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To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
I’ve been a reader of the paper since it expanded from a miniature tabloid to its present size and I have followed its many evolutions and convolutions with no little interest and a great deal of wonder.
To me it is quite obvious that the paper embodies at least the germ of a great idea. American Jews who have managed to retain an interest in Jewish affairs despite having lost the use of the Yiddish tongue need a newspaper like the Bulletin. Whether or not they realize that need is simply, I think, a promotional problem.
In the last few months, the Bulletin has dropped something of its former flabbiness and indirection. It has assumed a character and a vigor that may possibly have been imparted to it by such men as Boris Smolar, William B. Ziff and Eugene Lyons.
Smolar’s daily column “Between the Lines” is excellent because it is meaty and touched with authenticity. He evidently writes from deep and intimate knowledge of European affairs. Ziff, addicted to an overplus of abusive, fire-eating language, smacks a little too much of the demagogue to suit my taste. Nevertheless, his slam-bang approach to the Palestine problem and other pressing Jewish issues, is provocative and, unless carried to extremes, might conceivably do the Bulletin some good. And in Lyons’ “Black on White” column, you have acquired at least a glimmer of the truly American literary flair the paper needs.
In short, the Bulletin seems to be headed in the right direction after much obvious blundering on the rocky road to a publisher’s Utopia.
However (and I am not so obtuse as to imagine you do not know it) there is still a tremendous lot of room for improvement. May I make a few concrete suggestions along the following lines?
Acquisition of a general press service, such as the United Press or Associated Press, to supplement the excellent service of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Through this service, feature significant international news as well as local news.
Adoption of a vigorous, liberal stand in local and national politics. There is no earthly reason why the Bulletin could not command a large-scale circulation if it became a crusading newspaper like the old World, olav hasholom.
This may sound like an ambitious program, in which the danger is that you’ll be biting off a far greater hunk than you could possibly chew, but I think it’s the only way the Bulletin will ever really catch the popular imagination in America.
The Bulletin undoubtedly has a serious message to pass on to the Jewish public, but I doubt if any large section of it will ever heed that message if it’s offered in its present form. You’ve got to do it the same way a doctor cures a patient. Give him bitter doses, but surround the doses with plenty of sugar so he’ll swallow them and like it.
Frankly, I should like to see this letter published and I should like to have other Bulletin readers comment on the suggestions herein made and perhaps offer others of their own.
Frank Adelson
Bridgeport, Conn.
Nov. 27, 1934
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
