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Der Morgen Zhornal, known in English as the Jewish Morning Journal, and later, as the Jewish Journal and Daily News, was established in 1901 in New York, and for a time was the only morning Yiddish newspaper. Early in the century, it took over the editorial and classi¤ed advertisement departments of the previously prominent Tageblat (Daily Bulletin), and shared its orthodox philosophy. Its principal competition was provided by the two other prominent dailies, Der Tog (The Day), started around the onset of World War I in New York City, and the well-known Forverts (Forward), also published in New York from 1897. The Jewish Morning Journal shared in the surge of popularity and circulation increase enjoyed by the Jewish newspapers in the ¤rst decades of the twentieth century, when the emigration of Yiddish speaking, socially and politically aware refugees from the harsh conditions and persecutions of Eastern Europe ¤lled the east coast of America with great, and as yet nonintegrated, cultural energy. In addition to acquiring a reputation for gathering the largest amount of current news, the paper also offered the Yiddish reading public the popular cultural fare that enriched the lives of the aspiring immigrants. This included biographies, novels, political and social explorations, and literary comment. Serialization of literature was not an uncommon practice among the Yiddish papers, and such intermittent reports as those sent by Chaplain Rosen, in later times, were well received. The Jewish Morning Journal merged with The Day in 1953 and continued to publish until 1971, when demand for Yiddish publications in general 2 Der Morgen Zhornal reached a nadir. At its height, it had a circulation of over 110,000. At the time of its closing, the ¤gure was considered closer to 50,000. In 1914, virtually every Jew in the larger cities of the East spoke Yiddish. In 1930, there were still over 600,000 Yiddish speakers in New York. The end of the great immigrations and the successful integration of the masses of newcomers into American society ultimately dampened the drive to maintain a separate language of social comfort. At the time Chaplain Rosen’s articles were written, however, there was still an avid audience for his observations in Yiddish. 14 / Der Morgen Zhornal ...

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