THE JEWISH NEWS COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE

1942-1992

Philadelphia's Occident and
New York's Asmonean-
were started largely to in-
form immigrants of the

dangers of Christian mis-

sionaries or to warn Jews
against becoming a con-
spicuous minority.
For the fledgling German
Jewish communities, news-
papers were often the com-
munity. The Occident an-
nounced the opening of the
first rabbinical college. The
same paper also advocated a
union of Jewish congrega-
tions and an organization
advocating a Jewish polit-
ical presence —ideas that
later gave birth to the
American Jewish Com-
mittee, the Hebrew Union
College and the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith.
Jewish newspapers fre-
quently acted as guardians
of the community, appealing
for Jewish survival in far-off
lands — or their own.
Several Jewish papers
covered the 1913 trial of Leo
Frank, the "American
Dreyfus" who was convicted
on trumped-up charges of
murdering a Christian girl
in an Atlanta factory.
And during World War II,
when reports of Nazi death
camps began to seep into the
West, American Jewish pa-
pers editorialized for Allied
bombing of the death camps.
Just as the Jewish corn-
munity split over Zionism,
Jewish newspapers often
waged strong editorial cam-
paigns for and against the
Jewish state. Some papers
were founded during the war
with a strong emphasis on
supporting Zionism. Among
these was Detroit's Jewish
News, which was started in
1942.

How Jewish papers evolv-
ed into their present state is
a story more about the Jew-
ish community than about
journalism. Since its incep-
tion, the Jewish press has
traditionally been viewed as
a front for the community,
advancing important causes
when necessary, but rarely
airing public criticism of its
institutions.

COMMUNITY GUARDIANS

Since 1823, there have
been about 2,000 American
Jewish newspapers in eight
different languages. At the
turn of the century, New
York's Yiddish papers not
only gathered news, but
taught immigrants Ameri-
can cultural customs, job-
hunting skills and English.

The "Bintel Brief" in the
Forvitz was a "Dear
Abby"-type feature which
answered immigrant ques-
tions about the perceived
loose morality of Americans,
among other things.
The first American Jewish
papers created, rather than
reported, news. In 1854,
Isaac Mayer Wise started
publishing The American

Israelite from his temple in
Cincinnati. Using it as a
launching pad for his fledgl-
ing Reform movement, he
railed against "prejudice,
ignorance and superstition"
(from the paper's first edito-
rial). The Israelite is still be-
ing published, although it no
longer solely heralds the
cause of Reform Judaism.
Other newspapers —

FEDERATION GAME PLAN

As these upstart editors
began to age, and Israel
became front-page news in
the general press, Jewish
weeklies seemed irrelevant
to many readers.
The establishment of the
American Jewish Press
Association in 1943 was an
attempt to ward off corn-

MARCH

27, 1992

27