Iconic Williamsburg: Firschein Press

Long before there was text messaging and emails and other media to spread the word in rapid fashion about events and happenings in the neighborhood and beyond, there was the printing press. Enormous machines were fed with reams of paper, in shops permeated with a most distinct scent of ink and chemicals, which in turn cranked out posters on about everything from benefit concerts by chazzonim of the time, to kashrus notices from the Rabbonim of the era who fought an uphill battle for Torah observance in a country most unhospitable to it. 

The posters that remain nearly a century later are a historic relic, telling the stories of what animated the Yidden of old Brooklyn; the screaming headlines, the pleas for support for various aid organizations and institutions, the exhortations of religious leaders. 

And they also tell the story of the little shop on Myrtle Avenue that generated them all. They are alluded to by the lettering that appeared at the bottom of every paper: “Firschein Press, Printers and Publishers, 965 Myrtle Avenue.” 

In the Butcher Shop Windows

Around the turn of the last century, Yossel Firschein came to America with his wife Freida and his young children. They hailed from the town of Pryluky, in the Chernigrov region of Ukraine, situated about 140 km from Kiev. 

They came for the same reason as the other 1,000,000 Jews fled Russia and Ukraine during that era; life was miserable, and they were looking for a new life in the goldene medinah. 

By 1910, he opened his printing press at 934 Myrtle Avenue, and by 1920, the family was living atop their printing shop which had moved to 965 Myrtle Avenue in old Williamsburg. In time, this establishment would become a source for the printing needs of the Jewish community and its institutions. For the half century of its existence, Yossel Firschein—along with sons Harry and Izzy—painstakingly printed thousands of posters and pamphlets that went up all over town. Advertisements for Yom Nor’aim davenings featuring legendary chazzonim of the time seem to have taken the lions’ share of their work (if the volume of remaining posters are any indication). 

From 965 Myrtle, the posters would make their way to the windows of shops throughout the neighborhood, where they would be hung behind the safety of the glass windows to be seen by passersby and shoppers alike. For this favor, the shop owners would receive free tickets to these events.   

Commemorating History 

Yossel Firschein passed away in 1958, and that was the beginning of the end Firchein Press. At some point, he, along with his son in law Zalman Dubrow donated a yohrtzeit plaque—presumably printed in their shop— to Talmud Torah Hechodosh on Stockton Street, and this too remains in the family to this day. 

Dozens of beautiful, evocative show cards remained in Oscar’s possession—until they were discovered by the Magnes Center at the University of California, which placed them on exhibit. “Walking through the Firschein home was like walking through an old Brooklyn neighborhood,” the curator observed. 

In addition to this collection, the Firschein’s schlepped the old printing press across the country to California, where they now reside—seemingly refusing to let go of a bygone era, when information was disseminated with deliberation, with care, and with great flair in Williamsburg of old.