''The Jewish Advocate'' was a weekly

Jewish newspaper A Jewish newspaper is a newspaper which focuses on topics of special interest to Jews, although Jewish newspapers also include articles on topics of a more general interest as well. Political orientations and religious orientations cover a wide r ...

serving

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...

and the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

area. It was established in 1902 and, with 118 years of publication, was the oldest continuously-circulated English-language Jewish newspaper in the United States until it suspended publication on September 25, 2020. Before May 28, 1909, it was briefly known as ''The Jewish Home Journal'' and then as ''The Boston Advocate''.

History

''The Jewish Advocate'' was founded in 1902 by

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern po ...

, a journalist who is considered to be the founder of modern political Zionism. Shortly after founding newspapers in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Herzl sent his executive secretary,

Jacob de Haas Jacob de Haas (13 August 1872 – 21 March 1937) was a British-born Jewish journalist and an early leader of the Zionist movement in the United States. Biography Jacob De Haas was born in London. He was the secretary of the First Zionist Congress ...

, to Boston to create ''The Jewish Advocate'' for the purposes of "inculcat ngJudaism into the community and progress ngthe cause of the re-establishment of the Jewish faith and a Jewish state." Before May 28, 1909, the newspaper was briefly known as ''The Jewish Home Journal'' and then as ''The Boston Advocate''. In 1917, when Herzl took the position of executive director of the

Zionist Organization of America The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) () is an American non-profit pro-Israel organization. Founded in 1897, as the Federation of American Zionists, it was the first official Zionist organization in the United States. Early in the 20th centur ...

, he transferred leadership of the newspaper to Alexander Brin. The newspaper operated out of the former ''Boston Post'' building in downtown Boston where the office remains located. ''The Jewish Advocate'' remains an active 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. In the September 25, 2020 issue, ''The Jewish Advocate'' announced it would be "going on hiatus" (but keep the organization and website active), citing decreasing advertising revenue which had "virtually disappeared" due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and lagging support from communal organizations and the federation. In the announcement, they also said they were developing plans to launch a digital version of the publication, and left open the possibility of resuming publication. They have also reached agreement with

NewsBank NewsBank is a news database resource that provides archives of media publications as reference materials to libraries. History John Naisbitt, the author of the book ''Megatrends'', founded NewsBank.Andrews 1998, p. 17. The company was launched ...

to add the complete archives of ''The Jewish Advocate'' to their digital catalogue and make it available to the public through The Jewish Advocate website.

Publishers of ''The Jewish Advocate''

(1902–1917) * Alexander Brin (1917–1980) * Joseph G. Brin (co-publisher, 1917–1952) * Joseph G. Weisberg (1980–1984) * Bernard J. Hyatt (1984–1990) * Grand Rabbi Y. A. Korff (1990– )

A selection of historic front pages of ''The Jewish Advocate''

File:The_Jewish_Advocate_-_Issue_of_July_9,_1909_-_Theodor_Herzl.pdf, Issue of July 9, 1909 honoring Theodor Herzl File:The_Jewish_Advocate_issue_of_February_9,_1912_on_the_Jewish_Settlement_in_Boston.pdf, Issue of February 9, 1912 on the Jewish Settlement of Boston File:Issue of 31Jan1933 - Hitler Named Chancellor.pdf, Issue of January 31, 1933 reporting Hitler named Chancellor of Germany File:Issue of 20May1948 - Israel Founded.pdf, Issue of May 20, 1948 reporting on the founding of The State of Israel File:Issue of 19Mar1953 - Bundestag Ratifies Israel Pact.pdf, Issue of March 19, 1953 reporting on German ratification of the Israel pact and payment of reparations File:Issue of 26Jan18 - JCRC Absent on Jewish Voting.pdf, A recent front page

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewish Advocate, The 1902 establishments in Massachusetts Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on journalism Jews and Judaism in Boston Jewish newspapers published in the United States Newspapers published in Boston