Newspaper Page Text
It Happens
“Every Friday’
by PHIL SOLMOVITZ
The English-Jewish newspaper—as the topic for this eve
ning it has been labeled for me as “The Living Jewish News
paper”—is an instrument in American Jewry which causes
American Jews in thousands of homes like yours, throughout
the land, to await the postman, EVERY FRIDAY, for the ar
rival of their newspaper, giving reality to the truth that some
things happens “Every Friday”—bringing you the news of vcur
rabbis’ sermons, the successes of your children and your neigh
bors’ children in education, in science, in industry—in govern
ment and in private service; telling you about births and the
inevitable passing of friends or kinsmen, giving you the news
about consecrations and communal developments in your midst.
But your newspaper is much more than that. It is the
guardian over the welfare of our people. It is the historian of
Israel. It is the reporter of events affecting the health, educa
tion and recreation of Jewry. It is the chronicle of our time
and it may well be considered the Third volume of the biblical
Book of Chronicles—the Divrey Ha-Yarriin. It is the sentinel
that watches over our freedoms, the defender of our basic
American ideals and of our sacred Jewish traditions.
Without this watch-dog over Jewry’s destinies, the great
movements which operate in behalf of the down trodden and
which support Israel would not be able effectively to reach out
into the communities which supply the funds for creative ef
forts and for redemption. Without your newspaper there would
be no links between the Jewries of Atlanta and Memphis and
Nashville and Miami and Detroit and Pittsburgh and Phila
delphia and Los Angeles and St. Paul and Minneapolis and
Columbus and Worcester, Kansas City and Boston—indeed,
links with those in every nook and corner in our own land
with those of Medinat Israel and with Asia and Africa and
Canada and Latin America.
How would we define “The Living Jewish Newspaper?’’ It
is a combination of words and pictures, the portrayer of peo
ple and events, the echo of joys and sadnesses, the container
of stories about fund-raising and generosity and about learning
and teaching, the record of teachers and of rabbis. It is history
and commentary, fact and interpretation, the home planner
that provides recipes for the women, cartoons for the children
and the grownups, the recollecter of historic events for the
entire community about veterans, temples, synagogues and
centers. It is the reproducer of happenings that are gathered
over the cables from all parts of the globe.
I offer this capsule to enable me to take exception to a so-
called survey published by the B’nai B’rith Magazine which
svaluates some of the English-Jewish weeklies as being “un
inspiring,” “dull,” “poorly written and edited and with little
or no influence in moulding Jewish community opinion.”
This is farcical. It was compiled as if there was an objec
tive to criticize and the fact-seekers could not deviate from
their intentions. It is similar to some attempts that had been
made time and again by people with grudges to attack the
basic Jewish news-gatherer in the world—the Jewish Tele
graphic Agency—even when it was fully recognized that if
ever the JTA services were to be diminished world Jewry
would lose the most important fusing force that keeps world
Jewry together through the information it imparts about Jews
everywhere. This, too, is the case with the English-Jewish news
paper that has just been maligned in a foolish survey.
This survey admits that fund-raising would be less effec
tive, that communities would lose an important news medium
Entered es second-class matter at the post office at Atlanta, Ga., under the act of
March 3, 1879. Published weekly by the Southern Newspaper Enterprises, Inc. Sub
scription rates: *5.00 per year in advance. The Southern Israelite invites cor
respondence and literary contributions, but the editor Is not to be considered as
sharing the views expressed by the writers except those enunciated in the editorial
columns—without contributors' names. Established 1925. Adolph Rosenberg, Editor
and Publisher; Executive offices, 390 Courtland Street, N. E., Atlanta, Georgia 30303;
Advisory Board: Hyman Jacobs, Harry Spitier, P Wolkin Est., Joe Cohen, A. L.
Feldman, Kalman Sunshine, Sam Levy, Gustav Oppenheimer, Dr. Jack Bleich, Dr.
Irving Goldstein, Thomas Makover, Abe Goldberg, Hyman Morris, Edward Krick,
Meyer Balser, Sol Benamy, Reuben Cohen, Sam Weinberg, Eugene Oberdorfer
A. D. Srochi, David Gershon, Harry Harrison, Dr. Nathan Blass, Irving Libowsky
Berry Rlttenbaum, Meyer Rosenberg, Harold Marcus, Or. Irving Greenberg, Leon
Kletiky, Dr. E. Reisman and Arthur Weiss. ■*
8
This material comprises
in the main the prin
cipal address made
at the May 20. 1965
Fortieth Anniversary
Dinner for The South
ern Israelite and The
Hebrew Watchman of
Memphis. The Com
munity-wide dinner
focused on the “Living »
Jewish Press” in recognition of the presence in
Atlanta at the time of the national convention of
the American Jewish Press Association. Both
The Israelite and the Watchman are founders
of this organization. Mr. Slomovitz. the editor and
publisher of the Jewish News of Detroit, was the
first president of the AJPA. One of the nation's
most dynamic figures in the English Jewish
newspaperdom, he has been widely acknowledged
as a leader in all worthwhile
movements in Detroit and the nation.
and there would be a blackout on news without our weeklies.
But it returns to an old canard, to a very silly view that there
is disproportionate emphasis on social news in our newspapers,
that we sensationalize anti-Semitism.
This is not only a pack of nonsense: it is an indictment of
American Jewry. The fact is that if the English-Jewish news
paper were to vanish there would be more than a vacuum in
Jewish life, it would be a death blow to the most vital instru
ment that links Jewish communities and keeps the communi
ties themselves intact.
There are in our midst tonight representatives of several
very small Jewish weekly newspapers—small because the num
bers of Jews in their cities are small, small because the sup
port they receive is minimal. Therefore their ability to offer
ALL the news is restricted. But in whatever they do they
render a service that makes their communities better informed
Let me take as an example one of the smallest of mu
papers. Jacques Backs Nashville Observer. It is a small pape
1 j* S Tor^ e r> s ' x P a fi es - To keep his community cemen’
ed, Mr. Back must provide his readers with the basic far'
about his own community. He must give them a measure ■
social news and synagogue information. Remember—there ;
only 3,600 Jews in Nashville. But while feeding his read)
with local news that is vital, Jacques also gives his read<
? v ° r a n f ws anc * if he did not exist his community would
tett totally uninformed and impoverished.
And in the process—this I must emphasize—Jacques B.
writes as effective an editorial as any one in our midst. I ch
* ege , an y, surveyer- and now especially the one who wi
or the B nai B nth- to show me a better writer, a more sou
interpreter of Jewish life than our confrere from Nashvi:
lenn. The survey that is getting nationwide publicity is V
warranted, unwise, unimaginative, certainly not factual. Tin
isnt a newspaper in America—and I am not excepting t
The Southern Israel •