THE NORTH AMERICAN JEWISH PRESS The 1994 Alexander Brin Forum, co-sponsored by The Benjamin S. Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service and the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies! Institute for Community and Religion Funded in part by Barbara and Bernard Hyatt Norton Sherman Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies! Institute for Community and Religion Brandeis University April 1995 Page 2 1994 Alexander Brill Forum same time, no one shrank from the reality that the press Forum's primary patrons are Bernard Hyatt, recently will have to re-evaluate its mission to remain relevant to retired publisher and editor of the Advocate, and his future generations. wife Barbara, who is the daughter of Alexander Brin. It is particularly fitting following this Forum to note that Our deepest thanks go to the Hyatts, and also to Norton the Brin Forum was established to honor the memory of Sherman, friend of the Hyatts and of the Brandeis Alexander Brin, long-time publisher and editor of the Hornstein Program, for their support. Boston Jewish Advocate. We wish also to note that the THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PRESS IN NORTH AMERICA Jonathan D. Sarna The history of Jewish Journalism in the United States and that the first paper published for Jews was the presents something of a challenge.! Traditionally, histo­ Dinshtagishe un Fraytagishe Kurant, published in rians like to recount the story of progress: development Yiddish in 1686-7.2 I cannot resolve this question, but I onward and upward from primitive origins to flourish­ do want to observe that, from the very bcginning, ing contemporary success. The history of Jewish jour­ Jewish journalism has not been easy to define: does a nalism in the US, by contrast, represents, at least until Jewish publisher make a journal Jewish, does a Jewish recently, a story of marked decay. From a period when readership make it Jewish, does a Jewish language they were independent, innovative and national in make it Jewish? I am going to focus today on newspa­ scope, American Jewish newspapers declined in quality, pers that defined themselves as Jewish newspapers, but lost their independence, and became far more consensus it is worth recalling that Jewish journalism might also oriented and narrowly focused. Admittedly, recent embrace a broader field, particularly since Jews (indeed decades have witnessed some great improvements in a disproportionate number of them) have been involved American Jewish journalism and a new Willingness, at in the ficld of journalism from its earliest days. least among some newspapers, to tackle sensitive and controversial issues. It is nevertheless worthwhile to Why Jews have been so involved in journalism is in understand why the earlier, prolonged decline took itself an interesting question. I do not want to take us place, because the reasons shed light on problems that too far afield, but I suspect that the opportunities found are endemic to American Jewish journalism, and I sus­ in journalism (especially during its period of rapid pect to all minority group journalism; problems that growth), the fact that it offered practitioners a great deal plague the field to this very day. of independence, and the comparative advantage that people with cosmopolitan backgrounds, like Jews, First, some background. The oldest Jewish newspaper enjoyed in the field all help to explain the phenomenon. that we know dates to 17th century Amsterdam. Even early on in American history, when the Jewish Traditionally, the Gazeta de Amsterdam (1675) was community numbered no more than a few thousand, considered the first Jewish newspaper; recently it has Jews played a disproportionate role in journalism. Their been argued that the paper was only printed by a Jew, importance in the profession has, in the intervening I The literature on this subject to 1983 is reviewed in Robert Singennan, "The American Jewish Press, 1823-1983: A Bibliographic Survey of Research and Studies." American Jewish History. 73 (lune 1984), pp. 422-444. 2 Joel Cahen. "Amsterdam, Cradle of the Jewish PressT Proceedings of the Symposium on the Jewish Press: Why? Past, Present, Future (Amsterdam: Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad, 1985). pp. 17-23. Brandeis University Page 3 years, in no way diminished.3 In the United States, the national Jewish periodicals in Germany, France and earliest newspaper with a Jewish name is Cohen's England, the evident need to unify the far-flung Gazette and Lottery Register (1814-1830), published by American Jewish community (a need made painfully Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. While published by a Jew and read evident by the Damascus Affair of 1840), the emer­ by Jews, this was hardly a Jewish newspaper; it was, in gence of newspapers as instruments of Jewish enlight­ essence, a gambling sheet.4 A journal of a different sort enment, and most immediately by the need to respond was published in 1823-1825. Its title was The Jew, and to a new missionary journal published in New York enti­ its subtitle explained that it was "a defence of Judaism tled The Jewish Chronicle, not to be confused with the against all Adversaries, and particularly against the distinguished London Jewish newspaper (1841- ) of the insidious Attacks of Israel's Advocate," which was a same name. Publicly, Leeser described his journal as an missionary journal. The Jew adumbrates one of the "advocate" for Jewish interests (the full title was The major functions of every vernacular Jewish newspaper: Occident and American Jewish Advocate), and its to defend Jews against their adversaries. But one can announced aim was "diffusion of knowledge on Jewish scarcely imagine anyone actually reading The Jew for literature and religion"-in other words, communal news. The only significant news that it printed was a defense and Jewish education, two principal aims of series of scoops about scandals within the American Jewish journalism forever after.7 To carry out these Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews, the aims, the Occident published news from American society dedicated to converting Jews to Christianity.5 Jewish communities, and from abroad (often reprinted Jewish news was published in various American news­ from foreign Jewish publications), as well as sermons, papers, particularly those edited by the distinguished editorials, historical articles, book reviews, innovative Jewish journalist-politician, Mordecai M. Noah. But policy proposals (for schools, Jewish colonies, unity like today's New York Times, Noah's dailies were etc.), religious philosophy, and controversial (or apolo­ designed for a broad audience. They never claimed to be getic) articles levelled against missionaries and other Jewish newspapers, even if they did devote dispropor­ enemies of the Jewish people. Leeser admitted into his tionate attention to Jewish matters.6 Jewish journalism pages many writers with whom he disagreed (some­ as we know it in the United States dates quite specifi­ times he mentioned the disagreement in an introductory cally to April 1843 and the publication of The Occident paragraph), and he published many verbatim docu­ by Isaac Leeser, Chazzan of Congregation Mikveh ments. Especially in his early years, he saw his as the Israel in Philadelphia and the most significant Jewish newspaper of record for the American Jewish commu­ traditionalist religious leader of his day. Leeser was nity, and he opened its pages to a wide range of con­ influenced by a range of factors: the development of tributors, including non-Jews. 8 3 Jonathan D. Sarna, Jacksonian Jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1981), pp. 5-6; Stephen J. Whitfield, Voices of Jacob, Hands of Esau: Jews in American Life and Thought (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1984), pp. 180-207; Stephen J. Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1988), pp. 129-150. 4 Extant numbers of this journal are available in the American Periodical Series, reel 93. On Cohen, see Isaac M. Fein, The Making of an American Jewish Community: The History of Baltimore Jewry from 1773 to 1920 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1971), pp.22-24. 5 George L. Berlin, "Solomon Jackson's The Jew: An Early American Jewish Response to the Missionaries," American Jewish History, 71 (September 1981), pp. 10-28. 6 On Noah's newspapers, see Sarna, Jacksonian Jew, passim. 7 Naomi W. Cohen describes early American Jewish newspapers as "Pioneers of American Jewish Defense." See her article by that title in American Jewish Archives, 29 (November 1977), pp. 116-150. 8 The best study of Leeser, including his newspaper, is Lance J. Sussman's forthcoming Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, J 995). On the origins of the Occident, see Jonathan D. Sarna, "The Impact of Nineteenth-Century Christian Missions on American Jews," in Jewish Apostasy in the Modern World, ed. Todd Endelman (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1987), pp. 242-243. The journal's first number is reprinted with an introduction in Abraham J. Karp, Beginnings: Early American Judaica (Phi [adelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1975). Page 4 1994 Alexander Brill Forum The Occident was a quality production, and it remains a papers, rather than highbrow magazines. As a result magnificent historical source: one of the finest journals their format was different from the Occident's: they that the American Jewish community has ever pro­ looked like newspapers (some were printed on cheap duced. There were nevertheless significant limits to newsprint), and they aimed to be much more entertain­ what it was prepared to print. "On no account can our ing than it was; at least one of them, for example, pub­ pages become the vehicle for violent denunciation or lished chapters from a serial novel each week on its unfounded aspersion," Leeser wrote in his introductory front page. I am not able to deal with every newspaper remarks, and he naively urged readers "never to send us from this period, but let me briefly mention three that any thing which may require contradiction or amend­ represent to my mind different directions, or options, ment in a future number."9 Although he understood that for American Jewish journalism to follow.