Jewish Journalism

Question: Can you recommend resources on Jewish journalism, especially on how Jewish journalism has impacted the Jewish community. I need both primary resources and secondary resources (including back issues of Jewish periodicals, especially the New York Jewish Week).

Answer: The JTS Library holds back issues of many Jewish newspapers from the US and other countries; to get an idea of the breadth of our collection search our catalog using ADVANCED SEARCH. Type newspaper? in the text box. In the LIMIT SEARCH TO section, for FORMAT choose SERIALS. The question mark after the word newspaper is not an accident; it is a "wild card" designation meant to include additional letters at the end of the word--thereby retrieving listings for both newspaper and newspapers.

The JTS Library holds selected issues of the New York Jewish week from 1993-2001. The New York Public Library Jewish Division has prepared an index to the Jewish Week for 1993-2001.



However, the quickest way to access full-text articles from Jewish newspapers published in the last 20 years is to use the Ethnic NewsWatch database, available at the New York Public Library's research sites, many of the branch libraries, and at many universities.

Regarding the secondary literature, I suggest you use the RAMBI index. Use BASIC SEARCH - KEYWORDS IN SUBJECT and type periodicals in the text box. To focus on one country, for example the United States, specify SUBJECT STARTING WITH and type USA: periodicals.

The Berman Jewish Policy Archive, at NYU, provides full-text articles on journalsim and the Jews. A typical article available is Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett's "Participatory Journalism" published in Jewish Family and Life (June 2005).


The ProQuest Dissertatons and Theses database (available on the JTS campus, and remotely for JTS faculty/students) includes full-text documents on your topic; do a BASIC search on these terms: journalism AND judaic studies

Two other indexes to check are: Index to Jewish Periodicals, and Jewish Studies Source (a very new full-text database).

Here are a selection of books and theses in the JTS Library about Jewish journalism:

The Religious Press in America by Martin E. Marty [and others] (1963)
PN4888 R4 R4

A People In Print: Jewish Journalism In America (1987)
PN5650 P46 1987

Forward: The Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts) Newspaper: Immigrants, Socialism and Jewish Politics in New York, 1890-1927 by Ehud Manor (2009) PN 4885 Y54 F6713 2009

The Creation of a Jewish Cartoon Space in the New York and Warsaw Yiddish Press by Edward A. Portnoy (2008) NC1420 P67 2009

Grandma Never Lived in America: The New Journalism of Abraham Cahan compiled by Roses Rischen (1985) F128.9 J5 C35 1985

Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires by Sara Abrevaya Stein (2004) PN5274 S786 2004

The Rise and Decline of the Yiddish-American Press by Sidney J. Weissberger (1982) PN4885 Y5 W4