Hebrew is generally considered to be, like ancient Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Latin, a dead language, and yet it possesses so much flexibility, and has, moreover, been enriched in modern times with so many new words, phrases, and expressions that it has in some respects almost become modernized. There are at the present day, both in the Old World and the New, quite a respectable number of Hebrew periodicals, including a few daily papers, which seem to enjoy considerable popularity and support among a moderately large section of the Jewish reading public. These constitute as a whole what may appropriately be termed modern Hebrew journalism.

Modern Hebrew journalism has an interesting history of its own, and likewise an intimate connexion with the rise and development of Neo-Hebrew literature. It dates from the time when the sage of Berlin, as Moses Mendelssohn is commonly called, began to issue his epoch-making German translation of the Pentateuch, which made its first appearance in the year 1780. This translation was accompanied by an excellent Hebrew introduction to the Bible, or rather to the five books of Moses, entitled O'r-La-netibah (??? ??????), of which Mendelssohn was the author, and likewise by an equally excellent commentary, now well known under the name of Biur. Mendelssohn had several eminent Hebraists for co-operators in the commentary, among whom may specially be mentioned Hartwig Wessely, the renowned composer of the fine heroic poem, The Mosaid, called “Songs of Glory” (???? ?????). The introduction and commentary were both distinguished by their learning, as well as by the purity and freshness of their style. They were thus a great advance on the earlier criticisms, which were written in a Hebrew dialect that was a mere mumbling of a decrepit tongue, and they attained great popularity among the cultured community.

Among those who especially profited by these works were two clever young Jewish students, called Isaac Euchel and Mendel Bresselau. They had both enjoyed a Talmudical and academical training, and were tutors in the house of the wealthy and cultured FriedlÄnders, residing in KÖnigsberg, in Prussia, which city in those days stood in close literary relationship to the Prussian capital. These young men, in 1782, resolved, in the interests of Hebrew literature; to invite all the representative and cultured Jews in the world to help to found and to support a Hebrew periodical, the title of which was to be The Gatherer (?????). This invitation was readily accepted by many educated Jews living in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, Italy, Russia and Poland. Thus encouraged they set to work, and soon issued the first number of The Gatherer, which was the progenitor of modern Hebrew journalism. This number contained a variety of articles written almost exclusively in Hebrew, the most notable of which were two biographical sketches, one dealing with Don Isaac Abrabanel (1437–1509), and the other with Joseph del Medigo (1591–1655). There were also a few charming Hebrew poems, including some anonymously contributed by Moses Mendelssohn, and the well-known Hebrew wine-song by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Wessely contributed an article on Biblical exegesis, a subject which had been sadly neglected by the Jews of that period. The Gatherer thus started under happy auspices. It had been a bond of union between Judaism and modern culture, so much so that some Christians of note saw in it a powerful medium for educating the general mass of the Jewish people.

The Gatherer continued to be issued for fourteen years (from 1783–97), during which time it numbered among its contributors, in addition to those already mentioned, several other masters of Hebrew style, among whom may specially be mentioned Isaac Satanow, Ben-Zeeb, Joel LÖwe, Aaron Halle, Moses Ensheim, and David Franco Mendes, the author of the Hebrew historical drama Gemul Athalia (“The Punishment of Athalia”).

After its demise, nearly a quarter of a century elapsed before another Hebrew periodical of the same stamp made its appearance. This was called Bikkurey Ha-Ittim (“The Firstling of the Times”), and was started in Vienna (in 1820) by an able Hebraist, named Shalom Ha-Cohen. It had some of the most eminent Hebrew scholars of the day among its regular contributors, including Rapoport, Luzzatto, and Erter, the former of whom published therein five biographies of prominent leaders of Judaism of the Middle Ages, which gave an important impulse to the study of Neo-Hebraic literature. Erter, the greatest of Hebrew humorists of modern times, contributed some of his delightful sketches of Jewish life in the Ghetto.

After about twelve years the Bikkurey Ha-Ittim ceased to appear, but a little later another annual Hebrew magazine was first issued by Goldenberg, and then by Senior Sachs, in Vienna and Prague respectively, having Kerem Chemed (“The Pleasant Vineyard”) for its title. This publication was, like its two predecessors, largely devoted to the promotion of the Hebrew language and literature, but its principal interest was the study of Jewish history, which had been generally neglected before. Its chief contributors were Rapoport, Zunz, and Luzzatto, the last-named of whom published therein several valuable extracts from rare Hebrew MSS. The Kerem Chemed was, with regard to its learned contents and the purity of its style, one of the best Hebrew periodicals that has ever existed, but it only appeared for a period of ten years, viz. from 1833 to 1843.

Noticeable also are the Otzer Nechmad (“The Desirable Treasure”), which was edited for a short time in Vienna by Ignatz Blumenfeld, and had Dukes, Geiger, Steinschneider, Luzzatto, Carmoly, and Kirchheim as contributors; the Kochbey Yitzchak (“The Stars of Isaac”), issued for several years by M. E. Stern, of Vienna; and the Jeshurun, of which the editor, Joseph Kobak, of Lemberg, only published four insignificant numbers at irregular intervals. But it cannot be said that their influence on Neo-Hebrew literature had been very extensive. There were, however, two other magazines, which, having some special characteristics of their own, and being, moreover, of permanent literary value, are deserving of more than a passing notice.

One of them was started (in 1852) in Vienna by O. H. Schorr, under the title of Ha-Chalutz (“The Armed One”), and it counted among its contributors Krochmal, Geiger, Zunz, Steinschneider, and Erter. Though chiefly dealing with the history of Jewish literature, the Chalutz was, as its title indicates, a Hebrew periodical with radical tendencies, advocating extensive reforms in the Jewish ritual. The editor himself, a highly learned man, devoted several articles to a consideration of certain abuses and superstitions found in some of the Rabbinical writings, by which pure Judaism was thought to have been disfigured. The essays were distinguished by the vigour of their tone, their caustic humour, and their amusing irony, and have served as a model to more than one writer of modern Hebrew prose.

The other was called Ha-Shachar (“The Dawn”), and made its first appearance in Vienna in 1868, under the editorship of Peter (or Perets) Smolensky, an excellent writer of classical Hebrew prose. His own sketches were remarkable both for humour and pathos, and have a certain ring of Thackeray about them. Among the contributors to The Dawn may be noted Rapoport, Jellinek, and Juda LÖb Gordon (1830–92). The latter was an excellent poet and humorist, whose collected Hebrew verses were published in 1884 by Baron Ginsburg, of St. Petersburg, in memory of their deceased author. Several of them had previously appeared in The Dawn, and as they are pretty and rich in humour the following free prose translation of one of them may serve here as an appropriate specimen. It has a highly orthodox Russian Rabbi for its subject, and runs as follows:—

“On a sultry Sabbath afternoon a middle-aged Rabbi was sitting in his study dozing over a large folio of the Talmud. Suddenly an extremely religious member of his flock rushed in full of excitement, and told him that a Jewish lad had just been caught in the act of desecrating the holy Sabbath by carrying a watch in the open street. On hearing this shocking news the Rabbi gave orders that the young culprit should at once be brought into his presence, that he might receive his well-deserved chastisement for openly breaking one of the Rabbinical laws. When the boy was brought in, the Rabbi looked at him, and lo and behold! he was no other than his own little son, who had furtively gone into the street, carrying in his waistcoat pocket the watch which had been given to him as a ‘Bar-Mitzwah^[178-1]’ present. The Rabbi was for a moment rather perplexed, but soon a happy thought struck him, and turning abruptly to the excited crowd of bystanders, he addressed them as follows:—‘Rabbothay’ (gentlemen), he said, ‘I have just come to the conclusion that my boy is guiltless of the charge you have brought against him. For, had you been as well versed in the Rabbinical writings as I am, you would have known that a watch is but an ornament, which is allowed to be worn by a Jew or a Jewess on a Sabbath day even in the open street. Thus my boy had only done what was right, and therefore deserves no punishment whatever.’ When the people left the Rabbi's house, a wit among them observed to his neighbour, with a sly twinkle in his eye, that their ‘Rav’ was a cunning man, indeed, and knew how to turn matters to his own advantage, or to that of his near relatives. Thus, when a son-in-law of his ordered a cargo of citrons from Corfu, the ‘Rav’ forbade the members of his flock on the Feast of Tabernacles to use citrons grown in Palestine; and he also interdicted them from buying any ordinary wine after one of his married daughters had opened a shop for the sale of cheap raisin wine.”

As regards the numerous Hebrew periodicals, which appear in different parts of the world, it is enough to say that, although they are not without merit, it is impossible within the limits of a short sketch to do more than mention a few of the more important. Three of them are here selected as being specially worthy of note, on account of the fruitful work which they have done and are still doing in various ways in the field of Hebrew literature. The first to be considered are the three or four volumes issued annually at Berlin (under the editorship of Prof. Dr. A. Berliner) by the society Mekitze-Nirdamim, these being most useful literary publications, though perhaps not exactly periodicals. This society has, for instance, during the last few years brought out all the admirable religious and secular poems of Jehudah Halevi^[179-1].

Equally useful and interesting is a monthly Hebrew periodical, entitled Ha-Shiloach (“The Messenger”), which was established in Berlin about eight years ago by Asher Ginsberg, of Odessa. A good many articles have a permanent literary value; others again, though less scientific, are written in such excellent Hebrew that, like Erter's works, they may be re-read with no diminution of pleasure.

The third Hebrew periodical that deserves special notice is Ha-Magid (“The Narrator”), which has, however, lately ceased to exist. It was started about half a century ago (in 1856) at Lyck, in Prussia, by the late L. Silbermann, Rabbi of the Hebrew congregation of that town, who issued it weekly with the laudable object of affording entertainment and information on general topics to those of his co-religionists, who were unable to read papers published in the vernacular^[180-1]. The number of Jews of this description was, fifty years ago, fairly large, but has now, thanks to the spread of general education, been greatly reduced. Several Jewish literati used to contribute articles, and the paper had in consequence gradually become a medium for propagating a knowledge of Hebrew literature among its numerous readers. Since then the Hebrew vocabulary has been greatly developed and amplified in such a manner as to be capable of describing not only the newest move in the politics of the world, but also the latest invention in the field of practical science. It is interesting to notice that there are at present three Hebrew daily papers in circulation in Russia, viz. Ha-Yom, Ha-Meliz, and Ha-Zefira, which were founded respectively by L. Kantor, A. Zedernbaum, and C. Slonimsky.

Summarizing now the merits of modern Hebrew journalism it may be said that they are far greater than is generally supposed. In fact, it has exercised a beneficial and far-reaching influence upon a large section of the Jewish community. For, not only has it enriched Hebrew literature with valuable additions, but it has also familiarized its readers, through the medium of translations, with some of the best-known ancient and modern works on general science and literature.

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