Jewish Review, The. 2 cloth slipcases.
A Complete Run
[Judaica]. The Jewish Review. A Semi-Annual Devoted to the Study and Interpretation of Jewish Life and Though t. / Gedank Un Lebn . I.1-V.4 (May 1943-December 1948). New York: Jewish Teachers’ Seminary And Peoples’ University, 1943.
13 vols., 8vo.; blue-green printed wrappers; several issues lightly darkened. In two specially made cloth slipcases.
The Jewish Review was issued semiannually in 1943, and quarterly from 1944 to 1948 (only three issues came out in 1946 and publication was then suspended until 1947), with articles and English and Yiddish aimed at “the general educated public” and “the serious reader,” rather than “a limited circle of specialists,” written by “Jewish writers and scholars of all groups who have a message to convey.”
The editors of this journal set forth their mission in the inaugural issue:
The new semi-annual which the Jewish Teachers’ Seminary and People’s University herewith inaugurates will not only realize a dream cherished for a decade, but will mark the beginning of a new type of activity. The Jewish Review is intended as the first step in the initiation of a Graduate Division for Jewish Social Studies which has already been projected and which will begin to function at the end of the war. It will serve as a medium of publication for this Division.
Their goals swept over, in fact, much more terrain than this. “It will foster the Jewish social research and contribute to a scientifically valid approach to the history and contemporary problems of Jewish life such as reconstruction of European Jewry, upbuilding of Palestine, guiding the post-war migration.” They noted the coincidence of their timing: “These tasks are more pressing in the United States now that the Jewish cultural centers of Western Europe and Poland have been destroyed by the Nazi barbarians.” In addition, “and not less important [a] task is the prosecution of investigations in the field of Jewish ideologies and thought.”
In our times of spiritual crisis the “study and interpretation of Jewish life and Jewish thought” to which The Jewish Review is dedicated, a scientific approach to Jewish ideologies and an analysis of their contents and backgrounds, is more than ever necessary. This may lead to a crystallization of the patterns of Jewish thought.
Special stress will be laid on the problems of Jewish youth in America, with particular reference to Jewish education….
They conclude their foreword with an acknowledgement of the challenges before them:
We are inaugurating the publication of this semi-annual journal in days of catastrophe, ruin, and spiritual confusion for the Jewish people. We know how difficult it is at such a time to undertake a new, serious publication and maintain it at the suitable intellectual level. But we also know how important it is in such a period of decline and bewilderment to create a spiritual center which may contribute to the clarification and consolidation of Jewish thought, and assist in enlightening the ways of Jewish life. The recognition of the importance of our task will, we rust, help us to overcome all obstacles.
This run of The Jewish Review is significant for its representation of the history of Jewish intellectuals in America in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. We find no reference to this journal in the standard sources, and cannot locate a single volume on the open market.
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