Der Beobachter an der Weichsel

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{{lang|de|Der Beobachter an der Weichsel}}{{lang|pl|Dostrzegacz Nadwiślański}} (The Vistula Observer, in German and Polish) was the first Jewish newspaper. It was a weekly printed in Congress Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, between December 3, 1823 and November 29, 1824, 44 issues in total, with a circulation of 150 copies.[https://www.rp.pl/artykul/162697--Dostrzegacz-Nadwislanski-.html "Dostrzegacz Nadwiślański"], Rzeczpospolita, July 13, 2008Magda Opalski, [https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Dostrzegacz_Nadwislanski "Dostrzegacz Nadwiślański"]

Launched by Polish Jewish writer, head of the Warsaw rabbinical seminary, and assimilation activist {{ill|Anthony Eisenbaum|pl|Antoni Eisenbaum}}, the paper was printed in two languages: Polish and German, the latter in Hebrew script. To this end, during the centenary celebration of the Yiddish press, Nahum Sokolow smugly noted that as early as 1686 a group of Polish Jews in Amsterdam printed a semi-weekly in a likewise way, i.e., in German in Hebrew script, "so that the centenary of the Yiddish press should have been celebrated more than a century ago".Maximilian Hurwitz, [https://ohiomemory.org/customizations/global/pages/transcript/view.html?alias=ojc&ptr=2315&pg=2307 The Romance of the Yiddish Press], The Ohio Jewish Chronicle, August 15, 1924 Other researchers claim that the language was heavily Germanized Yiddish to the point of being described as German. A.Haffka wrote that the newspaper was not very well accepted, because it was written not in Yiddish, but rather in German.{{ill|Wiesław Puś|pl}}, Żydzi w Łodzi w latach zaborów 1793-1914, 2001, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8OK7AAAAIAAJ&q=Hafftka+-michael p.113] Others disliked the assimilationist character of the newspaper.

The page layout of the divided into two columns by language with basically identical content. The paper was run single-handedly by Eisenbaum himself.

The next Jewish newspaper in Russian Empire, Ha-Melitz, this time in Hebrew, appeared nearly 40 years later.

References

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Further reading

(As cited by Magda Opalski, with minor corrections)

  • Majer Bałaban [ Meir Balaban ], “Nasi poprzednicy i nauczyciele: Prasa polsko-żydowska w XIX-tym wieku,” Nasz przegląd 263 (18 September 1938)
  • Marian Fuks, "Prasa żydowska w Warszawie", 1823–1939, Warsaw, 1979, pp. 21–40
  • Aleksander Hafftka, “Prasa zydowska w Polsce (do 1918)”, in: [https://books.google.com/books?id=AKMrAAAAMAAJ&q=Hafftka+-michael Zydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej], vol. 2, pp. 148–161, Warsaw, 1932
  • Jacob Shatzky, Geshikhte fun yidn in Varshe, vol. 1, pp. 290–291, New York, 1947

{{Jews and Judaism in Poland}}

Category:Defunct Jewish newspapers

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Russia

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Warsaw

Category:Defunct weekly newspapers

Category:1823 establishments in Poland

Category:1823 establishments in the Russian Empire

Category:1824 disestablishments in Europe

Category:Newspapers established in 1823

Category:Publications disestablished in 1824

Category:Defunct German-language newspapers published in Europe

Category:Defunct Polish-language newspapers

Category:Jewish history in Warsaw