Jewish Telegraphic Agency Marks Twenty-fifth Anniversary

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the only world-wide system devoted to the gathering and distribution of Jewish news from all parts of the world, today marked the twenty-fifth year of its existence.

Founded during World War I, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency started functioning 25 years ago today in The Hague under the name of Jewish Correspondence Bureau. It has since developed into an internationally-recognized news agency collecting and disseminating swiftly, accurately, comprehensively and impartially all news of importance to Jewry and serving as a protective instrumentality for the Jewish community.

As a link between the Jews of the world, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is now playing an important role in keeping public opinion informed concerning the life and the sufferings of the Jewish communities in Nazi-occupied countries. For this purpose the JTA maintains special correspondents on the European continent who gather information on the persecutions and the needs of the Jews in Germany, Austria, occupied Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and other territories where the Jews are isolated by the Nazis from the rest of the world and exposed to brutal mistreatment, humiliation and starvation.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency also maintains large offices in London and Palestine and has correspondents in every one of the Latin American countries. The Jewish situation in the Middle East is watched and reported by JTA correspondents from Jerusalem and Cairo, while the Jewish situation in Soviet Russia during the present war is graphically described in JTA dispatches from Moscow and Kuibyshev by such eminent writers as Ilya Ehrenburg, Valentin Katayev and V. Panferov, whose reports are being featured in many American newspapers.

PRESS, LEADERS, ORGANIZATIONS ACKNOWLEDGE VALUE OF JTA

Jewish newspapers in America have on many occasions acknowledged the fact that if not for the service of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency they would now carry as little news of Jewish life all over the world as they did during the last World War when there was no Jewish news agency in existence. Jewish leaders similarly acknowledge the fact that the JTA is the main source of Jewish news for them, while Jewish organizations do not hesitate to state that the JTA news is very helpful to them in mapping out their plan of activities.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in supplying information about Jewish life to the Jewish and non-Jewish press in the United States, England and other countries, maintains a variety of services. They include the sending of news by wire and wireless to newspapers in the United States, South America, Palestine, England and other countries; the publication of a daily news bulletin mailed to subscribing Jewish leaders and institutions; and a feature-and-news service for the Anglo-Jewish press.

Organized by Mr. Jacob Landau, twenty-five years ago, the JTA is today an important communal enterprise of great value to the Jewish community. In 1935 Jewish leaders in America transformed the JTA into a communal, non-profit institution with Mr. Landau as Managing Director. The reorganization of the JTA, symbolizing the integral role which it had attained in the Jewish community, did not affect its basic policy – to report Jewish news objectively, swiftly, without color or bias.

A POTENT FORCE IN DISPELLING IGNORANCE ABOUT JEWS

The JTA is also recognized by Jewish leaders as a potent force in dispelling the ignorance and misapprehensions about Jews which have always been the greatest weapon of the anti-Semite. It is constantly at work checking on libels and false reports damaging to the Jews, and revealing their falsity. Frequently it has been instrumental in supplying information that enabled action to be taken to prevent some of the disasters that have faced Jews in various countries since the First World War.

Established originally to gather information on the Jewish problem, which was expected to come up at the peace conference after the First World War, the JTA’s role in this respect will undoubtedly be even more important when the Jewish question is raised at the peace conference which will follow the present war.

With Mr. George Backer as president and Mr. Jacob Blaustein as chairman, the JTA has during this war extended its services to South America in such a way as to strengthen the fight against Nazi propaganda there. It has also instituted a service for foreign language newspapers in this country with a view of familiarizing the foreign language groups in the United States with conditions now prevailing in their native lands. In this manner the JTA helps to cement unity among the various foreign language groups in America as it does among the American Jewish groups.