Every day, The Jerusalem Post puts out news stories, features, and analyses that cover the hottest issues of the day. That’s the job of the hardworking reporters who write the stories, the intrepid copy editors and news desk editors who edit them for publication, and the artistic layout crew who get it on the page to be printed.
But that’s just one side of the newspaper. By the next day, those stories go from current events to history, and someone needs to keep that history recorded.
That is where the role of an archivist comes in, and Elaine (Chava) Moshe is our keeper of history.
With such an important position in maintaining the Post’s 90 years of work for future generations, Moshe certainly has a lot of work cut out for her, but it’s a role she excels at.
In Jerusalem spoke with Moshe about her important archival work and her unique journey getting here – a journey that started, of all places, at a singles dance.
This is "Behind the Bylines," where we bring you a look at the people behind the articles that keep our paper running.
How did you get to Israel?
I won a trip through the Jewish National Fund at a singles dance in 1986. It was $20 to get into the dance, then there was a raffle at the end for a trip to Israel.
I extended the ticket and stayed in Israel for a year. I went to a Machon Ora seminary in Jerusalem before going back to Boston the following summer, and then I came back to Israel again.
How did you get to work at the ‘Post’?
[Laughs] If you mean how do I get to work at the Post? I take the bus. If you mean how I got the job, well, an Israeli friend with whom I used to go folk dancing gave me the number of a friend of his who worked in Jerusalem. When I was here the second time, I got in touch with him in 1987, and he said that his girlfriend worked at the Post’s archive and they were hiring at the time. I got an interview with the head of the archives, and I got the job.
Was this your first job as an archivist?
Yes. I had never worked as an archivist before. It was my first and only job in Israel. In Boston, I worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield in customer service. I sort of got into archiving by chance.
What does the work of an archivist entail?
I save all the papers that we have for almost a year in cabinets. Eventually, those papers are bundled up and sent to our storage facility. The papers I keep are for subscribers who never received a copy, for our writers, or for the subjects of articles who want a copy.
We used to actually cut articles from the newspaper and paste them onto A4 paper. Then we got computerized systems, and it became a lot easier.
Also, there are our internal digital archives that I make of all our publications, which also get used by The Jerusalem Post staff. I then make a [Microsoft] Word file and send it to different vendors who open their archives to researchers, and they pay royalties, so we get money. We have a historical archive from 1932-2008 that we made from microfilm.
So I help subscribers, readers, and even the advertising department in Tel Aviv. There are also other special projects.
One such project is for the Magazine, where I pull the front pages from the Post editions from 20, 30, or 40 years ago where the news parallels current events. It’s very interesting to read how history repeats itself.
Is this new ‘In Jerusalem’ feature also something that’s repeating?
A man named Alexander Zvielli, who passed away in 2017 at 96 years old, did a column for many years called “From Our Archives.” It was about what happened 25, 50, or 65 years before. It was in the daily paper, and he would write a few paragraphs for it every day. So now in the Magazine we have the front page of what happened 20 to 40 years ago.
What are, in your opinion, the ‘greatest hits’ of ‘The Jerusalem Post’ front pages?
One is The Jerusalem Post building bombing in February 1948. And of course, “The State of Israel is born,” which we still get requests for. There’s also when [prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin was murdered, and the Six Day War when the Old City fell. Then there’s [astronaut] Ilan Ramon – when the Columbia space shuttle exploded – and the terror attack at the Munich Olympics.
The Jerusalem Post actually publishes a front-pages book with many of these historical front pages.
What big challenges do you face in your work?
The biggest challenge is that I’m the only person working in the archives. There used to be several people, but they became fewer and fewer over time.
Do you have advice for anyone interested in archival work?
My strongest advice is to be interested in history – but also to be someone who likes to help people and doesn’t mind the odd request every now and then. If they’re interested in archiving, they could check out some library, government agency, university, or any kind of organization to see if they have some kind of archive. And if not, maybe they want to create an archive.
It’s very important for the future, especially in the information age, to know their history. ■