The Phoenix Jewish News

From its debut in January 1948, The Phoenix Jewish News created a sense of unity and connection for the Jewish community throughout the greater Phoenix, Arizona, area. Readers could learn about happenings as close as in their neighborhood, such as local Bat and Bar Mitzvahs, and as far away as Israel. The newspaper started as a monthly, published by the Jewish Community Council. The paper established its goals in an editorial: “Our policy will be to reflect the life and temper of the Jewish community of Phoenix and to stimulate, encourage and advance the unity and general welfare of the community.” The newspaper’s slogan was that it was the “official organ of the Jewish Community of Phoenix.”

The December 31, 1948  front page announced the expansion of the newspaper to a bi-weekly publication and the move to private management under Joseph S. Stocker and M.B. “Bud” Goldman, Jr., who had both edited the newspaper from the beginning. Their wives, Bertha Goldman and Ida Stocker, served as associate editors. Starting in this issue, the newspaper began accepting advertisements. The editorial page included a “restatement of policy…to serve the Jewish people of Phoenix —all of them—in every way possible. Period.”

By March 1949, the Goldmans became sole publishers, with Stocker remaining as editor until the end of 1955. The Goldmans were prominent members of the community: Bud was on the Jewish Community Council’s board of directors, and Bertha was president of the local League of Women Voters and Arizona chairman of the Democratic Women’s Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., according to a 1966 article in the Arizona Republic [LCCN: sn 83045137].

The newspaper covered local news such as society news and the opening of a new Jewish Community Center. The paper voiced its strong support of desegregation and covered civil rights issues in Phoenix. Some issues had a quiz box with questions and answers about Judaism, and starting in the mid-1950s, a column in Hebrew with an English translation was included. The Phoenix Jewish News was founded the same year as the establishment of the State of Israel, and the newspaper diligently covered its development using dispatches from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for updates from Israel. A regular column written locally, “The World Over,” covered international news of interest to the Jewish community.

The Goldmans published the newspaper until it was purchased by Pearl and Cecil Newmark in 1961. The Newmarks ran the paper until their daughter Florence Eckstein took over in 1981, and she was publisher until 2013, when the newspaper was purchased by Jaime and Jeffrey Stern. In 2016, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix became owners. The newspaper was renamed the Greater Phoenix Jewish News in 1983 and the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix a decade later, under which it publishes today.

Essay provided by University of Arizona Libraries.