The life of Major Mordecai Manuel Noah, an early 19th-century American Jewish figure, who devised a plan to settle large numbers of Jews in the open spaces of the American continent, was discussed here yesterday at the 49th annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society. Lee M. Friedman was re-elected for a fourth term as president of the Society.
Dr. Robert Gordis described Major Noah, the centennial of whose death was observed by the Society, as a “superb symbol of the American Jew of the future.” He said that Major Noah–who was an American diplomat, Journalist, playwright and world traveler–was a political Zionist a half-century before Dr. Theodor Herzl because he visualized the restoration of the Jewish people to Palestine by their own efforts. “The Republic of Israel,” Dr. Gordis said, “would do well to honor the memory of one of its spiritual progenitors.”
A review of 50 years of Jewish education in the United States was given at the meeting by Dr. Leo Honor, of Philadelphia. Another anniversary observed by the Society was the golden Jubilee of the Jewish Morning Journal, New York Yiddish daily. Dr. Mordecai Soltes, executive director of Yeshiva University and historian of Jewish periodical literature in America, said: “Throughout its career, the Journal has assumed an active role in supporting all efforts to strengthen the system of Jewish education in America without regard to differences in ideological outlook.”
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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.
