Ha’olam: Hebräische Wochenschrift (The World: a Hebrew Weekly), edited by Nahum Sokolow, Cologne: 1907-08

2 volumes (10 ¾ x 8 ¼ in.; 273 x 210 mm). Vol. I: 52 issues (668 pp.), Vol. II: 48 issues (622 pp.). Acidic paper; browning as expected. Table of contents for vol. I bound at front of vol. II. Some pages loose at front of both volumes; tape repairs to some leaves; occasional slight staining. Half leather over cloth; joints starting; gilt title and year on spine. Rubbed.

Aharon Hermoni, “‘Ha’olam’ in Cologne-Berlin: Memoirs and Some of Nahum Sokolow’s Letters,” Moznaim 22,4 (1946): 224-230 (in Hebrew); S. Stein, “50 Years since the Founding of ‘Ha’olam’,” Davar 8 (March 1957): 5 (in Hebrew); Gideon Kouts, "Nahum Sokolov and the "Official Function" of the Hebrew Press," in Kesher 2 (November 1987): 23-28 (in Hebrew); Shoshana Shtiftel, “Nahum Sokolow as Journalist and Editor,” Kesher 8 (November 1990): 55-63 (in Hebrew).

In 1906, Nahum Sokolow (1859-1936) was selected to serve as General Secretary of the World Zionist Organization at its new headquarters in Cologne. There, in 1907 he founded Ha’olam as the weekly Hebrew counterpart to the German-language Die Welt, the central organ of the World Zionist Organization. Most of the editorial work for the paper’s first two volumes was actually accomplished by Sokolow’s assistant Aharon Hermoni in Berlin where the paper was printed, though Sokolow’s contributions featured prominently in numerous issues. In December 1908, at the conclusion of its second year of publication, Ha’olam was moved to Vilna where the majority of its readership resided.  Despite being relocated several more times (to London, Odessa and Berlin), the important Zionist weekly would continue to publish regularly during the ensuing decades (except for a few short intervals), until its ultimate reestablishment in Jerusalem in 1936, where it flourished until its closure in 1950. Throughout its years of operation, Ha’olam reported on Zionist and general Jewish events and developments. It also had a literary section that published articles by some of the most outstanding Hebrew authors and scholars of the day.

The present lot contains a complete run of the first two volumes of the paper published in Cologne. The second volume ends with its forty-eighth issue, published on December 11, 1908, after which point the paper was transferred to Vilna, where it began a new volume on December 22. These first two Cologne volumes are extremely rare and virtually absent from public library collections.