Paul Novick

Pesakh "Paul" Novick (Yiddish: פסח נאוויק; September 7, 1891 – August 21, 1989) was a Jewish American journalist, editor, translator and political commentator. Novick is best remembered as the long time editor-in-chief of the Communist Party Yiddish-language daily Morgen Freiheit (Morning Freedom) and of the Communist-affiliated English-language magazine Jewish Life. Novick was expelled from the Communist Party in 1972 for challenging Soviet foreign policy (specifically as it pertained to Czechoslovakia and Israel), and for allegedly supporting Zionism.

Biography

Early years Pesakh (later known as Paul) Novick was born on September 7, 1891 in Brest-Litovsk, Grodno Governorate, in the Russian Empire (present-day Brest, Belarus). His father was a shopkeeper and sent him to cheder and yeshiva to study under the Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. Novick left the yeshiva at 16 and joined the General Jewish Labor Bund in 1907. He worked as a machinist in Zurich, Switzerland from 1910 to 1912 then came to New York City in 1913.

Novick soon became an official in the Jewish Socialist Federation and began writing for its weekly organ, Di Naye Velt (The New World), in 1915. Following the February Revolution, Novick returned to Russia and resumed his activity with the Bund, editing several Bundist papers such as Undzer shtime (Our Voice) in Vilna, succeeding Max Weinreich. During this time, Novick took a room in the residence of Jewish communal leader Zemach Shabad. All three men were forced to take refuge in Shabad's home during the Vilna pogrom in 1919. Novick immigrated to the United States permanently in October 1920, He resided in the Bronx.

Political career

In America, Novick rejoined the JSF and briefly wrote for the Jewish Daily Forward from 1920 to 1921. He sided with the left wing of the JSF when it split from the Socialist Party of America in 1921. In April 1922, Novick, Moissaye Joseph Olgin, and several others founded the Morgen Freiheit, a Yiddish-language daily newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party USA. Novick served first as news editor, then as assistant editor, and finally as editor-in-chief after Olgin's death in 1939. and was at one point its European correspondent. The publication billed him as "an authority on the situation in Palestine."

In 1953, at the height of the Second Red Scare, the United States Department of Justice announced that it would attempt to denaturalize Novick on the grounds that he "swore to false statements" during his 1927 citizenship proceedings. but he ultimately retained his citizenship. He did, however, make a point to condemn "expansionists" like Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon, and Menachem Begin. When the Communist Party of Israel (Maki) split in the mid-1960s, the CPUSA supported the anti-Zionist Rakah faction while Novick aligned himself with the opposing Mikunis-led faction. By the 1980s, the Freiheit had declined to a circulation of just 6,000 from a peak of 14,000 It was forced to transition from a daily to a weekly, and its staff was reduced to six people, including Novick. Unable to sustain itself financially, His funeral service at the Plaza Memorial Chapel in Manhattan attracted 300 mourners, during which eulogies were delivered by Morris U. Schappes and Itche Goldberg, amongst others. He was survived by his second wife Shirley, his son Allan,

Works "Decay of the Socialist Party." New Masses, July 10, 1934, pp. 8–11. "The Rise and Fall of Abraham Cahan." New Masses, Aug. 20, 1935, pp. 9–10. "The Socialist Housecleaning." New Masses, Sept. 7, 1937, pp. 15–16. "Peace by Understanding: A Communist Rejects the Partition of Palestine." New Masses, Aug. 9, 1938, pp. 8–10. "A Solution for Palestine," The Communist. Sept. 1938, pp. 785–796.