American Hebrew, the
AMERICAN HEBREW, THE
AMERICAN HEBREW, THE , New York Jewish weekly begun in 1879. The American Hebrew was published by Philip *Cowen, with editorial responsibility vested in a board of nine members, all of them young. The paper was vigorously written, favoring Orthodoxy over Reform, and concerned with maintaining good literary standards and covering news from all parts of the Jewish world. Though Cowen denied it, the belief persisted that the paper was supported by Jacob Schiff. In 1906 Cowen sold his controlling interest to a group of leading New York Jews that included Isaac *Seligman, Oscar S. *Straus, Cyrus L. *Sulzberger, Nathan *Bijur, and Adolph *Lewisohn. For the next ten years Joseph *Jacobs was editor, succeeded by Herman Bernstein. During the editorship of Rabbi Isaac *Landman (1918–37) The American Hebrew often took an anti-Zionist position. It was greatly interested in fostering goodwill between Jews and Christians, and in 1929 instituted an annual award for achievement in this field. Landman was succeeded by Louis H. Biden. In the course of its history The American Hebrew absorbed several Jewish weeklies. It ceased to appear as a separate publication in 1956 when it was combined with the Jewish Examiner to form the American Examiner.
[Sefton D. Temkin]