{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} '''''Olomeinu''''' (1945-2011; also Anglicized as ''Olameinu''<ref name=OloOlaVeryBest/>) is the title of a defunct monthly Jewish children's publication. Several reprint books were published.
==Overview== Olomeinu refers to "''stories published monthly in the pages of Olomeinu/Our World magazine have been favorites of young readers for three generations''."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artscroll.com/Products/BO1H.html|title=Best Of Olomeinu - Series 2: Stories For All|date=June 18, 2003}}</ref> Publication ceased in 2011.<ref name=OlomeinuEnd.Yated2012>{{cite news|url=https://yated.com/the-demise-of-olomeinu|author=Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum|date=December 5, 2012|newspaper=Yated_Ne'eman|title=The Demise of Olomeinu}}</ref> Torah Umesorah, which began ''Olomeinu'' in 1945, included "stories, holiday supplements, Hebrew pages, cartoon cartoon strips, puzzle pages and short biographies of Jewish greats."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collive.com/how-the-rebbe-saved-olomeinu|title=How the Rebbe Saved 'Olomeinu'|date=March 27, 2018}}</ref><ref name=OlameinuDovShurin>{{cite news|newspaper=The Jewish Press|url=https://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/parsha/boundless-love/2014/03/20|title=Boundless Love|author=Dov Shurin|quote=My father had for 60 years written a Hebrew page featuring biographies of great rabbis in the children's magazine Olomeinu.|date=March 20, 2014}}</ref>
When the publication had financial difficulties in 1960, ''Chabad,'' which had competing youth publications, made a one-time large donation to encourage support;<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Jewish Press|url=https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/time-to-give-chabad-its-due/2007/06/15/2|title=Time to give Chabad its due|author=Rabbi Sholom B. Kalmanson|date=June 15, 2007}}</ref> ''Olomeinu'' continued into the 2000s. The student readers included Modern Orthodox/Ivrit B'Ivrit<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Jewish Press|url=https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/reaffirming-israels-centrality-to-modern-orthodoxy/2017/10/18|title=Reaffirming Israel's Centrality to Modern Orthodoxy|date=October 18, 2017}}</ref> and ''Hareidi''.
==Reprintings== Artscroll, not the original publisher, issued two series of volumes that reprinted content.<ref>the seventh book in the first series was published in 1986: {{cite book|isbn=978-0-8990-67629|title=The Best of Olomeinu, Book 7|last1=Scherman|first1=Nosson|year=1981|publisher=Mesorah Publications }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|isbn=978-1-5781-93981|title=The Best of Olomeinu, Book 1|year=2003|publisher=Mesorah Publications in conjunction with Torah Umesorah Publications }}</ref> The second series began "more than two decades" after the first, which sold "nearly 85,000 copies."<ref>{{cite book |title=Best of Olomeinu - Series 2|url=https://www.shopeichlers.com/products/best-of-olomeinu-series-2-stories-for-all-year-round/6286}}</ref> using the title ''Best of Olomeinu''.<ref>{{cite book|isbn=978-0-8990-67513 |title=Best Of Olomeinu - Series 1: Stories For All Year|author=Rabbi Yaakov Fruchter|year=1981|publisher=Mesorah Publications, Limited }}</ref> These were followed in 2008 by "The Very Best in Olomeinu: Back Pages" which were published by Mahrwood Press.<ref name=OloOlaVeryBest>{{cite book|isbn=978-1-5982-63008|author1=Yaakov Fruchter |author2=Aryeh Mahr|quote=1955-2008|title=The Very Best in Olomeinu: Back Pages|date=2008 |publisher=Mahrwood Press }}</ref> This (third) series had two volumes.<ref>the first focused on biographies, the second on short stories</ref>
Nosson Scherman, prior to his work at Artscroll, was the editor of Olomeinu, beginning in 1970, and editor/co-author of some ''Best of Olomeinu'' reprints.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Best of Olomeinu, Book 6 |author1=Yaakov Fruchter|author2=Nosson Scherman|author3=Yosef Dershowitz}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Best of Olomeinu: Book One |year=1981|quote=Book One by Nosson Scherman (Editor), Yosef Dershowitz (Illustrator), Yaakov Fruchter (Compiler}}</ref>
==Audience and content== Yeshiva students were given subscription forms; circulation was throughout the English-speaking world: USA, Canada, England, and Australia, and was not limited to just major Jewish population centers.<ref name=OlomeinuEnd.Yated2012/> Different features were more appreciated by different ages and grades. ''Mendel the Mouse'' appealed more to one age, ''People, Places and Things'' to another{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}. From the 1960s through the 1990s many features were a constant source of learning about "Baal Shem Tov ... the Vilna Gaon, the Chazon Ish" and included stories written by rabbis Brailofsky and Gevirtz.
Some items, such as history of Sarah Schenirer and the ''Bais Yaakov'' movement, were limited in scope and duration.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thebaisyaakovproject.com/bais-yaakov-in-the-olomeinu-magazine |title=Bais Yaakov in the Olomeinu Magazine}}</ref>
''Olomeinu'' also introduced readers to having and being a pen pal.
Among those who contributed to the founding of Olomeinu and its early day continuity were rabbis Elias Schwartz<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Hamodia|author=Rafael Hoffman|url=https://hamodia.com/2016/11/23/rabbi-elias-schwartz-zl|title=Rabbi Elias Schwartz|date=November 23, 2016|accessdate=May 19, 2019|archive-date=July 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722063938/https://www.hamodia.com/2016/11/23/rabbi-elias-schwartz-zl|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Nisson Wolpin. When the latter left in 1970 to become editor of ''The Jewish Observer'', Nosson Scherman, later to be known for his accomplishments at Artscroll, was Olomeinu's editor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dainybernstein.com/2020/03/07/sharing-spaces-shaping-identities-american-haredi-childrens-literature|title=Sharing Spaces, Shaping Identities: American Haredi Children's Literature|date=March 7, 2020}}</ref>
==See also== * ''V'Shee-non-tom'' (And thou shalt teach them),
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.chinuch.org/olomeinu_archive.html archive of back issues]
{{italic title}}
Category:Defunct children's magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct Jewish magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines established in 1945 Category:Magazines disestablished in 2008 Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States Category:Jewish children's magazines