The Houston Jewish Herald-Voice Database

Since September 1908, Houston, Texas, has had a weekly newspaper, and briefly two, which covers Jewish events in the Houston area and much of Texas.  It has been published under several different names, The Jewish Herald - Sep 24 1908 thru Nov 19 1914, The Texas Jewish Herald - Nov 26 1914 thru Jan 13 1938 and The Voice - Nov 13 1936 thru Jan 13 1938 but has been the Jewish Herald-Voice since the January 20, 1938 issue post-acquisition of the Jewish Herald.

Volunteers from the now-defunct Greater Houston Jewish Genealogical Society began transcribing life-cycle event information from the microfilm of the Jewish Herald-Voice newspaper (and digital images on CD of those microfilms).  Max Heffler continues to transcribe these events. The project began in 2001 and an index has been created from the beginning of the newspaper in 1908 through June 2024.  Sections have been put on JewishGen as they were completed.  This searchable database on JewishGen will be updated periodically in future years.

The events are being transcribed into two separate databases: "Individual Events" and "Couples Events".

• Individual Events: This database is an index of individual events, including births, deaths, unveilings, brisses, bar and bat mitzvahs, birthdays, etc.  This database currently covers 51,788 events in the 1908-June 2024 timeframe.

• Included in each entry (where available and applicable) are the date of publication, volume and number, page and column of the item, the event date, location of the event, full name of the principal individual, their parents, maiden surname, age and related families' last name.

• Couples Events: This database is an index of couples’ events, including engagements, marriages, and anniversaries.  This database currently covers 17,197 events in the 1908-June 2024 timeframe.

• Included in each entry (where available and applicable) are the date of publication, volume and number, page and column of the item, the event date, location of the event, full names of the principal man and woman, their parents, related families, and anniversary year.

The names of the principal individual(s), maiden surname and related family surnames are searchable in this database.  The names are exactly as they appear in a specific news item, and in some cases may be spelled slightly differently in other articles involving the same people.  It is therefore suggested that Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching or Daitch-Mokotoff be used when searching.

For some items the event date was not included, but a day of the week is referenced instead.  In those cases, we have made our best estimate of the actual date from the calendar.  For deaths, the resulting date was checked against Texas Jewish Burials and the latter used where available.

For many years, the paper had headings for various Texas cities.  If the event occurred elsewhere, the city where it occurred is listed under "Place of Event" with the city reporting it under Texas News-City.  In more recent years, this database heading is used to designate the local Texas city involved, when an event occurred out of state.  A notation is made when a photo is included with the article.

The Jewish Herald-Voice is published weekly.  Microfilm reels are available at the JHV offices, at the Texas History Room of the Houston Public Library, and at the Center For American History of the University of Texas in Austin. The Library of Congress has a number of years (1908 thru 1911) available only at: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93068209/issues/. The Portal to Texas History has many issues available for full search at:

• The Jewish Herald (165 issues from 1908 thru 1911: https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=Voice&t=fulltext&fq=str_title_serial%3AThe+Jewish+Herald)
• The Texas Jewish Herald (750 issues from 1923 to 1938: https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=Voice&t=fulltext&fq=str_title_serial%3AThe+Texas+Jewish+Herald)
• The Jewish Herald-Voice (2263 issues from 1938 to 2014: https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=Voice&t=fulltext&fq=str_title_serial%3AThe+Jewish+Herald-Voice)

Please check for additional issues being added frequently.

Copies of articles can be obtained for $5 each by contacting Mr. Max Heffler, 9319 Woodmeadow Dr., Houston, TX 77025.  It is suggested that before ordering a copy, Mr. Heffler be emailed to be sure that the article contains more than is in this database index. Proceeds will be sent to the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice University managed by Dr. Joshua Furman.