Dr. Alfred Hirschberg, for several decades head of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency bureau in Sao Paulo and the JTA correspondent in Sao Paulo since 1946, died suddenly today of a heart attack. He would have been 70 on Sept. 27. He was born in Gnesen, Germany and graduated from the university of Leipzig and Berlin. In Brazil since 1940, Dr. Hirschberg had been a board member of the Brazilian Instituto Brasiliero-Judaica de Cultura e Devulgacao and editorial advisor to the magazine, Commentario.
Dr. Hirschberg was a member of the National Human Rights Commission of B’nai B’rith Brazil and had been first secretary of the general council of the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital. He was a co-founder and board member of the Brazilian Institute of Human Rights and of the Jewish-Christian Fraternity Council and had been a member of the board of the Congregation Israelita Paulita of which he was made an honorary member on his 65th birthday.
Dr. Hirschberg had twice been a vice-president of the World Council of Synagogues and was director at his death. He had given much of his time in recent years to the creation and work of the Brazilian Center of Jewish Studies at the Sao Paulo State University. Dr. Hirschberg was a prolific writer, the author of several books and papers. Robert H. Arnow, president of the JTA, expressed his condolences to Mr. Hirschberg’s widow, Mrs. Eva Hirschberg and their family. Arnow said that Mr. Hirschberg’s death represents a tremendous loss to Jewish communal affairs, to the JTA and to Jewish journalism throughout the world.
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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.
