Editorial Statement of Der nayer gayst

Many Jews in America owe their spiritual-intellectual development to the progressive Yiddish-language periodicals that are published here. But the existing progressive Yiddish-language periodicals are, in fact, party organs, and they give the people in certain respects a one-sided education. Our ideal has always been a free periodical, a periodical free of any party-framework that can educate and spiritually elevate people in a nonpartisan way. We don’t want to belittle the work carried out by the partisan organs. We acknowledge their great value, and when we articulate our ideal, we are only saying this in the sense of aspiring to be their supporters, their assistants; we don’t want to be superior to them. The periodical you have in front of you was born of this idea. It is called Der nayer gayst [The New Spirit].

Der nayer gayst will proceed on a completely radical new path, without fearing any received opinion or social institution that is against justice and truth. We think, for instance, that those institutions in our social life that consider everyone equal are just—not the ones that generate higher and lower classes. We recognize as truth all those things that can lead one’s mind to an understanding, things that rely on natural laws and logic, like the positive sciences and proven history, but not such things as religion and other occult teachings that have nothing to do with logic and substantiation. In the interest of enlightenment, it will be our duty to fight against such teachings.

At the same time, in spite of our seriousness, we cannot ignore that people don’t always want to devote themselves to study, that sometimes they just want intellectually nourishing entertainment. In order to satisfy this legitimate demand, Der nayer gayst will devote an extensive section to belletristic literature. Nonetheless, we can assure our readers that it will undergo a thorough selection process and will have to contain progressive ideas. Naturally, we will also pay attention to the important events and questions of the day as this is generally expected of a publication that calls itself a monthly.

Der nayer gayst will contain:

1. Various scholarly articles;
2. Questions of the day, especially related to politics;
3. Belletristic literature—short stories, sketches, poetry;
4. Literary criticism and art reviews;
5. Polemics about important questions;
6. Biographies of important personalities;
7. The most important news of the month;
8. Chess problems;
9. Humor, jokes, satires, etc.

For these sections we will accept articles from any author if they are written well and touch upon an important topic.

The editorial board of Der nayer gayst will bear all responsibility for the literary section but not for the section of advertisements.

As far as the presentation of Der nayer gayst is concerned, all future numbers will look like this first one. It will always be printed on fine paper, it will always contain illustrations (pictures), and it will always have a standard arrangement of the articles.

[Signed] The Editorial Board