Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Jewish Advance (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

View All Front Pages

About The Jewish Advance (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

The Jewish Advance was a progressive Jewish English- and German-language newspaper published weekly in Chicago between 1878 and 1881. It was the second Jewish publication in Chicago following the Occident, established in the earlier 1870s. Edited by Henry Gersoni, a progressive rabbi and journalist, and printed by Jewish-German community leader Max Stern—who periodically worked for the Chicago Daily Tribune—the paper focused on Jewish community and service in Chicago. Gersoni was no stranger to publishing or reform: born 1844 in Russia, he studied at a rabbinical seminary before being banished as a political enemy. From there he studied in Germany and Paris before coming to America in 1869. In the US, he translated, preached, and wrote for newspapers such as the Jewish Times. He was a prolific writer and translator of a half-dozen languages; publishing the short story collection Sketches of Jewish Life and History and an acclaimed Hebrew translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Excelsior.” In 1876, he took a job preaching for a congregation in Chicago, but resigned months after founding the Advance, claiming that the synagogue was not accepting of his “reform principles.”

One of the Advance‘s key goals was to increase synagogue attendance, and they did that by not only publishing synagogue information, but also information about lodges, ladies’ societies, and sewing circles. In the year of its founding, there were approximately twelve Jewish congregations in Chicago—many without rabbis—hosting at total around 500 members of the city’s Jewish population of 10,000. The paper also focused greatly on charitable acts, from helping the poor to opening more Jewish schools. After the city’s first Jewish hospital was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, the Advance helped the United Hebrew Relief Foundation raise funds for its replacement, Michael Reese Hospital. In January 1881, Gersoni also launched the Maccabean, a monthly magazine devoted to the same causes as the Advance. However, he may have overestimated the market for progressive Jewish periodicals: the Maccabean failed after only five issues, and the Advance suspended publication in October 1881. Faced with delinquent subscribers and immense financial difficulties, it never resumed print. Fed up with periodicals, Gersoni moved back to New York in 1882, where he continued translating until his death in 1897. Max Stern continued printing even as he took leadership roles with the North Side Turners, B’nai B’rith, and the Chicago Board of Education.

Provided By: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Jewish Advance (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

Dates of Publication

  • 1878-1881

Created / Published

  • Chicago, Ill. : Max Stern, 1878-

Headings

  • -  Jews--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Jews, German--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Jewish newspapers--Illinois--Chicago
  • -  Chicago (Ill.)--Newspapers
  • -  Jewish newspapers
  • -  Jews
  • -  Jews, German
  • -  Illinois--Chicago
  • -  United States--Illinois--Cook--Chicago

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 14, 1878)-October 14, 1881.
  • -  Preservation microfilmed in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library as part of the United States Newspaper Program; the years 1878-1881 (on 1 microfilm reel) are available for purchase from OCLC Preservation Service Centers.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In English and German.

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90053038

OCLC Number

  • 21584270

ISSN Number

  • 2769-5344

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://aj.sunback.homes/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Jewish Advance Chicago, Ill. -1881. (Chicago, IL), Jan. 1 1878. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90053038/.

APA citation style:

(1878, January 1) The Jewish Advance Chicago, Ill. -1881. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90053038/.

MLA citation style:

The Jewish Advance Chicago, Ill. -1881. (Chicago, IL) 1 Jan. 1878. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90053038/.