ALEXANDER ZEDERBAUM
From E.Segal (Calgary University)
The most ingenious ruse
for circumventing the government al objections was surely that of Alexander
Zederbaum, editor of the weekly Ha-Melitz. After squeezing out permission to
print his periodical in Odessa in Hebrew and Hebrew-lettered German (but not
in the despised Yiddish!), he was dismayed to discover that Odessa had neither
a resident censor nor a printing press, and that the need to send the copy to
Zhitomir for typesetting, and afterwards to Kiev for censorship, rendered the
process impossibly cumbersome.
By seizing an opportune moment, however, Zederbaum was able to realize his dream
of printing Ha-Melitz in Odessa.
In 1860, to mark the anniversary of Czar Alexander II's coronation, he composed
a Hebrew ode that he had translated into German and sent to the Czar, accompanied
by a humble request for permission to publish the patriotic masterpiece in the
journal Ha-Melitz in Odessa. The Czar graciously agreed.
Now that His Majesty himself had consented to the request, it became necessary
for there to be a newspaper named Ha-Melitz, and that it be published in Odessa!
Thus, the governor-general could not object to the Jewish newspaper without
finding himself in disobedience to the Czar. Therefore, he quickly appointed
a local censor, while Zederbaum arranged with the local German printer to handle
Hebrew print jobs.
And that was how the first Hebrew newspaper was established in Russia.