The first issue of
Ha-Tsfira appeared in
Warsaw,
Congress Poland, in 1862, edited by
Chaim Selig Slonimski.
Ha-Tsfira was the first Hebrew paper with an emphasis on the sciences. It reopened in 1874 in
Berlin, and began to be published in Warsaw in September 1875. Coverage of news and politics was introduced after the
First Zionist Congress.
Ha-Tsfira became part of a network of important Hebrew periodicals, among them
Ha-Shahar,
Ha-Asif,
Ha-Shiloaḥ. Some of the greatest names in early modern Hebrew literature published their work in the paper, including
Mendele Mocher Sforim,
Y. L. Peretz, and
Sholem Aleichem. ==References==