Samuel Jacob Jatzkan, famous Jewish publisher and Hebrew writer, died here today of a heart attack. Mr. Jatzkan was founder and publisher of the Haint, Yiddish daily in Warsaw which prints a Paris edition. He was 62 years old.
Born in Lithuania in 1874, Mr. Jatzkan became a rabbi at the age of 18. Following three years in the pulpit, he entered journalism and in 1908, together with two other journalists, founded the Haint. The paper soon became one of the most influential in Poland attaining a circulation, exclusive of its Paris edition, of more than 100,000.
Mr. Jatzkan joined the Zionist movement shortly after it was launched by Dr. Theodor Herzl and following the Sixth World Zionist Congress threw his support behind a project to settle Jews in Uganda.
In 1915, his publication was suspended by decree of the Tsar. It resumed publication two months later when the German army occupied Poland.
The German occupation of Poland and other aspects of the World War were described by the publisher in memoirs he published in a New York Yiddish daily while he was visiting the United States in 1921.
Mr. Jatzkan also founded a book publishing house which issued, among many other important works, a translation of the five-volume History of the Jews by Professor Heinrich Graetz.
A committee of prominent Jewish personalities will participate in the funeral services. Included on the committee are Sholem Asch, noted novelist, Isaac Naiditch, Zionist leader and Israel Effroykin, president of the French Jewish Societies.
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.
