The Sabbath Visitor

Another newspaper of interest on the National Library of Israel's online collection is The Sabbath Visitor. This paper was published from 1874 to the late 19th century (I haven't been able to determine the extent of its run yet.) The Visitor was created by Rabbi Max Lilienthal as a forum to discuss Jewish education and produce educational materials. A copy of an issue from 1882 is available on the University of Pennsylvania Library's website. We can observe from this copy that the paper was published weekly and consisted solely of articles written by adults for the young readers of the paper. We also see that by 1882, Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger had taken over the paper from Lilienthal.

My main interest are in the issues digitized by the National Library of Israel. These issues are from 1887 and 1888 and offer a very different kind of paper from the 1882 issue. In 1887 we see that Isidor Wise had become the editor of the paper. The paper was now published monthly with each issue topping 70 pages. The paper continued to include educational material written by Jewish educators, but in its monthly form it also incorporated a significant amount of reader submitted content. Children who read the magazine could submit short stories, poetry, and other kinds of writing to a section called "Israel's Flower Garden." Another section called the "Letter Box" was filled with reader submitted letter in which they talked about whatever they wanted. Letters to the editor are very common in all kinds of papers and periodicals, but this section often topped 20 pages in length. Both user submitted sections were edited by a person who identified themselves as "Sadie." She would publish all the letters sent to her in the letter box and would occasionally directly respond to them. She also makes comments that suggest that she would forward privately addressed letters between readers that had previously submitted to the paper, allowing readers of the paper to communicate without having to know each other's addresses. 

Though Israel's Flower Garden is fascinating in of itself as a witness to creativity and interests of American Jewish children during these years, the Letter Box has really caught my attention through its striking similarity to modern day social media. Reading though each issue's large collection of letters feels like sifting through an old internet message board. Some readers just submit short letters announcing that they are there, others talk a little bit about life where they live, a few will send in long rants giving their personal take on the discourse of the day, and other's profess their love to Sadie asking her to marry them in ways that are eerily similar to how maladjusted men behave towards women on the internet today. Not all the people submitting letters will sign their real names on the letter, echoing the anonymous qualities of an internet username. A few examples of such 'usernames' are "Saw Bones," "Big Boy," and "Incognito." In manner of most letters to the editor, Sadie will print the city of origin for all submissions, including those with anonymous names. The people submitting really come from all across the United States, many of them from large cities like Cincinnati and Chicago, but also a significant number from small villages all across the country. Many of these small town readers would comment on how beneficial this magazine was to their Jewish identity being so far removed from large Jewish communities in the cities. 

There is a lot that can be learned from this fascinating publication. Though I don't currently have the time to dive deeper, I really hope to be able to some time in the near future.