, representing
Jewish newspapers in many languages published in some
thirty countries, held a conference to discuss the prepara-
tions for the formation of a World Union of Jewish
Journalists. Mr. Meir Grossman, veteran Jewish journalist,
presided.
After a lengthy and serious discussion it was decided to
form a provisional committee of representatives consisting

of Jewish journalists in Israel, United States, South America,
Africa. France and Great Britain with headquarters in
London. The following were elected to the provisional
Committee: For Israel—Mordechaj Chalamish, Izaak Eisen-
berg. Shalom Yedidyah and Isaak Remba. For the United
States—Dr. Samuel Caplan. Phil Shlomovitz and Dr. H.
Shoskes. For Latin America—Marek Turkow, J. Schwarz
and Dr. H. Swarsensky. For France—Michel Solomon. For
South Africa—Isaak Levinson. For Great Britain—Joel Cang
and Josef Fraenkel.
The representatives in Great Britain have been requested
to act as the co-ordinating body for the World Conference
of Jewish Journalists to be held in Israel during the forth-
coming Zionist Congress. •

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan