Our 130 years of continuous publication

On November 1, 1895 The Hebrew Standard of Australasia was first published in Sydney by founding editor Alfred Harris. Its masthead proclaimed its mission statement: to be “a biographical and authentic record in the interest of Judaism”. Interestingly it used Hebrew font for both the Hebrew date (Cheshvan 14) as well as a verse from Yirmiyahu 50:2: “Declare ye among the nations – let it be heard [translated as ‘published’] and lift up the standard.”

The latter six decades of the 19th century saw the advent of Jewish newspapers in multiple languages across the Jewish world – especially in Europe and what would become Israel. The advent of “London Jewish Chronicle” that sadly ran to only three numbers in 1842. Various other attempts at publishing took place in subsequent decades but it was only in 1879 that the Jewish Herald appeared in Melbourne – it would run in various  formats for nine decades. However it was The Hebrew Standard that would prevail in various guises and subject to name changes – until it morphed into The Australian Jewish News that we know today.

The Harris family would continue to play a vital part in the history of The Hebrew Standard until 1950. Founder Alfred Harris served as editor until his passing in 1934. However whilst the paper continued it would now find itself subject to increasing competition that would later absorb it.

In Melbourne in 1933, businessman Leslie Rubinstein acquired the Yiddish paper Australier Leben and launched the Jewish Weekly News. In January 1934 it came to briefly incorporate the Jewish Herald; by May 1935 after that amalgamation ended, the English edition became The Australian Jewish News.

In 1939 The AJN (Melbourne-based) launched a Sydney edition, The Sydney Jewish News. The impetus for this was the pro-British non-Zionist slant of The Hebrew Standard under Harris which was not acceptable to the increasingly diverse Jewish population as immigration in the 1930s changed the demographic structure of the community.