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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Phoenix Jewish News (Phoenix) 1948-1983

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About The Phoenix Jewish News (Phoenix) 1948-1983

From its debut in January 1948, The Phoenix Jewish News created a sense of unity and connection for the Jewish community throughout the greater Phoenix, Arizona, area. Readers could learn about happenings as close as in their neighborhood, such as local Bat and Bar Mitzvahs, and as far away as Israel. The newspaper started as a monthly, published by the Jewish Community Council. The paper established its goals in an editorial: “Our policy will be to reflect the life and temper of the Jewish community of Phoenix and to stimulate, encourage and advance the unity and general welfare of the community.” The newspaper’s slogan was that it was the “official organ of the Jewish Community of Phoenix.”

The December 31, 1948 front page announced the expansion of the newspaper to a bi-weekly publication and the move to private management under Joseph S. Stocker and M.B. “Bud” Goldman, Jr., who had both edited the newspaper from the beginning. Their wives, Bertha Goldman and Ida Stocker, served as associate editors. Starting in this issue, the newspaper began accepting advertisements. The editorial page included a “restatement of policy…to serve the Jewish people of Phoenix —all of them—in every way possible. Period.”

By March 1949, the Goldmans became sole publishers, with Stocker remaining as editor until the end of 1955. The Goldmans were prominent members of the community: Bud was on the Jewish Community Council’s board of directors, and Bertha was president of the local League of Women Voters and Arizona chairman of the Democratic Women’s Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., according to a 1966 article in the Arizona Republic.

The newspaper covered local news such as society events and the opening of a new Jewish Community Center. The paper voiced its strong support of desegregation and covered civil rights issues in Phoenix. Some issues had a quiz box with questions and answers about Judaism, and starting in the mid-1950s, a column in Hebrew with an English translation was included. The Phoenix Jewish News was founded the same year as the establishment of the State of Israel, and the newspaper diligently covered its development using dispatches from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for updates from Israel. A regular column written locally, “The World Over,” covered international news of interest to the Jewish community.

The Goldmans published the newspaper until it was purchased by Pearl and Cecil Newmark in 1961. The Newmarks ran the paper until their daughter Florence Eckstein took over in 1981, and she was publisher until 2013, when the newspaper was purchased by Jaime and Jeffrey Stern. In 2016, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix became owners. The newspaper was renamed the Greater Phoenix Jewish News in 1983 and the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix a decade later, under which it publishes today.

Research provided by the University of Arizona Libraries.

Provided By: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Phoenix Jewish News (Phoenix) 1948-1983

Names

  • Phoenix Jewish Community Council

Dates of Publication

  • 1948-1983

Created / Published

  • Phoenix : Phoenix Jewish Community Council, 1948-1983.

Headings

  • -  Jewish newspapers--Arizona--Phoenix
  • -  Phoenix (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Maricopa County (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Jewish newspapers
  • -  Arizona--Maricopa County
  • -  Arizona--Phoenix
  • -  Jews--Arizona--Phoenix--Newspapers
  • -  United States--Arizona--Maricopa--Phoenix

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Semiweekly, 1949-1983
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1948)-v. 36, no. 3 (Oct. 7, 1983).
  • -  Published by: Phoenix Jewish News, Inc., Nov. 7, 1969-1983.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Greater Phoenix Jewish news 0747-444X (DLC)sn 84006149 (OCoLC)10863768

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 53 cm

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn78001213

OCLC Number

  • 4105604

ISSN Number

  • 0031-8353

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Phoenix Jewish News Phoenix -1983. (Phoenix, AZ), Jan. 1 1948. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn78001213/.

APA citation style:

(1948, January 1) The Phoenix Jewish News Phoenix -1983. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn78001213/.

MLA citation style:

The Phoenix Jewish News Phoenix -1983. (Phoenix, AZ) 1 Jan. 1948. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn78001213/.