Subscription Notice
Shaul Ginsburg
1903
Subscription for the Year 1903 to the First Daily Zhargon (Yiddish) Newspaper in Russia, Der fraynd
Published in Saint Petersburg by Sh. Ginzburg and Sh. Rapaport [S. An-ski]
Der fraynd is published according to the standard of the large general daily newspapers. Every day it contains—as do the largest newspapers—telegrams, news, and letters about general as well as Jewish life both in Russia and abroad.
Der fraynd publishes articles about politics, questions of life in general, and all kinds of Jewish matters.
Der fraynd publishes responses by specialists to questions about laws and rights, business, and crafts.
Der fraynd devotes considerable space to stories, feuilletons, and scholarly articles.
The closest coworkers of Der fraynd are:
Dr. Y. Luria (the former editor of Der yid [The Jew]), Dr. H. D. Hurvits (the former editor of the Folkstsaytung [People’s Newspaper]).
Others who participate in publishing the newspaper are:
Sh. Y. Abramovitsh (Mendele Mokher Sforim), Y. Dinezon, E. Levinski, Sh. Frug, Y. L. Peretz, D. Frishman, Y. Ḥ. Ravnitski, Sholem Aleichem, and many other famous writers.
Subscription price:
- For one year—7 rubles
- For half a year—3.5 rubles
- For a quarter year—1.75 rubles
Address:
- Editorial Office of the Newspaper Der Fraynd
- Yekaterinsky Canal 71, St. Petersburg
Translated by
.
Der fraynd (The Friend) was the first Yiddish daily in the Russian Empire. Founded by Shaul Ginzburg in St. Petersburg in 1903, Der fraynd was for several years the only Yiddish daily permitted in the Russian Empire. Due to that fact and a rising hunger for news among modernizing Jewish readers, but also because of its serious journalism and essays about many aspects of Russian Jewish life and culture, its daily circulation reached ninety thousand copies. In the same period, it also became one of the most important vehicles for Yiddish literature, publishing works by Sholem Aleichem, Y. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, and Avrom Reyzen. Der fraynd had a significant influence on public opinion and shaped the secular Jewish culture of its time. Generally sympathetic to Zionism but otherwise apolitical, the newspaper turned to overt criticism of the Russian Empire during the 1905 revolution and provided a space for serious confrontation with the terrible anti-Jewish violence unleashed by antirevolutionary forces in 1906; this political turn led to its temporary closure by the authorities in 1906. Although the 1905 revolution was suppressed, one of its few lasting gains was a loosening of regime restrictions on newspaper publishing, and consequently, new Yiddish dailies began to spring up in centers with far larger Jewish populations than St. Petersburg, particularly Warsaw. In this context, Der fraynd too moved to Warsaw but could not compete with the newer dailies Haynt (founded 1908) and Moment (founded 1910); Der fraynd folded in 1912.
Credits
Der Fraynd, subscription notice, originally published as advertisement in Der Fraynd, no. 1 (Jan. 14, 1903): p. 2.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.
