Jacob Magidoff (June 22, 1869 – August 26, 1943) was a Russian-born Jewish-American Yiddish journalist and newspaper editor.

Life

Magidoff was born on June 22, 1869, in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, the son of Aaron Magidoff and Dora Aronovitz. Magidoff attended a religious primary school, a Russian school, and an Odessa high school. He immigrated to America in 1886, settling in New York and initially working in the sweatshops as a shirt stitcher while studying in the evening. A leader in the Jewish labor movement, he was an initiator and co-founder of the

United Hebrew Trades The United Hebrew Trades (Yiddish: ''Fareynikte Yidishe Geverkshaftn''), was an association of Jewish labor unions in New York formed in the late 1880s. The organization was inspired by and modeled upon the United German Trades (German: ''Deutsche ...

in 1888 and an active member of the

Socialist Labor Party The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...

. He worked for some time as an English teacher while studying at

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1904, but he only worked as a lawyer for a few years before he began working full-time in Yiddish journalism. He graduated from New York University with an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1902. In 1894, Magidoff became associate editor of the ''Arbeiter Zeitung''. From 1896 to 1899, he was city editor of

Dos Abend Blatt ''Dos Abend Blatt'' (''The Evening Paper''; original extensive title yi, אבענד בלאטט פון דיא ארבייטער צייטונג; ') was a Yiddish-language daily newspaper published in New York City, United States.Diner, Hasia R. In ...

. He then worked for the ''Jewish Daily News'' from 1896 to 1899, followed by the ''Abendpost'' from 1900 to 1901. In 1901, he became city editor of the ''

Jewish Morning Journal ''The Jewish Morning Journal'' ( yi, דער מארגען זשורנאל , Der Morgen Zhurnal) was a Yiddish-language publication in New York from 1901 to 1971. Early years A politically conservative, Orthodox Jewish publisher, Jacob Saphirstein ...

''. In 1926, he became the paper's chief editorial writer. He relinquished the position of city editor in 1935, but he remained an editorial writer for the paper. He ran a daily column in the paper called "Kurts un Sharf” (Short and Sharp). He also wrote for the monthly journals ''Di Tsukunft'' (The Future) and ''Di Naye Tsayt'' (The New Times) from 1898 to 1899, and was at one point a contributor to ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...

''. From 1925 to 1928, he edited the weekly ''Der Amerikaner'' (The American), which published articles on Yiddish writers. He visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1928 and wrote a series of articles depicting life under the Soviet regime. In 1923, he published a volume of characterizations on Jewish personalities in New York called ''Der Shpigl fun der Ist Said'' (The Mirror of the East Side). In 1896, Magidoff married Tinnie Jacobson. Their children were Bella, Helen, and Dorothy. Magidoff died at his home in 120 Ocean Parkway in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on August 26, 1943.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magidoff, Jacob 1869 births 1943 deaths Odesa Jews People from Odessky Uyezd American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Jews from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States New York University School of Law alumni 20th-century American lawyers Lawyers from New York City Jewish American attorneys Jewish American trade unionists Jewish socialists Members of the Socialist Labor Party of America New York (state) socialists 19th-century American newspaper editors 20th-century American newspaper editors Jewish American journalists Journalists from New York City Editors of New York City newspapers American male journalists Yiddish-language journalists