Curierul Israelit

From 25/12/1906 to 25/03/1945

Weekly Romanian newspaper founded in Bucharest on 25 December 1906 by I. Negureanu and M. Schweig. Curierul Israelit (The Israelite Courier) was issued with frequent interruptions until 25 March 1945; Schweig eventually appeared on its masthead as owner and director. The publication carried the subtitle “Organ septemânal pentru apărarea intereselor evreieşti” (Weekly Organ for the Defense of Jewish Interests); in 1944 this slogan was altered to “Organ al Uniunii Evreilor Români” (Organ of the Union of Romanian Jews).

Curierul Israelit tried to expose antisemitism and, in the platform published in its first issue, asserted that the paper served “not only Jews, but also the public order” while struggling by all available means to prove that a Jew “born and bred on Romanian land cannot be considered a foreigner” and must be accepted as a Romanian of Mosaic denomination. It reported on the Zionist movement and on events supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine. After 1938, the issue of emigration became a key topic.

The newspaper’s regular columns revealed its prime areas of interest: “Figuri evrieşti” (Jewish personalities), “Mişcarea sionistă” (The Zionist Movement), “Curierul de provincie” (The Provincial Courier), “Cronica internă” (The Domestic Chronicle), “Cronica externă” (The Foreign Chronicle), “Ce spune presa antisemită” (What Does the Antisemitic Press Say?), and as of 1939, “Evenimentele din Palestina” (Events from Palestine). Among its main contributors were the writer and politician Horia Carp, the journalists M. Schweig, Emil Critzman, and after 1939 M. Zelțer-Sărățeanu and the writer Ion Călugăru. From 1944 to 1945 (after liberation), its main editorial writer was Benno Brănişteanu.

Curierul Israelit exposed its readership to Zionist leaders such as Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, and Naḥum Sokolow. It printed interviews with Chaim Weizmann and Lord Balfour, and published literary excerpts, in serial form, of the works of Sholem Aleichem, Y. L. Peretz, Martin Buber, and Mendele Moykher-Sforim. Among non-Jewish Romanian cultural personalities who contributed were the writers Gala Galaction and Tudor Arghezi, and occasionally the critic Eugen Lovinescu, the novelist Mihail Sadoveanu, and the politician Scarlat Callimachi.