American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger Access information. Access on and off campus. Description. Founded in New York City in 1857, The American Hebrew was established as the weekly source of news impacting international Jewish communities. Reports on the persecution of Jews in Romania and Russia, and the subsequent influx of Jewish immigrants to the U.S., were of intense interest to readers of the paper. In 1919, the publication featured an article called “The Crucifixion of Jews Must Stop!” by former New York governor Martin H. Glynn, where he cried out against the poor living conditions and treatment of Jews across Europe following World War I – a situation he discerned as a potential “holocaust.” The American Hebrew also spotlighted Jewish figures in arts and literature, such as Emma Lazarus, who gained posthumous fame when her sonnet “The New Colossus” was inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1912. The poet published the first poem she translated from the original Hebrew in an 1883 issue of the newspaper, and she joined her voice with other writers to advocate for opportunities in industrial education for Russian refugees. A special issue commemorating the death of Lazarus in 1884 featured tributes from such literary luminaries as Robert Browning, Edgar Rice Burroughs and John Greenleaf Whittier. Upon merging with The Jewish Messenger in 1903, the newspaper was officially known as The American Hebrew and Jewish Messenger. For students and researchers from a variety of fields, including U.S. and world history, culture, and Jewish studies, the digitized pages of this historic publication (1857-1922) are an invaluable resource from a Jewish American perspective in a rapidly changing world. This article was published on 2024-08-21
