The Jewish Press

The Jewish Press has long been influential in Brooklyn’s Orthodox community, while reaching readers elsewhere in the United States.[5][6] Its combination of religious instruction, news, opinion, advice, and community notices has included halachic questions and answers alongside coverage of Israel and American Jewish life.[1][7]

The publication describes itself as “the largest independent weekly Jewish newspaper in the United States”; this is its own size comparison rather than an independently established ranking.[1] Its stated editorial commitments include advocacy for Israel, Soviet Jewry, and agunot—women whose husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce—as well as greater communal openness about domestic violence and other social problems.[1]

The Brooklyn publication is distinct from the similarly titled weekly The Jewish Press in Omaha, Nebraska, published by the Jewish Press Publishing Company from 1920 onward.[8] The Omaha paper’s first issue was dated December 16, 1920; its catalog record notes numbering irregularities between 1923 and 1941 and an annual publication break from mid-July through the last week of August during 1960–1968.[8]

The Jewish Press emerged from a series of newspaper ventures associated with Rabbi Sholom Klass, including the Oceanside News, which served Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach, followed by the Brooklyn Weekly and Brooklyn Daily.[4] Raphael Schreiber, Klass’s father-in-law, provided financial assistance and purchased linotype machines for those earlier ventures; Klass subsequently began a small local weekly called The Jewish Press.[4] The Brooklyn newspaper’s catalog record gives a publication span beginning in 1949, while the national weekly’s debut is dated January 1960.[9][1]

In the late 1950s, rabbis from Agudas HaRabbonim, led by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Simcha Elberg, approached Klass about producing a religiously oriented Yiddish newspaper for a national audience as existing Yiddish newspapers diminished or ceased publication.[4] Klass instead chose English, explaining: “I won’t do it in Yiddish. I will publish a weekly newspaper in English that everyone in America will be able to read.”[4]

The first issue of the reconstituted national publication was dated January 29, 1960, and its lead editorial called it the “first national Orthodox English-Jewish weekly in the United States.”[4] It contained 16 pages, sold for five cents, and offered a one-year subscription for $2.50.[4] Rabbi Chaim Uri Lipshitz of Torah Vodaath assisted with content and circulation, while Arnie Fine began his “I Remember When” column.[4]

Albert Klass, Sholom Klass’s brother, was also a co-founder of the national weekly and worked in several capacities, including advertising sales, continuing to work into his 90s.[5] The newspaper’s own account identifies Sholom Klass and Raphael Schreiber as founders.[4] These accounts associate the publication’s establishment with both the Klass family’s newspaper work and Schreiber’s support for its earlier ventures.[4][5]

During the mid-1970s, Ronald Reagan wrote a weekly column for the paper, whose readership was mainly Orthodox Jews in New York and elsewhere in the United States.[6] Its contributors and editors have also included Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, Dr. Morris Mandel, Louis Rene Beres, Steven Plaut, Marvin Schick, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, Phyllis Chesler, Rabbi David Hollander, and Paul Eidelberg.[1]

The newspaper lists Arnold Fine, Jason Maoz, and Elliot Resnick among its former editors.[1] Elliot Resnick worked as an editor and writer at The Jewish Press while pursuing doctoral studies at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies; he was also the author of one book and editor of another work.[10] The newspaper’s organizational information names Shlomo Greenwald as senior editor of the print edition, Naomi Klass-Mauer and Hindy Greenwald as owners and publishers, and Jerry Greenwald as chief executive officer.[1]

Sholom Klass wrote “Tales of the Gaonim,” “Midrash and Talmud,” and a halachic questions-and-answers column, through which he answered many thousands of questions.[4] Religious material appeared alongside local news, education and advice columns, readers’ questions, classifieds, personals, and social notices.[7] Coverage extended beyond the New York area to include Los Angeles and Southern Florida.[7]

The paper’s broader mix has included political and religious commentary, Jewish news, and features for young readers such as puzzles, games, and illustrated stories.[1] It describes its editorial style as marked by “feistiness” and its religious outlook as centrist or Modern Orthodox.[1] Publisher Jerry Greenwald articulated its purpose as that of a Torah newspaper recognizing the centrality of Torah and Torah study to the Jewish people.[11]

Coverage of Israel has included interviews and commentary drawing on researchers associated with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.[12][13] Dan Diker was interviewed on October 28, 2014, about the centrality of the Temple Mount.[12] A November 5, 2014, article by Lori Marcus, “Romney and Lieberman to Headline Israeli-American DC Event,” mentioned Dr. Anet Berko.[13] On January 27, 2015, Dr. Ely Karmon was listed as quoted in “Hezbollah-Israel Conflict: an Unwanted Development.”[14]

The paper endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election after initially encouraging readers to focus on issues rather than personal shortcomings.[15] Its editorial said the FBI’s reopening of its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails “impelled us to cross the line and endorse Mr. Trump outright.”[15] An analysis of approximately 100 American Jewish news outlets identified the Brooklyn Jewish Press as one of three endorsing Trump, compared with eight endorsing Clinton; the analysis examined website content and cautioned that it might not capture every print endorsement.[15]

The choice to publish a national Orthodox newspaper in English was intended to make its content accessible to American readers beyond a Yiddish-speaking audience.[4] Its combination of religious learning and everyday communal information reached readers outside major Orthodox population centers as well as those in New York.[4][7] Naomi Klass Mauer’s retrospective includes recollections of readers in small communities waiting beside rural mailboxes on Thursdays for the paper, and of people who told her they had become religious through its pages.[4]

The paper’s advocacy has addressed practical obstacles to Orthodox religious life, including efforts to prohibit shechita, Sunday-closing laws, workplace restrictions on yarmulkes, autopsies on Orthodox Jews, and employment discrimination against Sabbath observers.[4] Its retrospective account also associates it with early advocacy for Soviet Jewry and involvement in the passage of New York’s Silver Get Law.[4] Advocacy for agunot and greater openness about domestic violence has formed part of its stated communal role.[1][16]

A 1979 Purim parody used the newspaper as its model and reportedly circulated 30,000 copies.[7] Accounts of the parody describe a headline announcing “MESSIAH ARRIVES!” and a story in which the redeemer nearly collided with an Egged bus, accompanied by shorter news items, advertisements, classifieds, and letters.[17] Hanoch Teller’s retrospective treats the parody’s rapid distribution as evidence of the newspaper’s influence.[7]

The Brooklyn weekly is also preserved as a research resource on microfilm available from the New York Public Library.[9] Its catalog description was based on the March 4, 1960, issue, identified as volume 11, number 10, and lists the November 17, 2000, issue, volume 50, number 46, as the latest issue consulted.[9]

Meir Kahane worked at The Jewish Press after losing a Queens congregational position in 1960 and served as an editor during the 1960s.[18][19] His partisan columns included warnings of a future Holocaust at the hands of inner-city Black or Hispanic people; these were Kahane’s racialized claims, not established threats.[18] The paper distanced itself from him in 1969, although he continued publishing in it until his death.[18][2]

In 2012, the newspaper defended publishing Chaim Levin’s essay criticizing reparative therapy and the rejection of gay people within Orthodox communities.[16] Its response described a serious communal problem while stating that publication was not intended to promote homosexuality or condone behavior contrary to halacha.[16] In 2019, the Anti-Defamation League’s New York-New Jersey director raised concerns about articles denigrating LGBTQ people, including an opinion piece comparing Pride Parade participants with animals, adulterers, and thieves.[3] The ADL reported receiving more than 25 complaints and expressed concern for LGBTQ Jewish youth; Mauer said the paper sought to reflect Torah teachings and was willing to hear the concerns, although the parties disagreed about recording a proposed meeting.[3]

In 2014, the paper removed an online column by Israel-based editor Yori Yanover criticizing Haredi opponents of a proposed Israeli draft law, apologized, and dismissed him.[11] Publishers Jerry Greenwald and Naomi Mauer said publication had been unauthorized and that the column did not represent the paper; Yanover maintained that he had authorization and followed the established review process.[11]

Political descriptions of the newspaper have also reflected individual commentators’ judgments.[20] Writing about Jewish responses to Bob Dylan’s 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, Jonathan Karp contrasted the “right-careening Jewish Press” with the “left-leaning Forward”; that wording was his characterization, rather than the newspaper’s own statement of its full editorial position.[20]