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. •