New York Jewish Week

The New York Jewish Week is a local publication focused on Jewish news in the New York area.[2] A 2017 announcement said its redesigned website was updated daily with news, analysis, opinion pieces, and blogs and was optimized for mobile and tablet devices.[2]

The Library of Congress includes the publication's website in its September 11 Web Archive, which preserves online expression created after the 2001 attacks. Its catalog record identifies Jewish Week, Inc. as the site's producer and describes it as a press organization.[6] The National Library of Israel catalogs the newspaper as The Jewish Week, an English-language weekly in its North American collection, The Jewish Press in the USA.[1]

Published accounts do not yield a consistent founding date. A January 2021 acquisition report described the publication as 46 years old.[4] By contrast, a July 2020 Times of Israel headline referred to a nearly 150-year print run, and JNS described the publication as 145 years old.[7][3] The reports do not explain the discrepancy or whether they count different predecessor titles or institutional lineages.

The National Library of Israel's digitized run begins on May 6, 1971, and lists 1,953 issues through June 29, 2018.[1] That archival start date does not by itself settle the founding question. An American Jewish Archives contact record transmitted on October 23, 1989, lists Phillip Ritzenberg as publisher and gives the paper's address as 1457 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.[8]

In July 2020, The New York Jewish Week announced that it would suspend its print edition and shift to a digital-first model, with its final print issue scheduled for July 31.[9][3] The decision followed years of declining advertising revenue and rising printing and postage costs. The COVID-19 pandemic sharply accelerated those pressures by eliminating advertising from Jewish travel, events, nonprofits, caterers, and kosher restaurants. The publication had already cut staff and asked senior management to accept pay reductions before concluding that those measures were insufficient.[9]

At the time of the announcement, the paper had approximately 32,000 subscribers and had lost more than 20 percent of its advertising.[9] Editor Andrew Silow-Carroll said the digital strategy would emphasize social-media promotion and email newsletters, while a weekly PDF would remain available for readers wishing to print a Shabbat edition at home. He said eliminating print costs could free resources for freelancers and some staff.[9]

In late 2020, 70 Faces Media, the nonprofit parent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, acquired The New York Jewish Week brand.[4] The publication was to retain its focus on Jewish New York while drawing on 70 Faces Media's broader resources. Its website was also to remain a partner site of The Times of Israel, continuing a partnership begun in 2017.[2][4] The acquisition transferred the paper's public programs, including Fresh Ink for Teens, Write On For Israel, and The Conversation.[4]

70 Faces Media described the acquisition as part of a unified news strategy intended to serve local and national audiences during a crisis for local journalism.[4] Financial support came in part from UJA-Federation of New York, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, and three other foundations through the Jewish Community and Impact Fund, which had been established to support Jewish communal institutions following the onset of COVID-19.[4]

As of October 2026, 70 Faces Media publishes the New York Jewish Week alongside My Jewish Learning, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Kveller, Hey Alma, and The Nosher.[5]

Gary Rosenblatt served as editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week from 1993 to 2019.[10] His tenure lasted 26 years. He first joined the paper as assistant editor from 1972 to 1974, later returning from the Baltimore Jewish Times to assume the top editorial and publishing roles.[11] Upon his departure, Rich Waloff, who had been associate publisher and chief revenue officer for 25 years, assumed the publisher role, while managing editor Robert Goldblum remained in his position.[11]

During Rosenblatt's tenure, the publication launched Write On For Israel in 2002, an educational and advocacy initiative preparing high school students for campus debates about the Middle East. It launched The Conversation in 2005 as an off-the-record retreat where a diverse group of Jewish participants discussed major issues facing American Jewry. Other initiatives included Fresh Ink for Teens, The Jewish Week Investigative Journalism Fund, and The Jewish Week Forum.[11]

Following the 2020 acquisition, Andrew Silow-Carroll continued as editor in chief.[4] A 2024 YIVO event page identifies him as editor at large and lists previous editorial roles at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, New Jersey Jewish News, Forward, and Washington Jewish Week.[12] A My Jewish Learning listing for an event scheduled for October 29, 2026, identifies Hilary Krieger as executive editor of both JTA and the New York Jewish Week.[13]

On November 23, 1984, the Jewish Week published a front-page story about the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, with then-publisher Phillip Ritzenberg describing it as an exclusive.[14] The story initially received no response from other New York media. The Washington Jewish Week, a separate operation, published its own account two weeks later, and The New York Times followed with a front-page article on December 11. Warren Hoge, then the Times' foreign editor, later said that learning the story had appeared on the front pages of Jewish publications in New York and Washington played a principal role in the Times' decision to publish.[14]

Ritzenberg said that “the story was simply invisible. It was completely ignored,” while emphasizing that the paper knew it had an exclusive.[14]

The paper's archives also document its response to major national events. The National Library of Israel's Historical Jewish Press Collection preserves the cover of the September 14, 2001, edition of The New York Jewish Week, which the Library featured in a post marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.[15]

A December 3, 1999, article by Rosenblatt, reproduced in an American Jewish Archives collection, addressed Jewish attitudes toward American Evangelicals and the potential for Jewish-Christian cooperation. It argued that Jews often held negative stereotypes about Evangelicals despite support some Evangelicals expressed for Israel and Jewish causes. Rosenblatt wrote that Yechiel Eckstein's International Fellowship of Christians and Jews had raised approximately $6.5 million during the previous year from roughly 100,000 donors and might raise as much as $10 million in 1999.[16]

In a 2005 issue of Sh'ma, former Jewish Week employee Larry Cohler-Esses discussed a Rosenblatt article that exposed allegations of sexual harassment against Rabbi Baruch Lanner. Cohler-Esses characterized the article as “meticulously researched” and “multiply sourced” and said the paper stood by its reporting despite abuse and boycott threats. He also noted Lanner's subsequent conviction and reforms undertaken by the Orthodox Union. These assessments come from a retrospective contributor's account rather than the original investigation.[17]

A separate article in the same issue discussed a book by Luke Ford that claimed to reproduce an April 7, 1997, memo from UJA-Federation of New York leaders to The Jewish Week's editor. As described in Sh'ma, the memo proposed one UJA-Federation cover story per month in all editions and linked access to the organization's donor list for subscriptions to the paper's providing UJA-Federation with regular coverage. The source reports Ford's claim about the document; it does not independently establish the memo's authenticity or context.[17]