The Denver Jewish news., 1924-08-14
Romance of the Yid-
dish Press
by MAMMALIAN HURwITZ

by MAMMALIAN HURWITZ
Editors Note-Thc present article tells
the romantic story OF the first hun
dred years OF the Yiddlsh press with
u wealth of detail not 10 be found
elsewhere in English. II also throws
many interesting sldclights on Jew
iSh life In pre-war Russia, and to-
ward the end raises the question
whether the American liddish press
will survive in view of the virtual
stoppage Of Jewish immigration. Mr..
Macmillan Hurwitz was formerly
associate editor of the Jewish Trib-
une.
The recent centenary celebration OF
the Ylddish press serves to call ntten-
tiOn to the remarkable story of its pro-
greSs from humble beginnings in Poland
TO its present position Of power and
prosperity in America. II is n fasci'
mating story, as seemingly Incredible as
everything else about Jewish life-and
as true.
Imagine language that Is still with
ont literature tits greatest writer's
as yet unborn). that is indeed little
more than n patois dcspised by the ar
ticulate clements of the people speaking:
1t; imagine n people of the vast ma
jority of whom are too poor and too
far removed from the main currents
of modern life to feel the need Of Il
periodical press Of its own; imagine
further an autocratic government that
frowns upon all foreign language pa
pers, and publisher whose aggregate
capital would not suffice to get out n
single issue of the bonneville Times !:
imagine such n state of affairs, and
you woulp, even il you did not share
Mr.. Munsey's notion of newspaper.
consider it hopeless TO publish one in
such language. Yet this was precise
ly the situation that confronted Anton
Eisenbaum when, toward the end of
1S23, he launched in Warsaw the first
Yiddish paper in the Russian Empire
the "vistula Observer"
Eisenbaum himself, apparently, had
no inkling of the future that awaited
the Iiddish press, for. as a matter of
fact. he did not publish his paper in
Yiddish at all, but in Polish and in
German, the latter printed in Hebrew
characters. (IIere We must note that as
early as 1856 a group of Polish Jews
in Amsterdam founded scmi-weckly
which was likewise published in Ger
man printed in Hebrew characters so
that, as Nahoum Sokolow recently
pointed out, the centenary of the Yid-
more than a century ago. And GER
tainly he would have shaken his head
incrcdulously had any one told him
that his meager paper. which confined
itself merely to official government
news, was destined to mark the be-
ginning of a powerful Yiddish press
'""' "'''' -"'i'",'''' any .he We" =
GA" "8P''" Vi ''' ''"'S' peopie,
that would help develop the despiscd
p"'''' i''' an ms ''ue'i' VI man!
H'ops III 10 serve "s tie ilt'iluih Vi IL
sie'' '''"'pie' ui'i mat Mou'u "''"ii'
us s'e'''H' 'i'ii''nce anu hiluchce IN
'"i ""'' -'ii''", ""eie al 'i'"l 'iiii',
'p''' WIZ '''l'''S Il h'niiui Vi per
''.a ""D '''i'" t."'i h'ou'sn
lug ''N''''" o'serNor u'ed III us
s''-o'' ''"'' anu io' '''"''S iNi'S Se"fs
n'u Nv 'H''essu', anu 'iifI'' poo' MOI III
i'''''e"' "''O III iieD'n"' 10 nh''c'slhi"
'"e ie''"' why one must hho" the
s'"'e VI i'"SSian 'e"rs nj 'hht tine'
'a' ''.ie mas 'ee'' "u''nr"piS uescr'p'
e' ny pr'lu i'rueh IN I'M interesting
''''e 'ooN 'iii i'uuiS'l' Oh 'he history
VI 'I'e i'u'''Sn press Ill husSia ior al
'ii"''Sn ''e writes OF 'he closing days OF
'''o i''"e'c'h'h century, inc picture he