VIDEO: A Yiddish Newsroom During the Eventful Summer of ‘76
By Rukhl Schaechter May 18, 2017
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts.
In the summer of 1976, against the backdrop of the dramatic Entebbe Operation, the Bicentennial celebrations on the Hudson River and the nomination of Jimmy Carter for President at the Democratic National Convention in New York, the Yiddish Forward, then located at its historic building in the lower East side, continued to provide its readers with the latest news in Yiddish, as well as essays and serialized novels by Isaac Bashevis Singer and other acclaimed writers.
In this video, Lillian Silver Weber, a daughter of then editor-in-chief Simon Weber, and Jewish historian Dr. David Fishman, who worked as a summer intern there that summer, present a portrait of the editor and the mood in the newsroom during that eventful summer.
The video is in Yiddish and English, and includes English subtitles.
A message from Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forverts' 127-year legacy — and its bright future.
In the past, the goal of the Forverts was to Americanize its readers, to encourage them to learn English well and to acculturate to American society. Today, our goal is the reverse: to acquaint readers — especially those with Eastern European roots — with their Jewish cultural heritage, through the Yiddish language, literature, recipes and songs.
Our daily Yiddish content brings you new and creative ways to engage with this vibrant, living language, including Yiddish Wordle, Word of the Day videos, Yiddish cooking demos, new music, poetry and so much more.
— Rukhl Schaechter, Yiddish Editor
