Beschreibung:

National Advocate. New York: January 7, 1824. Folio. 4 pp. Jews were drawn to journalism in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Among the more prominent journalists were Isaac Harby (1788-1820) who edited Charleston's Southern Patriot and The Investigator; Mordechai M. Noah (1785-1851), editor of many newspapers, and the most well known Jews of his day; and Naphtali Phillips (1773-1870), proprietor and editor of The National Advocate. Phillips was the son of the patriot Jonas Phillips (b. Germany, 1736; d. Philadelphia, 1803), a signer of the 1770 Non-Importation Agreement protesting British taxation, and president of Philadelphia's Congregation Mikveh Israel in its year of consecration, 1782. Significantly, these three Jewish journalists also played an active role in Jewish community affairs. Harby advocated introducing more English in the services of Charleston's Congregation Beth Elohim; Noah founded Grand Island in New York state which was designed as a pre-Zionist city of refuge for Jews; and Phillips wrote a history of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel. Phillips became the proprietor of the National Advocate in 1801. This newspaper was the favorite of New York City's anti-Federalists, and the political mouthpiece of the city's "Society of Tammany," the regional political machine of the Democratic-Republicans. Returning to New York City, Noah succeeded his uncle Naphtali Philips, as the newspaper's editor. At the outset, Noah continued the newspaper's pro-Tammany editorial policy. By 1826, however, Noah had shifted his political ground, and that year resigned from the paper. In this January 7, 1824 issue (P4 C1), the masthead, at the bottom of the page, notes N. Phillips as the publisher, and in the same column are separate ads for two New York City Jewish brokers, William S. Hart and John I. Hart.