Advertisements in the historical Jewish press: an introduction

The main pages of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jewish periodicals were filled with heated discussions concerning major issues which defined Jewish life in various places: nationalism (Jewish and non-Jewish alike), social and economic situation, cultural and ideological choices, religion and secularization, relations with non-Jews, anti-Semitism, emigration, etc. Sections with advertisements printed in the historical Jewish press alongside these discussions offer a close look at Jewish life seen from another perspective. They demonstrate how these big themes of Jewish history were translated into the everyday life of Jewish men, women, and children. Commercial (non-classified) advertisements offer glimpses into various aspects of the Jewish past: fashion, beauty products, patent medicines, religious books, education, entertainment, and many others. Similarly, press announcements (or classified advertisements) also correspond with the themes of Jewish macrohistory on a microscale level. Both types of advertisements lend themselves to the study of Jewish economic, social, cultural, religious and even political history, and yet their use as a source has not reached its full potential. While there are studies on some aspects of advertising in the context of Jewish culture and economy in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries,¹ the field is still relatively unexplored.

The special section included in this volume of Journal of Modern Jewish Studies presents three readings of advertisements in historical Jewish press which contribute to the discussion on their potential as a source and their usefulness in exploring various aspects of Jewish history.

In her article Why Are These Passover Ads Different from All Other Ads? Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and the American Jewish Consumer Identity, Makena Mezistrano analyzes advertisements for matzah in Forverts and La Vara, two important American Jewish periodicals. Both these periodicals targeted a different Jewish community in New York: Forverts, published in Yiddish (1897 to the present), was addressed to Ashkenazi Jews while La Vara, published in Ladino (1922–1948), was the voice of the Sephardic community. Mezistrano’s choice of advertisements for this particular product is not random: matzah was a religious and cultural symbol shared by both these communities and allowed a space for interaction between them. In her paper, she demonstrates how Sephardim constructed their cultural identity as consumers against the backdrop of the majority Ashkenazi community in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mezistrano’s research shows how advertisements for matzah comment on conversations between the two periodicals, on bigger-scale power relations and interactions between the two Jewish communities, and on the role of gender in marketing campaigns in Yiddish and Ladino.

In Advertising Occultism in the Jewish Press in Poland, Samuel Glauber demonstrates that press advertisements are a sine qua non source for studying the history of modern occultism in Eastern Europe. His special focus is early twentieth-century Poland which was a prominent centre of Jewish occult-related celebrities, activities, and publications. Glauber’s research draws attention to an important trait both of Jewish press advertising and of occultism in Eastern Europe, i.e. their multilingual and multicultural character. But he also points to the existence of an intriguing paradox of “promulgation of ostensibly hidden knowledge in mass-circulation newspapers.” Based on historical press in Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish, his paper not only reconstructs the dynamics of the occult marketplace in Eastern Europe and Jewish participation in it but also, even more importantly, sets this particular story in the broader context of fundamental changes effecting Jewish life at the time. Glauber demonstrates how attraction to various forms of occultism was actually inspired by aspirations and anxieties which were part and parcel of the experience of modernity (Jewish and non-Jewish alike).

In Hidden in Plain Sight: Advertisements for Jewish Ritual Objects in Germany, 1871–1933, Hannah-Lea Wasserfuhr uses the case of advertisements for Jewish ritual objects as a lens to study broader economic, cultural and religious history of Jews living during the German Second Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). On the one hand, that these objects were advertised in a manner similar to Christian ritual utensils tells a story of Jewish emancipation; however on the other hand, the apparent overproduction of these goods might have been also motivated by ethnic stereotypes. In certain contexts in which the Jewishness of these ritual objects was perceived as a hindrance in their marketing, the advertisements rebranded them as “decorative” objects, devoid of their original religious context and purpose. Wasserfuhr’s reading of these advertisements also reveals information hidden in the very language of the adverts which sheds light on the degree of Jewish acculturation, on the extent of Christian knowledge of Jewish religion, and on strategies used in ethnic marketing.

All three articles were originally presented during the online workshop Studying Advertisements In Pre-1939 Jewish Press: Methods And Challenges that was held on 21–23 February 2022 at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław.² Other research presented at the workshop but published elsewhere also demonstrate how advertisements can be used to the benefit of studying various aspects of Jewish history and culture.³ This wide-ranging studies allows us to hope that press advertisements are both a source and a subject worthy of deeper exploration with the potential to open new avenues of thought in Jewish studies.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Agnieszka Jagodzińska

Agnieszka Jagodzinska is an Associate Professor in the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław. Her academic interests focus on Jewish literature, culture and history in the context of Jewish-Polish contacts in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Agnieszka Jagodzińska has authored, edited or co-edited a number of publications related to acculturation and integration of Polish Jews, Jewish press and literature, Jewish universalism, conversion and Christian missions to the Jews, and translations.

Notes

1 For research on Jewish consumer culture in general or advertisements in Jewish press in particular, see for example: Heinze, Adapting to Abundance; Reuveni, Consumer Culture; Reuveni, Roemer (eds.). Longing, Belonging; Stein, Making Jews Modern.

2 The program of the workshop is available at: https://judaistyka.uni.wroc.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/advertisement-workshop-programme-2022.pdf (accessed October 18, 2023).

3 See Gil Ribak’s discussion of race and Yiddish theatre in America in Ribak, “My Mom Drank Ink”, Haim Sperber’s use of press announcements as a source for studying history of agunot (deserted wives) in Sperber, The Plight of Jewish Deserted Wives or Ayelet Brinn's discussion of advertisements in her study on gender and the making of the American Yiddish press, A Revolution in Type.