Yidisher Kemfer
YIDISHER KEMFER
YIDISHER KEMFER ("Jewish Fighter"), U.S. Yiddish Labor Zionist publication. Founded in Philadelphia in 1906 as an organ of Po'alei Zion in America, the Kemfer appeared as an irregular weekly in New York from 1907 to 1923, as a biweekly from 1924 to 1931 (during which period it was called Yidisher Arbeter), for many years thereafter a weekly, then in 1990 a biweekly and, since the mid-1990s, as a bimonthly magazine. Initially sponsored by the Labor Zionist Organization-Poale Zion, later under the auspices of the Jewish National Workers Alliance (renamed the Farband Labor Zionist Order in 1950), and since the mid-1960s by the Labor Zionist Alliance's "Labor Zionist Letters." During its long history, it was edited by such distinguished figures as Kalman *Marmor, David *Pinski, Ber *Borochov, Joel *Entin, Chaim *Greenberg, and Mordechai Strigler. It was for many years an international center for Labor Zionist thought and one of the most eminent Yiddish political and social journals in the United States and indeed in the world. From 1963 through 1995, under Strigler's tenure, the Kemfer published such renowned authors as Jacob Glatstein, Chaim Grade, H. Leivik, Abraham Reizen, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. From the summer of 1998, it was edited by Jacob Weitzner.
bibliography:
D. Smith, "Mordechai Strigler, 76, Editor of Yiddish Forward," in: The New York Times (May 12, 1998).
[Hillel Halkin /
Arieh Lebowitz (2nd ed.)]