The Center Menorah

Knoxville's First Jewish Community Newsletter

In the midst of World War II, Knoxville’s Jewish Community Center (it would not be named the “Arnstein Jewish Community Center” until the 1960’s) began publishing a mostly-monthly newsletter, The Center Menorah. One of its initial main goals was to keep local Jewish servicemen serving around the world abreast of local events while informing the local community of news of its members in the armed forces. As noted in the January 1944 issue, The Center Menorah would:

• report news of local Jewish interest
• champion all worthy causes
• unite Knoxville Jewry toward communal advancements
• take local news to our boys all over the world.

The Center Menorah, predecessor to the Knoxville Jewish Community Voice and Ha’Kol, ran from December 1943 through 2000. The KJA Archives has most of its issues and has arranged to put some of them online through the volunteer efforts of digitization expert Jeremy Moore. We welcome assistance of othersto help convert more paper copies to digital so they can be read online.

Providing access to these amazing capsules of our history could not be possible without the support of the Knoxville Jewish Alliance and the KJA Archives, archivist Nicki Russler, and the countless number of volunteers who have helped to preserve our regional Jewish history for over forty years. For more information on our archives, contact Nicki at archives@jewishknoxville.org.