Algemeiner Journal

The Algemeiner Journal, known informally as The Algemeiner, is a newspaper based in New York City that covers American and international Jewish and Israel-related news. It is widely read by Hasidic Jews. Gershon Jacobson, a former reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, founded the Yiddish-language Der Algemeiner Journal (דער אַלגעמיינער זשורנאַל, 'The Universal Journal') after consulting the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Der Algemeiner Journal intended to fill the gap after the daily Yiddish paper Der Tog Morgen Zhurnal closed in 1971. Der Algemeiner Journal Corporation published the inaugural issue on February 23, 1972. The ten-page paper was priced at 25 cents. Twenty thousand issues were printed. The corporation's goal was to promote Jewish identity and information to American Jewry. Jacobson had earlier written and served as its city editor. The largest-circulation Yiddish weekly in the United States, Der Algemeiner Journal emphasized Jewish community news, with a politically independent viewpoint, including reporting on tensions between rival Hasidic sects.