The American Hebrew

Article from The American Hebrew, October 31 1919, by Martin H. Glynn.

The American Hebrew was a weekly journal which began publication on November 21, 1879, in New York City. It was founded by F. de Sola Mendes and its publisher was Philip Cowen. The weekly's publisher was The American Hebrew Publishing Company.

Its third issue declared its policy: "It is not controlled by one person, nor is it inspired by one. Its editorial staff comprises men of diverse shades of opinion on ritualistic matters in Judaism, but men who are determined to combine their energies for the common cause of Judaism." To maintain impersonality pertaining to the paper, the names of board members were never been published. The turn-of-the-century Jewish Encyclopedia also says that, "Editorially, The American Hebrew stands for conservatism in Judaism. Nevertheless, the columns of this journal are ever open to the discussion of views with which it can in no way accord, but which may be of interest to its readers. Nearly all the prominent Jewish writers and communal workers in the United States have been contributors to its pages."

From the time of its founding, The American Hebrew covered many topics of intense Jewish interest internationally. It covered the persecutions of Romanian Jews that followed the signing of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), and published a number of important letters on the subject from European writers, which led the American Jews to exercise their influence on behalf of their suffering coreligionists abroad. The periodical covered the persecution of the Russian Jews following the May Laws in 1881, as well as the large influx of Jewish immigrants that also followed and significantly changed the demographics of Jewish-Americans.

In literary terms, The American Hebrew also introduced leading figures in Jewish life, including the writing career of poet Emma Lazarus, who was covered extensively at the time of her death in 1887; she later became famous for her sonnet The New Colossus, which was inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1912.

Timeline

By the twentieth century, The American Hebrew had absorbed several other regional Jewish periodicals, including The Jewish Chronicle of Baltimore, Md., in 1880; The Jewish Reformer, a weekly journal published for a time by Kaufmann Kohler, I. S. Moses, and Emil G. Hirsch, in 1886, and Jewish Tidings of Rochester, N. Y., in 1895.

Over the years, the journal experienced a number of mergers and changes of name.

• The English Language Jewish weekly first it appeared as The American Hebrew from Nov. 21, 1879 to Dec. 26, 1902.
• After merging with The Jewish Messenger, it next appeared as The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger from Jan. 2, 1903 to April 21, 1922.
• It then reappeared as The American Hebrew between Apr. 28, 1922 and Jan. 29, 1932.
• After merging with the New York Jewish Tribune, it appeared as American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune from Feb. 5, 1932 to Oct. 24, 1935.
• It again reappeared as The American Hebrew between Nov. 1, 1935 and Sept. 14, 1956.
• Following its merger with The Examiner (Brooklyn), it dropped its specifically Jewish title and was re-named the American Examiner; it continued publishing from Sept. 20, 1956 to Oct. 15, 1970.

External links

• The American Hebrew from the Jewish Encyclopedia (c.1905)