Tuesday, December 17, 2013

A Belated Happy Hanukkah from 1941


The newsletters, newspapers and serials in the Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection provide windows into how some North Carolinians viewed the events of the past.

As an example, consider December 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the resultant American entry into World War II overshadowed much of American life in that month.



Unsurprisingly, The American Jewish Times was no exception. The January 1942 issue contained articles about Jewish soldiers in the army, patriotic poetry and advertisements for war bonds.

But December 1941 also included the festival of Hanukkah, which the same January issue spotlighted with several articles on topics such as "The Significance of Chanukah"  and "The Menorah, Symbol of a People".  Nor were these topics unrelated, with a political cartoon  symbolically equating the candles of Hanukkah with American freedoms.

In addition to these features, the January 1942 issue includes advertisements for local and national businesses, as well as articles on other topics of interest (see the index on this page).

To browse this issue, click on the link above or go to the 1940-42 volume of The American Jewish Times Outlook. To browse The American Jewish Times Outlook or other religious newspapers from North Carolina, visit the Newsletters, Newspapers and Serial Publications section of the NC Religion project at the Internet Archive.