I have about six months of issues of this famous and classic newspaper, printed in 1905. The paper is brown and disintegrating and we have done our best to produce some photographs – it is far too fragile to scan.
The Arbeiter Freynd was started in London in 1885 by Morris Winchevsky. It would periodically cease publication due to lack of funds, and then be resuscitated again. In its reincarnation from 1903, the editor was the well-known anarchist Rudolf Rocker.
Johann Rudolf Rocker (1873 – 1958) was a non-Jewish German, who arrived in London in 1895. He joined the Arbeiter Freynd group and, in spite of initially not knowing Yiddish, was appointed editor. The period 1903 to 1905 has been described as the golden age of Jewish anarchist groups.
Here is a selection of articles and also advertisements – without advertisements to supplement revenue from sales they could not afford to print the paper. The advertisements demonstrate support for the Arbeiter Freynd group. First – a complete front page:
Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, economist, sociologist, historian, zoologist, political scientist, human geographer and philosopher who advocated anarcho-communism. He was also an activist, essayist, researcher and writer:
Here is an advertisement for S. Pincus and Sons of 80 Commercial Street, who were selling the finest cabinet makers’ tools:
Among the weekly advertisements is this one for Israel Narodiczky, the printer, who had started printing in Whitechapel in 1901, and printed Hebrew Rabbinical books, and Yiddish literature as well as anarchist and socialist items. Here is a link to the first book that he printed, Pirchei Chemed.
More advertisements – David and Brothers of 116 Commercial Street, another dealer in cabinet making tools, Richtig American Restaurant of 35 Church Lane, Whitechapel:
There were also translations of literature into Yiddish – Here is a piece by Maxim Gorky, who was to play a prominent part later that year in the Russian revolution of 1905:
There was support from New York – here is an ad for Maisel’s Bookstore on the Lower Easy Side of New York:
Jewish Miscellanies 