Leo and son Herman Goldberger, late 1970s.
Jewish newspapers once seemed as abundant as synagogues, with daily, weekly and monthly publications of all shapes and sizes rolling out of print shops from Southern California to New England, and all significant pockets of Jewish culture in between.
During the wild independent heyday of the mid-century, the depth of coverage of the North American diaspora was dizzying. The Iowa Jewish News, for example, was a Shabbat tradition, rolling off the press in Des Moines every Friday for a modest 20 years, from 1932 to 1952. At its peak, it reached hardly more than 1,800 households with the latest news for Jews. An important period of the culture, but a blink of the eye in the grand scheme of things. 1,100 miles to the east, New York City’s Jewish Bakers’ Voice was published weekly by the Local 338 of the International Bagel Bakers Union, distributing just short of 1,500 copies as recently as 1952.
Talk about niche publications.
Today a handful of storied publications remain, in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Denver. Many, like the St. Louis Jewish Light, are run as nonprofits, often by the community’s Jewish Federation or with close association to a shul or school. Unsurprisingly, the greater New York City metro area still boasts dozens of periodicals, all serving distinct portions of the region’s huge Jewish population.
Here in Memphis, we have The Hebrew Watchman. Since its first issue, this community has unfailingly been blessed with a fresh issue weekly, without a single pause or interruption, for almost 10 entire decades. In September 2025, we’ll celebrate the centennial anniversary when the 5,200th issue is published and delivered to mailboxes across our city.
The printing company was in this building at 277 Jefferson Avenue from 1955 to 1985.
In the back of a tailor shop in downtown Memphis, mid 1910s, the seeds of a Memphis Jewish institution were planted when Emanuel Goldberger, a Central High School 11th grader, went into business with a foot-powered printing press. Cranking out a slew of publications from the get-go, the shop produced printed material for area religious organizations, unions, schools, grocers, colleges and corporations. Like any Memphis company worth its salt, it has enjoyed Federal Express as a client, and sat adjacent to the city’s mighty cotton industry, publishing the Cotton Trade Journal, a publication devoted to cotton production, processing and trade, the industry that shaped downtown Memphis in its early days.
But for Jewish Memphians the publication that stands out is our beloved The Hebrew Watchman, which in September turns 100 years old. And this calls for celebration. The pages of The Hebrew Watchman have highlighted our families and community, reporting on moments as intimate and personal as a marriage or bar mitzvah, and as universally profound as the founding of the State of Israel, and all interesting Jewish stuff in between.
In a soon-to-be-announced exhibit at the Memphis Jewish Community Center, the Memphis Jewish community will toast The Hebrew Watchman. We will honor the lifetime commitment of the Goldberger family and the current owner/publishers Susan and Larry Nieman with a host of stories, interviews, photography, archival material, and more as we collectively celebrate this historic milestone.
“It’s an honor to be the torchbearer of this beloved weekly newspaper, continuing a trusted tradition founded by Leo so long ago and carried on by his son and daughter-in-law,” said Susan. “Herman and Bobbie entrusted me to carry on their family legacy. And it is incredibly meaningful to me, to the family and the community to celebrate 100 years. I’m excited for what comes next as we continue building on this legacy.”
Want to experience the centennial celebration firsthand? Visit the online gallery to view the full exhibit.
