AK - Varia

2011

AC - Directories

Aufbau: Sprachrohr, Heimat, Mythos; Geschichte(n) einer deutsch-jüdischen Zeitung aus New York 1934 bis heute [Aufbau: House Organ, Homeland, Myth: The Story of a German-Jewish Newspaper in New York from 1934 to the Present]. Ed. Elke-Vera Kotowski for the Centrum Judaicum. Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2011. 95 p. ill. 16 cm. (Jüdische Miniaturen, 109). ISBN 978-3-942271-19-6: EUR 9.90 [11-2]

The product of a teaching seminar held at the University of Potsdam under the direction of editor Kotowski, this small volume is more like a journalistic memoir than a work of original academic research. It presents a very readable history of the German-Jewish newspaper that served as an “anchor” a “guide” and “something home-like” for its readership of German emigrants to the United States. Founded as a house organ for the German-Jewish Club, the paper went commercial in 1939. Although its subtitle until 1941 read “serving the interest and the Americanization of the immigrants”, most of the contents continued to be in the German language. The ten chapters of this book cover several aspects of the paper’s history. Included are stories of its role in such endeavors as a drive to make maps of Germany and Europe available to the U.S. Army, and the solicitation of funds from 16,000 donors for the construction of a U.S. fighter plane (christened “Loyalty”) during World War II. A bibliography and chronology are included. The book is a very welcome reminiscence of the newspaper that served an entire generation of German-speaking immigrants in the United States. [wub/kst]

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