David Schwartz, roving newspaper reporter, Jewish Telegraphic Agency columnist and special editorial writer for the national Israel Bonds Organization, died yesterday from heart failure in Beth Israel Hospital here at the age of 84. Funeral arrangements were in the process of being completed today.
Schwartz, widely known among Jewish readers for the mild and occasionally wry observations on Jewish personalities and events, never married. Born in Brunswick, Go., his father fled with his family from Brunswick to escape an influenza epidemic and the family settled in Atlanta, a residence of nearly two decades before moving again to St. Paul, Minn.
The future columnist enrolled at the University of Minnesota but dropped out after a year to seek a reporter’s job. Over the years he worked on newspapers in Minneapolis, West Virginia, Ohio, North Dakota and Texas. He eventually wound up in New York, joining the staff of the Israel Bonds Organization at its inception in December, 1951. There he wrote articles on Israel and performed other editorial tasks until his retirement in March, 1971.
BEGAN WITH JTA IN 1930S
Schwartz began his association with the JTA in the early 1930s as a staff member of the Daily News Bulletin. He initiated his JTA column, “Panorama, “in the mid-1930s. The column was widely used by publications in this country and abroad. During his years at the JTA he published several books based on his columns.
Schwartz’s columns focussed on the quirks and ironies of history as they affected American Jews, the Jewish yishuv in Palestine and, later, Israel. He was famous for his applications of American history and the history of the Jewish people, particularly Zionist history, to current events affecting American Jewry and Israel.
Schwartz had a rich background in American and Jewish history and could refer with ease to statements and events involving the famous as well as obscure American and Jewish personalities. Each column sought to draw links from the past to current events, in a witty and urbane style. Occasionally he was not above coining an outrageous pun.
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.
