Advertisement for Shtilim, a Hebrew Children’s Journal

We have come together these days, during the awakening of our Hebrew literary sphere, to establish a special newspaper for Jewish youngsters and children.

Do we really need to talk at length about how much young people need a newspaper like this? Hebrew teachers will testify to how much their students need new reading material; students find the meager Hebrew children’s literary options unsatisfying.

We do not see the need to speak at length about our newspaper’s “program” either. Youth newspapers are not meant to deal with contemporary issues or to convey daily news. Their primary purpose is to provide young readers with the types of entertainment and pleasure they crave.

Nonetheless, a Hebrew newspaper pitched to Jewish youth needs to plant the Hebrew world in young readers’ heart. When reading a Hebrew newspaper, young readers needs to feel immersed in a world of their own rather than one foreign to them.

Every copy of the bimonthly Shtilim [Saplings] newspaper will be forty-eight pages long, so that there will be room to publish a wide variety of materials in every issue.

Here are the regular sections of our periodical:

A. Belles Lettres: poems, original and translated stories, legends, and more, written in an approachable style by the best Jewish and non-Jewish poets and authors.

B. Scientific Essays: descriptions of fauna, flora, and the physical world written in a simple and easygoing style intended to teach young readers to appreciate nature and its beauty.

C. Our People’s History: chapters in Jewish history to teach young readers about momentous periods in our people’s history, our nation’s heroes and martyrs.

D. In the Wider World: travel literature and descriptions of life in various lands and countries which can broaden the understanding of the young reader and bring him out of his narrow world.

E. The Land of Israel: descriptions of life in our forefathers’ land and in the Jewish colonies, lectures and stories about the Holy Land—things that can plant a love of the land of our future in young readers’ hearts.

F. Israel and the Nations: both short and long news stories about important world events of interest to young readers.

G. Notable People’s Biographies: history of famous people in the world whose significant activities in literature, the arts, or other fields earned them renown.

H. Light Entertainment: fables, riddles, proverbs, jokes, and other light pieces capable of amusing readers or sharpening their minds and capturing their hearts.

We will give careful attention to the images featured in our newspaper. As often as we can, we will offer attractive illustrations, as well as pictures and sketches done by professional artists.

Individuals who have promised to collaborate and contribute to Shtilim include: Yitsḥak Alterman, S. An-ski, Chaim Nahman Bialik, Isaiah Nisan Goldberg, Yeḥiel Halperin, Falk Heilperin, Israel Ḥayim Taviov, Isaac Eliezer Lazerovitch, Aaron Luboszicki, Moses Baruch Łazebnik, Abraham Epstein, Jacob Fichman, Noah Pines, David Frishman, Shaul Tshernikhovski, Alexander Ziskind Rabinovitz, Elisheva Rabinovitz, Eliezer Steinman, David Shimonovitz, and more.

We are undertaking this project in the hope that our paper will reach the young Jewish readers and that it will serve as a gateway to our Hebrew literary world.

The first issue of Shtilim will appear on July 1st.

Subscriptions are now being accepted. A yearly subscription costs twelves rubles and a half-year subscription costs six rubles. Subscribers should place their orders promptly, so that their papers will ship without delay.

Address: Shtilim Editorial Office, Moscow, 10 Kosmodamianskii avenue, apt. 3

Editor: Moshe Ben-Eliezer

Publisher: Moshe Zlatopolski