One of the honors we share as president and chair, respectively, of The Jewish Week board is preparing an annual message to you, our readers, and to the larger community.
This has been a year of remarkable achievement at The Jewish Week—and of continued challenges. As a media business, we face a difficult, dynamic and very competitive landscape in print and online. In reporting on the New York Jewish community, we face other challenges — giving voice to this complex, distinguished and sometimes divided community, balancing contending opinions and agendas, and keeping pace with a rapidly changing world.
From our perspective, the continued success of The Jewish Week is due to leadership. Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher, and Rich Waloff, associate publisher and chief revenue officer, lead a terrific and dedicated team that realizes our dual mission of journalistic excellence and community building, with the goal of informing — and thereby strengthening — Jewish life. And they not only do this every week with each new issue, but every day online here. In addition, we continue to expand our online reach through NY Blueprint, the urban Jewish event guide that is a trusted resource for those in their 20s and 30s.
We believe two new, major developments will change the way we do business and dramatically extend our reach and impact. In the past month, we embarked on a publishing agreement and now publish the New Jersey Jewish News which serves the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, as well as the newspapers serving the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey (Middlesex and Monmouth Counties) and the Jewish Federation of Princeton, Mercer and Bucks Counties. We are proud to work with these fine communities and look forward to serving them.
We have also embarked on an online partnership with The Times of Israel, a leading news website based in Jerusalem and covering Israel and the larger Jewish world. You will soon see an updated and revamped Jewish Week website—and we will be introduced to new visitors across the state of New York who reach us through the Times of Israel website.
As we enter the New Year, though, our goals for The Jewish Week remain clear: to continue to educate and inspire, to grow and to serve, and to encourage respectful conversation and exploration. In a time of division and tension — especially during this rancorous and unsettling political season — we will continue to be a steady, constructive voice in our community. We will air many views to inform and inspire our readers (and web visitors) to think through — and, we hope, act on — today’s pressing issues and ideas.
Our community forums and educational projects, like Write On For Israel and Fresh Ink for Teens, and our Investigative Journalism Fund will continue to expand our impact. And The Conversation—a national retreat that has brought almost 700 opinion leaders and creative talents in Jewish life together for an annual unstructured, off-the-record retreat—will keep us a national force for new thinking and, as importantly, collaboration. Your generous support through our fund at FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds (www.fjc.org) has enabled us to create and sustain these programs. We are grateful for your past support and look forward to your continued participation and generosity.
Finally, thanks are also due to our board of directors, a vital and devoted group of community leaders dedicated to strengthening Jewish life through the work of The Jewish Week Media Group. Their support, time and creative thinking, as well as their commitment to Jewish life, continue to propel us ahead.
We all — community members, readers, board and staff — do this work together, and that will continue to be the key to our success in the year ahead.
We wish you and your families a year of happiness, health and peace, and again, we send our thanks to all of you.
Stuart Himmelfarb
President
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Peter Wang
Chair of the Board
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