JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

MARK J. JOFFE is JTA’s executive editor and publisher, responsible for overall administration, management, editorial direction and development of the worldwide Jewish news service. He joined the agency in 1987 after serving as news editor at the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.

LENORE A. SILVERSTEIN is JTA’s director of finance and administration, responsible for financial and operational management of the agency, including customer relations. She joined JTA in 1996 after serving as the assistant director of finance and administration at Columbia University. She holds an MBA in finance from Baruch Business School.

NANCY CLAYMAN is JTA’s Director of Development responsible for guiding the organization’s overall fundraising strategy and Board development. She joined the agency in April, 2008 after serving as the National Director of Grassroots Fundraising at Hadassah. She was the Development Officer for “She Said/Women in News” which aired nationally on PBS and went on to win a 2002 National News Emmy.

DAVID BILLOTTI is JTA’s Director of Marketing and Business Development, responsible for increasing readership of JTA’s internet and e-mail offerings, online fundraising and advertising, and the public presentation of JTA’s mission and vision.  A recent arrival at JTA, David previously worked in a similar capacity for The Educational Alliance and the JCC in Manhattan, among other organizations.

DANIEL SIERADSKI is JTA’s director of digital media, responsible for developing JTA’s Web site and guiding its overall Internet strategy. Before joining JTA in the summer of 2007, he served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool.com, as well as both a freelance journalist and freelance webmaster for various Jewish publications and non-profit Jewish organizations. He has lectured internationally on the topic of Jewish cultural expression on the Internet, and is regularly featured in the Jewish press for his knowledge on the subject.

AMI EDEN is JTA’s editor-in-chief, responsible for coordinating the agency’s overall coverage and North American reporting staff. Before joining JTA in the summer of 2007, he served as executive editor of the Forward newspaper and the founding editor of the Jewish Daily Forward Web site. He also worked as an editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.

URIEL HEILMAN is JTA’s managing editor. He re-joined JTA in 2007 after a stint doing independent reporting in Israel and the Arab world. Before that, he served as New York bureau chief of the Jerusalem Post. An award-winning journalist, he has served as JTA’s news editor and worked as a reporter for a variety of publications in the United States and in Israel.

MARC BRODSKY is JTA’s copy editor. Prior to joining JTA, he served 15 years as the assistant managing editor at The New York Jewish Week. He also has worked as a reporter and editor in news and sports for daily and weekly newspapers in New Jersey.

JACOB BERKMANis a JTA national staff writer based in New York. An award-winning journalist, he is the former managing editor of the New Jersey Jewish Standard. He also worked for the Baltimore Jewish Times and the Forward newspaper.

BEN HARRIS is a JTA national staff writer based in New York. He was formerly the editor of the Jewish Journal Boston North, based in Salem, Mass., and has worked for United Press International and the Long Island Jewish World. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, and the Jerusalem Post.

RON KAMPEAS is JTA’s Washington bureau chief, responsible for coordinating coverage in the U.S. capital and analyzing political developments that affect the Jewish world. He comes to JTA from The Associated Press, where he worked for more than a decade in its bureaus in Jerusalem, New York, London and, most recently, Washington. He has reported from Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Bosnia and West Africa. While living in Israel, he also worked for the Jerusalem Post and several Jewish organizations.

ERIC FINGERHUT covers and blogs about politics and Washington for JTA. Before coming to JTA, he spent 10 years as a award-winning staff writer for the Washington Jewish Week newspaper, where he reported on the local and national Jewish scene in the nation’s capital. He also has worked for a U.S. congressional campaign.

LESLIE SUSSER is JTA’s diplomatic correspondent in Jerusalem. Also the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report, he has covered the peace process and Israeli domestic politics since the early 1990s. Before that he was head of English News at Israel Radio and night editor at the Jerusalem Post. He is the author of the recent Israel chapters in the Middle East Contemporary Survey and the Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook, and co-author of “Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier of Peace.” He has a Ph.D. in modern history from Oxford University.

DINA KRAFT is JTA’s news and features correspondent in Israel. Based in Tel Aviv, she covers a wide range of behind-the-headlines issues, including Israel-Diaspora affairs and economic and social trends. She comes to JTA from The Associated Press, where she worked for over six years, first in the Jerusalem bureau and then in the Johannesburg bureau covering southern Africa. She has reported from throughout Africa as well as Pakistan, Turkey and Jordan.

MARCY OSTER is a JTA correspondent in Israel. She worked at the Cleveland Jewish News for nearly 12 years and was senior staff reporter when she made aliyah in 2000. She has won several awards for her writing from organizations including The Press Club of Cleveland, Society for Professional Journalists, Women in Communications and the American Jewish Press Association.   

FLORENCIA ARBISER is JTA’s correspondent in Buenos Aires. Prior to joining JTA, she worked for nine years at the Clar’n newspaper, the largest Spanish paper in the world. She also currently writes for Ciudad Abierta, the magazine of the Buenos Aires municipality’s Department of Culture. In 1998 she won an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship.

TOBY AXELROD is JTA’s correspondent for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. A former assistant director of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office, she has also worked as staff writer and editor at the New York Jewish Week. She has won numerous awards from the New York Press Association and the American Jewish Press Association. She has published books on Holocaust history for teen-agers.

JEAN COHEN is JTA’s correspondent in Greece. Since 1978, he has been a correspondent for Radio Israel, the daily newspapers Yediot Achronot and Kathimerini and other publications. He also has worked in public relations, as a professor of advertising and as an advisor for various Greek government officials.

RON CSILLAG is JTA’s correspondent in Toronto. He was a reporter for the Canadian Jewish News for 20 years. He is currently a freelance writer for the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Religion News Service in Washington. He has a journalism degree from Concordia University in Montreal and has been awarded both a Lilly and Gralla fellowship in religious journalism.

SUE FISHKOFF, a special correspondent based in Northern California, covers American Jewish issues, with a special focus on Jewish identity and affiliation. She also serves as a contributing editor, responsible for coordinating JTA’s coverage of the former Soviet Union. She is a former staff writer for the Jerusalem Post, has written extensively for a variety of national Jewish publications and is the author of “The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch,” published by Schocken Books.

DAN GOLDBERG is a former national editor of the Australian Jewish News. He currently works for The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as The Jewish Chronicle in Britain and writes scripts for an independent TV production company.

RUTH E. GRUBER is JTA’s senior European correspondent. Based in Rome, she travels and writes extensively on Jewish affairs in Italy, Central and Eastern Europe and other European countries. A former UPI reporter, she has also written for The New York Times and the Encyclopaedia Judaica. She is also the author of several books: Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe, Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to East-Central Europe and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today.

JEREMY KAHN is JTA’s correspondent in New Dehli.

ALISON KLAYMAN is JTA’s Beijing correspondent. A journalist on the Global Radio News network, she frequently contributes to diverse media outlets including CBC, Voice of America and NPR.  In 2007, she won the Associated Press College Radio Award for General Reporting for her work at WBRU Providence. She has lived in China since 2006, also working as a videographer and documentary filmmaker.

MICHAEL J. JORDAN is JTA’s correspondent in Slovakia, writing mostly about Jewish life in the ex-Soviet Union. Winner of the 2007 Rockower for investigative reporting, he is also a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and was earlier stationed in Budapest, Hungary. Formerly the George Polk Journalist-in-Residence at Long Island University in Brooklyn, Jordan teaches journalism in Slovakia and conducts trainings in Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary.

DEVORAH LAUTER is a JTA Paris correspondent. She has written and worked for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press Paris bureaus, and is a regular contributor to The New Waver Quarterly, which covers French culture.  Lauter is currently completing a master’s thesis at Saint Denis University on the relationship between Jewish and Muslim youth in Parisian low-income suburbs, as well as a collection of true stories on a Jewish and
Muslim mixed gang.

LARRY LUXNER is JTA’s correspondent in South Florida. He also regularly travels to and reports from Latin America for JTA. He publishes a monthly newsletter, CubaNews and his articles have appeared in the Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Washington Diplomat, Christian Science Monitor, Latin Finance and Americas Magazine.

VLADIMIR MATVEYEV is JTA’s correspondent in Kiev, covering the Jewish community of Ukraine. He worked as a freelance journalist before becoming editor-in-chief of the Open Door, a publication of the Reform Jewish movement in Ukraine. He has a doctorate in linguistics from Kiev State University and a diploma from the Moscow Institute of Asian and African Countries. He is the author of numerous works on Judaism, Jewish language, history and culture.

MARCUS MORAES is JTA’s correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. A freelance journalist and columnist, he contributes to Brazilian Jewish newspapers, magazines and news portals. He also produces news content for Web sites.

YIGAL SCHLEIFER is JTA’s correspondent in Istanbul. Also a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, his work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Toronto Star, Village Voice, the Times (London) and other publications. A graduate of New York University’s master’s program in Journalism and Near Eastern Studies, Yigal has worked throughout the Middle East and the Caucasus, covering a wide range from stories, from politics and security issues, to religion and culture.

MOIRA SCHNEIDER is a JTA correspondent in South Africa. A law graduate and psychology major, she is the Cape Town correspondent for the South African Jewish Report. She contributes to London’s Jewish Chronicle, is a reporter for the Cape Jewish Chronicle and has been published in the Cape Times and Cape Argus.

GRANT SLATER is JTA’s correspondent in Moscow, covering Jewish communities across the former Soviet Union. A native of Oklahoma, he has previously covered Congress and the Supreme Court for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Washington, DC, as well as worked for The Associated Press in Dallas, Texas, and Russia Profile, an English-language monthly magazine in Moscow.

JEROME SOCOLOVSKY is JTA’s correspondent in Madrid, covering Spain and Portugal. A former AP reporter, he has covered the Arab world, the Lockerbie trial and the Bosnian war crimes tribunal in The Hague. His articles have also appeared in The Economist.

DINAH A. SPRITZER is JTA’s correspondent in Prague. She has been covering the former Eastern European bloc since 1990 and currently serves as the news editor of The Prague Post. The former Europe editor for Travel Weekly, she also contributes to several other publications, including The Independent on Sunday, Conde Nast Traveler and several guidebooks on the Czech Republic.

TOM TUGEND is JTA’s Los Angeles correspondent. A veteran journalist, he also writes for the Jerusalem Post, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal and the London Jewish Chronicle.

DAPHNA VARDI is a JTA correspondent in London. She has been living and working in the UK for over 20 years, and worked during that time for various Israeli and Jewish media outlets. She currently covers the UK for Israel Radio (Kol Israel) and, until recently, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv. Before moving to the UK, Daphna lived in New York and worked for CNN.  Born and raised in Israel, she worked in Israel for Israel Radio and NBC.