Jews of the past

I went through the 1939 issues of the Southern Israelite today. Overall it was depressing (Hitler, Coughlin, Klan, etc.), but it seemed like the whole world Jewish community was really trying hard to do everything possible to make things better. They raised money to send to European Jews, they tried to get church leaders to preach tolerance, religious freedom, and what have you, and they maintained an admirable sense of community across the world. There was talk of sending European war refugees to Alaska to populate the place, at the U.S. Cabinet level (?!). There was even an article from Juneau, AK, about the Alaskan Jewish community's efforts to help their Jewish brethren. It was fascinating; I'd kind of like to have my own copy of the entire run of the paper.

I especially liked an ad that the paper ran trying to get more subscribers. It listed ten reasons why it was good to read the Southern Israelite. Among them was so that you can become educated to answer antisemitism, and develop your "Jewish powers." I certainly want to develop my Jewish powers, so I subscribed. I'm thinking of making an extra copy of that ad to frame and hang in my office.