''Der Keneder Adler'' () was

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's leading

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

from 1907 until 1977. Founded in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

by Hirsch Wolofsky, the ''Adler'' underpinned Yiddish cultural activity in the city for much of the 20th century.

History

After losing his fruit store on

St. Lawrence Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard Saint-Laurent), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north–south through ...

to a fire, Hirsch Wolofsky founded the Eagle Publishing Company with the insurance money salvaged from the disaster. Within a month, the publishing company had established functional offices and housed Canada's first Yiddish

linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...

. The ''Keneder Adler'' published its first issue on 30 August 1907. While newspaper's status was precarious during its early years, appearing only biweekly after the fourth edition, the ''Adler'' began publishing daily as of October 1908. The paper was funded by Mortimer B. Davis when it struggled again financially during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The ''Adler'' would have to pay Davis off after he sought to control the ''Keneder Adlers editorial policy. In 1918, the ''Adler'' published its edition of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...

, which became known as the ''Montrealer Shas'' ('The Montreal Talmud') and raised the newspaper's prestige. The ''Adler'' served as a literary forum for Montreal's emerging Yiddish intelligentsia, as both a promoter of Yiddish literature and culture (through the efforts of

J. I. Segal J. I. Segal (, ''Yud Yud Segal'') (1896 – March 7, 1954), born Yaakov Yitzchak Skolar, was a Canadian Yiddish poet and journalist. He was a pioneer in the creation of Canadian Yiddish literary journals, and was the foremost proponent of litera ...

, in particular) and as a

book publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and

distributor A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plug ...

. A. A. Roback served as editor of ''Der Keneder Adler'' from 1908 to 1912, and Reuben Brainin as editor from 1912 to 1915, before departing for New York after a disagreement with Wolofsky. A. M. Klein maintained close ties with the paper, and authored the ''Adlers English page from 1938 to 1941. Israel Medres's regular columns, ''"Di vokh in kanade"'' ('This Week in Canada') and ''"Bilder in gerikht-zal"'' ('Pictures in a Courtroom'), presented readers with accessible discussions of contemporary

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and legal matters. After Wolofksy's death in 1949, the ''Adler'' was run by his son Max. The newspaper ceased publication in 1977, after unsuccessful reincarnations as a weekly and as a bilingual English–Yiddish publication.

Notes

References

Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Montreal Yiddish newspapers Jewish newspapers published in Canada Publications established in 1907 Defunct newspapers published in Quebec Newspapers published in Montreal Publications disestablished in 1988 Jews and Judaism in Montreal 1907 establishments in Quebec 1988 disestablishments in Quebec Yiddish culture in Canada {{canada-newspaper-stub