THE YIDDISH PRESS—AN AMERICANIZING AGENCY By MORDECAI SOLTES, PH.D. Director, Extension Education, Bureau of Jewish Education, New York INTRODUCTION It is generally agreed that there is a great need to-day for civic instruction which will function more effectively. Our life and needs are becoming more complex; our stand- ards of civic behavior are being constantly revised upwards, and the civic responsibilities which our citizens must dis- charge are becoming increasingly difficult. Education for citizenship should occupy a central position in the public school curriculum. The civic pos- sibilities of all the school subjects should be utilized to a maximum, and the specific ideals of citizenship should become the possession of the pupils as a result of their entire school training and activity. In addition there should be provided, wherever neces- sary, aside from the general courses, supplementary in- struction to meet specific needs of pupils, which shall have been ascertained beforehand. This suggestion applies with particular force to schools which are located in neighborhoods of comparatively large immigrant populations. Wherever fairly homogeneous groups of children could be located, 166 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK it would prove best to make a diagnosis of the civic virtues ;ind deficiencies of the corresponding adult group, to es- tablish their prevailing civic characteristics, both favorable and unfavorable, and to develop, on the basis of the out- standing needs revealed, special supplementary courses that would tend to prevent or correct the expected short- comings, to improve the desirable traits and approved qualities which are insufficiently or wrongly developed, and to capitalize fully the civic potentialities of the younger generation. To execute such a program of scientific analysis of civic characteristics of the adult group and the develop- ment of courses to be given in the public schools to correct civic deficiencies revealed, it is necessary first to ascertain, even though it be at best merely an approximation, the extent of the contributions toward a proper civic develop- ment made by other agencies aside from the school, so as to establish the specific function which the latter has to perform. It should be remembered that the character of the adult citizen, native or naturalized, is the result of the inter- play of various forces which exert their influence upon him and which directly and indirectly aid in determining what type of citizen he is to become in his actions, thoughts and sentiments. Among these extra-school agencies might be included the home, the pulpit, the community center, the theater, the mutual aid society, the trade union, and the press, whether printed in the vernacular or in a foreign language. In this study we are concerned with the analysis and appraisal of the extent and character of the civic attitudes contained in the editorials of the THE JEWISH WORLD' . St.. New Wk. j August 29, 18-JO. !nj)S p N. Y. Jewish A "3 OKfl piXV! ! Dp"lBO ill* =p"">BD "'I'-K ISAFHIRSjEjN&SOStNBAUM EARLY FORMS OF EDITORIALS (See pp. 204-210) THE YIDDISH PRESS 167 Yiddish press to which the immigrant Jews of New York are exposed. There are in the United States about 1,500 foreign language newspapers and magazines with an aggregate circulation of about 8,000,000, which are printed in 33 languages and are found in every State in the Union.1 There has been considerable discussion in recent years— very heated at times—as to the place and desirability of che for«gn language press in America. During the war it was proposed by some that it be abolished altogether. Such an extreme proposal does not reflect clear thinking on the subject but indicates a disregard of the facts, which usually leads to hasty, inconsiderate action. The present study is one of the first attempts to raise this ques- tion out of the realm of mere conjecture and speculation to that of objective analysis and evaluation. CHAPTER I THE YIDDISH DAILY PRESS OF NEW YORK CITY The Yiddish press may be analyzed from several points of view. The type of advertising which it carries could form the subject of investigation, to ascertain whether there is discernible any relationship between the adver- tisers and the avowed policy of .each newspaper. The proportion of space devoted to various features, the de- velopment of special methods of treatment of news items and similar questions could be advantageously determined. 1 Literary Digest, April 3, 1920, p. 48. 168 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK But the writer considered it advisable, in making a study of so extensive a subject, to limit, as far as possible, the material under consideration, so as to arrive at results which are indisputable, and to be in a position to retrace the steps taken and to check up any phase of the data or facts upon which the conclusions are based. In the present study an attempt is made to anaylze the influence of the largest and most important part of the American Jewish press—the Yiddish daily press of New York City, wit *h particular attention to one special phase,—the civic* attitudes expressed in its editorials. It has been deemed appropriate to introduce first fa short account of theYiddish press as a whole—to tell briefl'y the story of its rise and rapid development during the past three decades and a half. ORIGIN AND GROWTH The roots of the American Yiddish daily press reach down to 1885, in which year the Yiddishes Tageblatt or Jewish Daily News, the first and oldest Yiddish daily in New York City, and probably in the world,1 was founded by Kasriel H. Sarasohn, a far-sighted and enterprising Russian Jew. Just as the English newspaper in the Co- lonial days started as a weekly, which was later changed to a daily, so the pioneers in Yiddish journalism in America attempted at first to publish weeklies. The earliest ex- 1 The first success I ill periodical in Yiddish was established in Russia in 1863 by Alexander Zederbaum who published Kol Meiaserasa supple- ment to the Hebrew weekly, Hamehtz. The first Yiddish daily in Russia, Der Frcind, was established in St. Petersburg in January, 1903, almost two decades later than in America! THE YIDDISH PRESS 169 amples of the latter are Die Judische Post, established by Dr. Henry Gersoni in 1872, and Die New Yorker Yiddishe Zeitung, established in the same year by K. H. Sarasohn. These two first known attempts were failures, for both soon found it necessary to suspend publication. Apparently Sarasohn was not discouraged by his first unsuccessful enterprise, for he proceeded in 1874 to found Die Yiddishe Gazetten, which was a success from the very outset, and out of which grew several years later the first Yiddish daily. The Tageblatt was printed in Judeo-German, and assumed from the beginning a conservative attitude, which policy it has maintained to this day. It represents the Orthodox-Zionist element among the Jewish immigrants, furnishes material that aims to satisfy their special needs and interests, and does not appear on Saturdays or on Jewish holidays. It has also continued to publish the weekly issue, Die Yiddishe Gazetten, which contains a resume of the specifically Jewish news of the world for the preceding week, but devotes most of its space to fiction, poetry, miscellaneous articles on politics, history, science and education, and popular literary material for the family. The rising tide of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the eighties and nineties of the past century, following the promulgation of the so-called May Laws in Russia, discriminating against Jews, paved the way for a successful effort in Yiddish journalism. It brought noted Jewish writers to our shores, and created the demand for a special Yiddish press, to meet the needs of the newly- arrived immigrants. Since the first Yiddish daily made its appearance, about a dozen daily periodicals have been launched, of which there 170 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK remain at present1 the following four in New York City: 1) Yiddishes Tageblatt or Jewish Daily News (established in 1885); 2) Vorwaerts or the Jewish Daily Forward (established in 1897); 3) Yiddisher Morgen Journal or the Jewish Morning Journal (established in 1901); and 4) Der Tog or Day-Warheit (established in 1914 and 1905 respectively,—merged in 1919.) The newspapers that disappeared either suspended publication altogether or were consolidated with more successful rival journals, because the field did not prove sufficiently nutritive for all. Among the most recent examples of periodicals that either suspended publication or were absorbed by stronger rivals are: Die Yiddishe Welt (1902-1904), Der Taeglicher Ilerold (1891-1904), consolidated with Die Warheit in 1905, Der Fihrer (1915), Haint (1919), Die Warheit (1905- 1919), merged with Der Tog in 1919, and Die Zeit (Dec, 1920 to May, 1922). With the exception of the Morgen Journal, all the existing dailies are afternoon papers, and each of them came into being in response to a definite social need.2 The es- pousal of the cause of Jewish labor was entrusted succes- sively to a) the Volks Zeitung, a weekly which started 1 November, 1920. There are, in addition, a large number of weekly and monthly literary and family magazines and trade journals printed in Yiddish, some of them auxiliary publications of the dailies. Together with the latter, they constitute a journalistic activity which surpasses perhaps that of any immigrant group in America. 2 In December, 1920, the 7eit (or Jewish Times) was established as the organ of the Poale Zion Party. It was compelled to suspend publication, however, in May, 1922. A new daily, Freiheit, has been in existence since April 2, 1922.