 | |
 The Jewish Press (16 August 2002) | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Editor | Shlomo Greenwald |
| Founded | January 29, 1960; 65 years ago (1960-01-29) |
| Political alignment | Conservative Religiously:Modern Orthodox[1] |
| Headquarters | Brooklyn,New York,U.S. |
| Circulation | 42,222 (as of 2017)[2] |
| ISSN | 0021-6674 |
| Website | jewishpress |
The Jewish Press is an American weekly newspaper based inBrooklyn, New York City. It serves theModern Orthodox Jewish community.
TheJewish Press was co-founded in 1960 by Albert Klass and his brother Sholom Klass.[3][4] The Klass brothers had previously co-published theBrooklyn Daily andBrooklyn Weekly newspapers in the 1940s. In 1960s, a group of leading rabbis approached the Klass brothers to publish a weekly English-language newspaper for Jews who were not fluent inYiddish. This becameThe Jewish Press.[3][5]
In March 2014, the newspaper fired editor Yori Yanover after he wrote anop-ed titled "50 Thousand Haredim March So Only Other Jews Die in War."[6] The piece was in reference to aHaredi Jewish prayer rally inManhattan protesting the draft ofyeshiva students to theIsrael Defence Forces.[7]
Shlomo Greenwald, grandson of Shlomo Klass, has been the newspaper's top editor since May 2021.[8]
Thetabloid-style newspaper features distinctive blue-colored front page headlines.[9] The newspaper includes Israel and local community news, commentaries on the weeklyTorah portion, columns, and personal ads.[10]
The Jewish Press describes itself as having a politicallyconservative viewpoint and editorial policy,[11] and "politically incorrect long before the phrase was coined."[4] According to Jeffrey Gurock, a historian atYeshiva University, the newspaper is "representative of Brooklyn Jewry both in terms of its religious values and its social values." According toThe Forward,The Jewish Press expresses right-wing political views and an "unapologetic presentation of Orthodoxy."[1] As an example of this, a notice appeared on page 22B of the July 6, 1990 edition announcing theexcommunication of Jewish U.S. RepresentativeBarney Frank, citing his homosexuality. The notice added that theRabbinical Alliance of America and theUnion of Orthodox Rabbis, while not the initiators of the action, expressed their approval of it. UltraconservativeCatholic weeklyThe Wanderer reported about the notice, leading some Catholics to note with some irony that asimilar process existed in theCatholic Church, pointing out that it had been regularly lambasted for carrying it out. However, it was clarified that the notice inThe Jewish Press was posted by an outlierbeth din (religious court) affiliated with a group called Jews for Morality, and that in reality Judaism lacked a centralized excommunication process.Abraham Hecht, president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, said "If we were going to start excommunicating, we'd have a list as long as the New Yorktelephone directory". Frank himself dismissed the notice, saying "I don't know any Jews who take it seriously, including my own rabbi."[9]
TheTimes of Israel describedThe Jewish Press as an influential publication inBrooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community.[3] The paper attracted a devoted following in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods due to its "uncompromising advocacy of Orthodox issues" and strong support for Israel.[10] In 1993, the paper had a weekly circulation of 125,000, out of 250,000 estimated readers of weekly Jewish newspapers.[12]The Forward postulated that it had the greatest share of more religiouslycentrist Orthodox readers.[1] According to theNew York Jewish Week, the paper served as the voice for the English-speaking Orthodox community, and its influence grew as the community emerged as a political force. An endorsement by the paper became tantamount to majorOrthodox political support.[10] By 2010, it was still considered the leader among English-language newspapers in the Orthodox communities in the greater New York City area, with a weekly circulation of nearly 50,000 copies.[1] According toHaaretz, the online version ofThe Jewish Press had a readership of 2 million views each month.[13]
In 1987, "Country Yossi Toiv wrote and performed a song parody ofShel Silverstein's "The Cover of "Rolling Stone"" made popular byDr. Hook entitled "The Cover of the Jewish Press".
Some ofThe Jewish Press's contributors includeJerold Auerbach,[14] Hollywood screenwriterRobert J. Avrech,Louis Rene Beres,[15]Phyllis Chesler,Paul Eidelberg,[16] photographerJacob Elbaz, historian and mathematician L. (Yitzchok) Levine,Morris Mandel,Steven Plaut,Marvin Schick, Martin Bodek, cartoonist Asher Schwartz, and legal ethicist and Judaica collector Saul Jay Singer,[17] who writes a weekly column on Collecting Jewish History.
The Jewish Press features numerous weeklyTorah columns regarding theweekly Torah portion, upcomingJewish holidays, contemporary applications of Jewish law, philosophy,Talmud, and the teachings ofNachman of Breslov. Current and previous authors includeMeir Kahane,[9]Esther Jungreis, Dovid Goldwasser,David Hollander,Rafael Grossman,Hanoch Teller,Berel Wein,Isaac C. Avigdor,Steven Pruzansky,Gershon Tannenbaum,Emanuel Quint,J. Simcha Cohen, Francis Nataf, andNathan Lopes Cardozo.
During the mid-1970s,Ronald Reagan wrote a weekly column for the paper.[18] Other contributing current and previous elected officials included Israeli prime ministerMenachem Begin,Knesset membersMenachem Porush,Yisrael Eichler andMoshe Feiglin, New York City MayorEd Koch,[19]Dov Hikind andSimcha Felder.
Among the blogs and bloggers published on JewishPress.com are Donny Fuchs, Paula R. Stern'sA Soldier's Mother, Jameel @The Muqata, JoeSettler, Harry Maryle'sEmes ve-Emuna, @IsraelShield, Batya Medad'sShiloh Musings, Frimet and Arnold Roth'sThis Ongoing War, David Israel,[20] Israel Mizrahi's musings on rare and unusual Jewish books, and Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger'sThe Ettinger Report.
Former contributors to the newspaper have included Jason Maoz, satiristArnold Fine, and Julius Liebb.[21]
The New York Times published a Jewish Press circulation number of 125,000 in 1993, and, in discussing competition and readership, estimated that "About 250,000 ... currently receive a Jewish weekly newspaper.
