The only earlier periodical, Solomon Henry Jackson's The Jew, was published as an anti-missionary journal.
[1] Compiled by Rabbi Isaac Leeser from inception through 1868, in 1869 the publication was edited by Mayer Sulzberger.
[3] It contained a broad array of contents, including sermons, obituaries, juvenile literature, scholarly research, theology, spiritual poetry, domestic and foreign news of Jewish interest, resolutions adopted by congregations and organizations, book reviews and correspondence.
The Occident is one of the most important records of American Jewish life in the middle decades of the 19th century.
Over ten years worth of this news monthly have been transcribed and are available for reading online.