 | |
 The Jewish Press (16 August 2002) | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Editor | Shlomo Greenwald |
| Founded | January 29, 1960 |
| 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 in Brooklyn, New York City. It serves the Modern Orthodox Jewish community.
The Jewish Press was co-founded in 1960 by Albert Klass and his brother Rabbi Sholom Klass. [3] [4] The Klass brothers had previously co-published the Brooklyn Daily and Brooklyn 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 in Yiddish. This became The Jewish Press. [3] [5]
The paper attracted a devoted following in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods due to its "uncompromising advocacy of Orthodox issues" and strong support for Israel. [6] In 1993, the paper had a weekly circulation of 125,000, out of 250,000 estimated readers of weekly Jewish newspapers. [7]
In March 2014, the newspaper fired editor Yori Yanover after he wrote an op-ed titled "50 Thousand Haredim March So Only Other Jews Die in War." [8] The piece was in reference to a Haredi Jewish prayer rally in Manhattan protesting the draft of yeshiva students to the Israel Defence Forces. [9]
Shlomo Greenwald, grandson of Shlomo Klass, has been the newspaper's top editor since May 2021. [10] Former contributors have included Jason Maoz, Meir Kahane, Arnold Fine, and Julius Liebb. [11]
The tabloid-style newspaper features distinctive blue-colored front page headlines. [12] The newspaper includes Israel and local community news, commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, columns, and personal ads. [6]
The Jewish Press describes itself as having a politically conservative viewpoint and editorial policy, [13] and "politically incorrect long before the phrase was coined." [4] According to Jeffrey Gurock, a historian at Yeshiva University, the newspaper is "representative of Brooklyn Jewry both in terms of its religious values and its social values." According to The Forward , The Jewish Press expresses right-wing political views and an "unapologetic presentation of Orthodoxy." [14]
As an example of this, a notice appeared on page 22B of the July 6, 1990 edition announcing the excommunication of Jewish U.S. Representative Barney Frank, citing his homosexuality. The notice added that the Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, while not the initiators of the action, expressed their approval of it. Ultraconservative Catholic weekly The Wanderer reported about the notice, leading some Catholics to note with some irony that a similar process existed in the Catholic Church, pointing out that it had been regularly lambasted for carrying it out. However, it was clarified that the notice in The Jewish Press was posted by an outlier beth 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 York telephone directory". Frank himself dismissed the notice, saying "I don't know any Jews who take it seriously, including my own rabbi." [12]
The Times of Israel described The Jewish Press as an influential publication in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. [3] The Forward postulated that it had the greatest share of more religiously centrist Orthodox readers. [14] According to the New 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 major Orthodox political support. [6]
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. [14]
According to Haaretz , the online version of The Jewish Press had a readership of 2 million views each month. [15]
Some of The Jewish Press's contributors include Jerold Auerbach, [16] Hollywood screenwriter Robert J. Avrech, Louis Rene Beres, [17] Phyllis Chesler, Paul Eidelberg, [18] photographer Jacob Elbaz, historian and mathematician L. (Yitzchok) Levine, Morris Mandel, Steven Plaut, Marvin Schick, cartoonist Asher Schwartz, and legal ethicist and Judaica collector Saul Jay Singer, who writes a weekly column on Collecting Jewish History.
The Jewish Press features numerous weekly Torah columns regarding the weekly Torah portion, upcoming Jewish holidays, contemporary applications of Jewish law, philosophy, Talmud, and the teachings of Nachman of Breslov. Current and previous authors include Meir Kahane, [12] 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, and Nathan Lopes Cardozo.
During the mid-1970s, Ronald Reagan wrote a weekly column for the paper. [19] Other contributing elected officials include Dov Hikind, Simcha Felder, former Knesset Member Menachem Porush, former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, [20] Knesset Member Yisrael Eichler, and Moshe Feiglin.
Among the blogs and bloggers published on JewishPress.com are Donny Fuchs, Paula R. Stern's A Soldier's Mother, Jameel @ The Muqata, JoeSettler, Harry Maryle's Emes ve-Emuna, @IsraelShield, Batya Medad's Shiloh Musings, Frimet and Arnold Roth's This Ongoing War, David Israel, [21] Israel Mizrahi's musings on rare and unusual Jewish books, and Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger's The Ettinger Report.
Meir David HaKohen Kahane was an American-born Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset before being convicted of acts of terrorism. He founded the Israeli political party Kach. A cofounder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), he espoused strong views against antisemitism.
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since.
Haredi Judaism consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict interpretation of religious sources and their accepted halakha and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating or modern values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English; however, the term "ultra-Orthodox" is considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer terms like strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredi Jews regard themselves as the most religiously authentic group of Jews, although other movements of Judaism disagree.
Agudath Israel of America is an American organization that represents Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Haredi community, advocates for its religious and civil rights, and services its constituents through charitable, educational, and social service projects across North America.
Jewish fundamentalism refers to fundamentalism in the context of Judaism. The term fundamentalism was originally used in reference to Christian fundamentalism, a Protestant movement which emphasizes a belief in biblical literalism. Today, it is commonly used in reference to movements that oppose modernist, liberal, and ecumenical tendencies within societies as well as modernist, liberal and ecumenical tendencies within specific religions and it is often coupled with extremist ideologies and/or political movements. The use of this definition is important in a Jewish context because the two movements which are most commonly associated with Jewish fundamentalism, Religious Zionism and Haredi Judaism, stray far from biblical literalism due to the importance of the Oral Law within Judaism. In fact, Karaism, the Jewish movement which is well-known due to its emphasis on biblical literalism, is rarely considered fundamentalist.
Jewish religious movements, sometimes called "denominations", include diverse groups within Judaism which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Today in the west, the most prominent divisions are between traditionalist Orthodox movements and modernist movements such as Reform Judaism originating in late 18th century Europe, Conservative originating in 19th century Europe, and other smaller ones, including the Reconstructionst and Renewal movements which emerged later in the 20th century in the United States.
Degel HaTorah is an Ashkenazi Haredi political party in Israel. For much of its existence, it has been allied with Agudat Yisrael, under the name United Torah Judaism.
Elazar Menachem Man Shach was a Haredi rabbi who headed Misnagdim Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world from the early 1970s until his death. He served as chair of the Council of Sages and one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, along with Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky. Due to his differences with the Hasidic leadership of the Agudat Yisrael political party, he allied with Ovadia Yosef, with whom he founded the Shas party in 1984. Later, in 1988, Shach criticized Ovadia Yosef, saying that, "Sepharadim are not yet ready for leadership positions", and subsequently founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing the Litvaks in the Israeli Knesset.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
From the founding of political Zionism in the 1890s, Haredi Jewish leaders voiced objections to its secular orientation, and before the establishment of the State of Israel, the vast majority of Haredi Jews were opposed to Zionism, like early Reform Judaism, but with distinct reasoning. This was chiefly due to the concern that secular nationalism would redefine the Jewish nation from a religious community based in their alliance to God for whom adherence to religious laws were "the essence of the nation's task, purpose, and right to exists," to an ethnic group like any other as well as the view that it was forbidden for the Jews to re-constitute Jewish rule in the Land of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. Those rabbis who did support Jewish resettlement in Palestine in the late 19th century had no intention to conquer Palestine and declare its independence from the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and some preferred that only observant Jews be allowed to settle there.
The Jewish Star is a free weekly newspaper that covers the Orthodox Jewish communities in Nassau County, New York and New York City. Its offices are in Garden City, New York.
Yated Ne'eman is an American weekly newspaper and magazine. Published in the English-language, it is a Haredi publication based in Brick, New Jersey, and distributed in most large metropolitan areas where Orthodox Jews reside. Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes Yated Ne'eman as one of the "most powerful" newspapers in the Haredi community.
Mishpacha- Jewish Family Weekly is a Haredi weekly magazine package produced by The Mishpacha Group in both English and Hebrew.
Shmuel Herzfeld is an American Orthodox rabbi. He is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Elimelech. He previously served as the Senior Rabbi of Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue in Washington, D.C. and before that as Associate Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. He is a teacher, lecturer, activist, and author.
The Algemeiner Journal, known informally as The Algemeiner, is a newspaper based in New York City that covers American and international Jewish and Israel-related news. It is widely read by Hasidic Jews.
Sephardic Haredim are Jews of Sephardi and Mizrahi descent who are adherents of Haredi Judaism. Sephardic Haredim today constitute a significant stream of Haredi Judaism, alongside the Hasidim and Lita'im. An overwhelming majority of Sephardic Haredim reside in Israel, where Sephardic Haredi Judaism emerged and developed. Although there is a lack of consistency in many of the statistics regarding Haredim in Israel, it is thought that some 20% of Israel's Haredi population are Sephardic Haredim. This figure is disputed by Shas, which claims that the proportion is "much higher than 20%", and cites voting patterns in Haredi cities to support its position.
The Jewish Voice (TJV) is a conservative weekly newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York, that was founded in 2003 as The Sephardic Voice. The Jewish Voice has a pro-Israel editorial outlook. It covers Israeli and American news. The paper describes its mission as "providing our readers with timely and thought-provoking news and opinion, from a pro-American, pro-Israel perspective".
The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse.
Conscription of yeshiva students refers to the conscription of Orthodox yeshiva students in Israel. Since 1977, this community had been exempted from military duty or national service. In 2012, service became mandatory with a penalty of imprisonment for up to five years for draft-dodgers, although the law has never been enforced.
Flatbush Jewish Journal (FJJ) is a Brooklyn-based weekly newspaper catering to the Orthodox Jewish community. It is closely associated with Agudath Israel of America.
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.
