HaBoker

A 1946 survey listed HaBoker among six Hebrew-language daily publications in Palestine, each representing a different perspective.[6] The National Library of Israel describes it as an organ of the General Zionist movement and the upper middle class, setting it apart from the labor-oriented Davar, the Hashomer Hatza'ir movement's Mishmar, later Al Ha-Mishmar, the Religious Zionist Ha-Tzofeh, and the Revisionist titles Ha-Yarden and Ha-Mashkif.[1][4]

Political polarization was a defining feature of the Yishuv press, and the prevailing assumption was that each party required its own daily newspaper.[4] HaBoker embodied this model, appearing in broadsheet format among the party-affiliated morning papers operating alongside Davar, Al HaMishmar, HaTzofe, Kol HaAm, Haaretz, and Yedioth Ahronoth.[7] Its explicit party identity distinguished it from the privately owned Haaretz.[7] During Israel's War of Independence, the Hebrew-language press reached a peak of fifteen daily papers, with HaBoker forming part of the influential party press.[4]

HaBoker's first edition was published on 11 October 1935, and JewishGen describes it as having been founded by the right wing of the General Zionists.[3] The Jewish Virtual Library instead states that the right wing established HaBoker when the General Zionist Party split in 1936, creating a chronological discrepancy between the two accounts.[5] An issue dated 30 November 1947, the day after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the partition resolution, identified the paper in its masthead as an organ of the General Zionist Party.[8]

The paper's affiliation later evolved alongside the General Zionist movement. Encyclopedia.com identifies HaBoker first with the General Zionists and later with the Liberals, and records that it published numerous supplements.[2]

HaBoker's first editor was Samuel Perl, who left soon after the paper's founding. He was succeeded by Joseph Heftman and Peretz Bernstein, with Bernstein reportedly holding the post until 1946.[3] Bernstein settled in Palestine in 1936, chaired the Union of General Zionists from 1941, and was elected to the Jewish Agency in 1946 with responsibility for commerce and industry.[9] He also served on the Provisional Council of State, sat in the Knesset from 1949 to 1965, and was Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1948–1949 and 1953–1955.[10]

A separate biographical reference gives Arie Dissentshik an overlapping tenure as editor of HaBoker from 1935 to 1942; the sources do not explain whether this reflects a shared editorial structure or a discrepancy in the records.[11] The Jerusalem Post also identified Gabriel Zifroni as a former editor.[12] Among the paper's journalists was Herzl Vardi, born Herzl Rosenblum, who made aliyah in 1935 and later signed Israel's Declaration of Independence under his Hebraized name.[3][13] Yosef Tamir, a secretary of the General Zionists, was also identified as a HaBoker journalist.[3] Shlomo Yahalomi published articles on the weekly Torah portion in HaBoker before later contributing to Hatzofeh.[14]

HaBoker's archives document many defining events in Zionist and Israeli history. On 7 May 1948, days before the declaration of the State of Israel, the paper ran the headline "America Pressures to Delay Declaration of State," reflecting the international pressure and uncertainty surrounding the decision to proceed.[15] The Jabotinsky Institute catalog also lists a typewritten HaBoker article about the capture and killing of Avraham Stern within an archival file containing competing accounts of his death.[16]

HaBoker issues dated 10 January and 13 April 1950 were cited in an account of the Pakistani government's refusal to permit several hundred Jews forced to leave Afghanistan to transit Pakistan on their way to Israel; they instead departed through Iran.[17] On 26 May 1950, journalist David Siton published an article titled "Turkey is on a Democratic Track," examining Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's revolution, including the abolition of the caliphate, separation of religion and state, women's liberation, language reform, European-influenced economic changes, and the opening of Turkey to European culture.[18] Siton wrote that Atatürk's revolution was "first and foremost, intended to liberate Anatolia from the burden of foreign occupation" and argued that Atatürk sought a fundamental transformation that would strengthen Turkey and make it a "normal nation."[18]

The paper's party loyalties were illustrated in August 1945, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. HaBoker led not with Hiroshima but with a debate in the central committee of the General Zionist Party. Night editor Baruch Karuh reportedly explained: "I knew that President Truman would not reprimand me for the headline. But I knew equally well that Yisrael Rokach, a leader of the General Zionists, would be with rage if the debate in the central committee was not headlined."[5] The anecdote illustrates the priority that party affairs could receive in HaBoker's news judgment.

The National Library of Israel catalogs a digitized run of HaBoker spanning 11 October 1935 through 31 December 1965, comprising 8,602 issues and 47,318 pages within its Yishuv and State of Israel Press collection.[1] The World Jewish Congress Records at the American Jewish Archives include executive files concerning Haboker dated 1947 to 1959 in the Organization Department's executive files under folder F6/1.[19] A corresponding finding aid at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives lists a file titled "Haboker (Israeli newspaper), 1947–1959" in Series F of the World Jewish Congress New York Office records.[20]

The paper's Jerusalem offices were located on Rehov Hasolel, now Hahavatzelet Street, alongside the offices of Haaretz and Davar. The concentration of newspaper offices earned the street a reputation as Jerusalem's "Fleet Street" during the 1930s and 1940s.[21]

HaBoker ceased publication on 31 December 1965.[1] Its closure formed part of the broader decline of Israel's party press: from the 1960s onward, party-affiliated newspapers closed one after another as newspapers lost their former position as the principal means of mass communication.[4] A later Jerusalem Post commentary listed HaBoker among the former Israeli "party organs," alongside Herut, Davar, Al HaMishmar, and Hatzofe, stating that these papers "are no more."[22]

In 1966, the Tel Aviv daily Ha-Yom was launched following the merger of HaBoker and Herut. Encyclopedia.com records that the successor paper continued until 1969.[2]

The sources contain unresolved variations concerning HaBoker's chronology and political description. JewishGen dates its first edition to 11 October 1935, while the Jewish Virtual Library associates its establishment with the General Zionist split of 1936.[3][5] Most accounts identify HaBoker as a General Zionist newspaper, but an Encyclopedia.com biography of Herzl Rosenblum calls it Revisionist; the available sources do not reconcile that description with the broader record.[5][13]

The editorial chronology is also uncertain. JewishGen describes a succession from Samuel Perl to Joseph Heftman and Peretz Bernstein, with Bernstein remaining through 1946, while a separate biographical reference identifies Arie Dissentshik as editor from 1935 to 1942.[3][11] These overlapping accounts may reflect different editorial roles, but the cited sources do not provide enough detail to establish that explanation.