Mitteilungsblatt des Irgun Olei Merkas Europa
Mitteilungsblatt des Irgun Olei Merkas Europa – ידיעות של עולי מרכז אירופה. Yediot shel Irgun Olej Merkas Europa. Tel Aviv since 1932, with changing titles. German, Hebrew | Call Number: | Digital copy for 1932–1939, digital copy for 1939–1943, digital copy for 1943–2006 via Compact Memory as part of Frankfurt's Digital Judaica Collections (in Cooperation with the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem).
First published in Mandate Palestine in September 1932 as a bilingual newsletter for new immigrants from Germany, the Mitteilungsblatt quickly became a bona fide newspaper, and since 1940, it appeared on a weekly basis. The massive immigration wave that followed the Nazi rise to power obviously expanded the newspaper's audience, and the outbreak of WWII increased the demand for updated news on events in Europe. The editors of the Mitteilungsblatt included Robert Weltsch (1891–1982), Max Kreutzberger (1900-1978), and Theodor Zlocisti (1874–1943).
The initial Mitteilungsblatt was published by the Hitachdut Olej Germania (Association of German Immigrants), which would later become the Irgun Olei Merkas Europa (Organisation of Immigration from Central Europe). The title of the Mitteilungsblatt changed as well over the years. Since 2005, Mitteilungsblatt has been published online as a monthly called MB Yakinton (Hyacinth) by the Irgun Yozei Merkas Europa (Organisation of Israelis of Central European Origin).
The Mitteilungsblatt has provided immigrants from Germany and Austria with information about events at home and abroad in the stormy years of the war and the establishment of the state of Israel, as well as on the history of that state to this day. It has featured stories about life in Israel and abroad, and political analyses and essays on Judaism, history and philosophy, with some contributed by leading scholars of German origin, such as Martin Buber and Sigfried Moses. In its early years, Mitteilungsblatt was the mouthpiece of the New Aliyah Party, which supported a moderate and liberal brand of Zionism, as reflected in many of the newsletter's editorials. In Addition, it published literary and theatrical reviews, reported on leisure activities and included commercial advertisements.
In 2022, Leo Baeck Jerusalem Institute in a joint project with the University Library Frankfurt, with the generous support of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior digitized all issues of the Mitteilungsblatt published between 1932 and 2006, and made them available via Compact Memory.
