100 Years of Hebrew Magazines for Children

Towards the end of the last century Itamar Ben Avi, the son of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, edited a further attempt at publishing a children's newspaper called S'fat Aver (The Hebrew language), which was printed by hectograph. Its contributors were all young people. Its first and only edition was published in Jerusalem in 1897.

Ten years later, in 1907, Hemda and Eliezer Ben Yehuda published a children's newspaper called Ha-Ivri Hakatan (The Little Hebrew), as a supplement to the Hashkafa newspaper.

This also proved unsuccessful, coming to an end after only three editions. On the other hand, newspapers for children in Eastern Europe flourished and came out with regularity from the start.

In 1899 the first children's weekly in Hebrew, called Gan Shaashu'im (Playground), appeared in Russia. Its subtitle read: "A Newsletter on Education, Literature and Science published weekly for the pleasure and amusement of Jewish youth". Eighty-five editions of this newspaper were published over a period of two years.

A few months later, in 1901, the weekly Olam Katan (Small World) was published in Warsaw under the editorship of the authors Sh. L. Gordon and Ben Avigdor. In this widely distributed newspaper, which came out regularly for four years, appeared the first works written for children by important Hebrew authors of the time. The pioneer of children's illustrated children's newspapers in Hebrew, Olam Katan had an ornate graphic design, with a plethora of literary pieces written in a style attractive to children all over the Jewish world. Its four volumes (1901-1905) constitute a foundation stone of children's literature in Hebrew. The pictorial cover ofOlam Katan is depicted on the new stamp, and underneath it, on the tab, appears the cover of Olam Katan from the Land of Israel. Olam Katan was inherited by the illustrated newspapers Hachaim Vehatev" (Life and Nature), which was published in Lithuania in 1905-6, and two years later by the popular children's weekly Haprachim (The Flowers) which appeared for around seven consecutive years (1907-14).

Thank you Merja for this nice FDC postmarked 9.12.1993.