What it is
An ad containing a Yiddish translation of the phrase made famous by Milton Glazer’s 1976 “I Love New York:” Ikh hob lib Nyu York. Just as the original Forward helped new immigrants feel like a part of polyglot America, this piece of pop Yiddish clip art gave readers some ownership of a powerful new visual representation of the city many of them loved.
We don’t know which of the Forward’s dextrous paste-up artists created this little treasure, or when it was published. Only that it was to run on page 12 — likely in a larger weekend edition, where there was more space for the fanciful.
Why I love it
It’s an evocative relic from the days of ink and newsprint and hot wax, with its boldface Yiddish font and roughly drawn apple, which seems to bear a very New York-y air of anxiety.
What I learn from it
Boris Sandler, the Yiddish Forverts’s editor-in chief from 1998 to 2016, used to tell me that an editor is like a tailor or a surgeon: Nobody should be able to see the seams once their work is done. To get this postcard ready for publication — to translate a general American idea into Yiddish consciousness — required many sensitive adjustments, but they’re invisible in the finished product. This archival delight, its love for its hometown Big Apple shtetl, is crisp and delicious.
Al dos guts/Best,
