National Library of Israel digitizes 50 years of New York Jewish Week
The free online archive allows researchers to access five decades of local reporting, while a panel discussion and email series explore specific moments in the community's history.
By Yuki Melnyk ·
The National Library of Israel has completed the digitization of nearly five decades of The New York Jewish Week, making the publication’s archives freely available to the public for the first time. This addition joins the library’s Historical Jewish Press collection, a database that has operated for more than 20 years and currently contains newspapers in 30 languages dating back to the late 17th century.
Gary Rosenblatt, who served as the newspaper’s editor and publisher for more than half of its history, noted that the archive offers a record of major events as well as the everyday issues and cultural shifts that animated the community. Eyal Miller, the manager of the Historical Jewish Press project, oversees the integration of this new material. The collection includes a period when the paper was known as The Jewish Week.
Jonathan Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University, described the newspaper as the most important American Jewish newspaper of its time. The digitization process preserves content that documents the lives and changing identities of New York’s Jewish community from its founding in 1654 to the present. The archive includes coverage of unusual episodes such as a bagel shortage and a record-breaking gathering of Orthodox Jews at Madison Square Garden.
To mark the release of the digital files, The National Library of Israel and The New York Jewish Week will hold a panel discussion on Tuesday, Nov. 17. The event, titled The Pages of Our Past: Digitizing New York’s Jewish Stories, is scheduled from 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Manhattan. A streaming option will be available for remote participants.
The panel will feature Rosenblatt, current journalists from The New York Jewish Week, and Miller. The discussion will explore what the newly available archive reveals about the city's Jewish past and how it informs the present. The two organizations are also launching a partnership for an email series called 9 Moments That Made Jewish New York What It Is Today.
This email series examines nine often-overlooked moments in the city’s history, ranging from the arrival of 23 Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil, in 1654, to a modern-day controversy over whether the city’s tap water was kosher. Each installment explores how the community responded to change and built institutions. The New York Jewish Week is owned by 70 Faces Media, which also publishes the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
