ADAM

ADAM , Jewish monthly literary journal in the Romanian language. The first number of Adam was published in Bucharest on April 15, 1929. The journal was subsequently published for 12 years, until July 1940, in book form. Its founder and director was the writer and publicist I. *Ludo (Isac Iacovitz). He edited the review until 1936, when he left Romania temporarily and sold it to Miron Grindea and Idov Cohn. They continued publication until their emigration from Romania, Miron Grindea to England (where he published a new review under the same name in London in English) and Idov Cohn (Cohen) to Palestine. Adam was a successful publication, reflecting the personality of its editor, Ludo, who wrote most of the articles. He succeeded in attracting various contributors, intellectuals with various outlooks, among them Felix *Aderca, Ury *Benador, F. Brunea-Fox, Ion Calugaru, Avraham *Feller, Benjamin Fundoianu, Jacob Gropper, Rabbi M.A. Halevy, Michael *Landau, Theodor Loewenstein, Marius *Mircu, Chief Rabbi Jacob Niemirower, Eugen *Relgis, and A.L. *Zissu. Some of them (as well as others) served their literary apprenticeship at Adam. It was a review that refused to surrender to the ghetto mentality and also attracted non-Jewish contributors, among whom the best known were Tudor Arghezi, Gala Galaction, Eugen Lovinescu, and N.D. Cocea. Adam also featured many illustrations, including work by Victor *Brauner, Marcel *Jancu, M.H. *Maxy, Jules *Perachim, and Reuven *Rubin. Adam also engaged in polemics. Its basic idea was that Jewish-Romanian writers, before they could be Romanian writers, must be Jewish writers. In 1939, Adam published a yearbook on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

bibliography:

Adam (1929–40); Almanahul Adam (1939); A. Mirodan, Dictionar neconventional, 1 (1986), 18–21; M. Mircu, Povestea presei evreiesti din Romania (2003), 320–58; H. Kuller, Presa evreiasca bucuresteana (1996), 116–19.

[Lucian-Zeev Herscovici (2^nd ed.)]