Tau-Jewish Press image

 
title:The Press and Jewish Life in the 20th Century

Treasures of the Institute
for the Study of Jewish Press
and Communications




Curators:
Prof. Michael Keren
Dr. Mordecai Naor
Carmen Oszi
link to the Galley

In the modern world, wrote Hegel, the newspaper replaces morning prayers. We read it individually, aware of the large, hushed community doing the very same thing at the same moment. Still, we do not relate to the newspaper as holy. Those sheets that we hold while drinking our coffee, while riding the train, while sitting in our easy chair or by the light of our bedroom night lamp, are discarded relatively quickly from our homes in the knowledge that tomorrow a new paper awaits us.

Similarly, recorders of history do not treat the newspaper with the reverence they reserve for a book, a scroll or a document. A newspaper is considered slanted and lacking in credibility, and until recently was barely regarded as a historical source. Yet, the press tells the story of the community in which it operates and which it addresses, for besides the news that it reports and the positions that it takes, it reflects world views and lifestyles. Research of the press, which is developing in our time, is thus becoming an increasingly important basis for the study of society.

This exhibit, taken from the archives of the Institute for the Study of Jewish Press and Communications at Tel Aviv University, seeks to demonstrate the contribution embodied in studying the Jewish press for an understanding of Jewish life in the 20th century. Through such journalistic devices as lead headlines, press photos, arts supplements, caricatures and other components of newspapers, the exhibit reveals the role of the press as a means of understanding the world reflected in it.

The story of the Jewish press in the 20th century is first and foremost the story of inexhaustible vitality in the realms of culture, society and politics, a vitality revealed in the 12 windows of the exhibit before us.