Dear Friends,
As we begin the new year, we offer this “stockholders” report on the state of The Jewish Week — its past year and future plans — to you, our readers and supporters. And we ask for your help so that we can continue to provide you with high-quality journalism, and more, in future years.
Ours is a unique role, seeking to both cover, and help build, our Jewish community. That is a delicate task, merging the tasks of outsider and insider. But we think it is vital, and well worth the effort.
We cover the community by striving to be as inclusive as possible in our outlook and reporting. And we help build community with a variety of programs and projects, including our Jewish Week Forums, presenting newsmakers and thought leaders in discussion; Write On For Israel, educating and training the next generation of advocates; Fresh Ink, promoting and disseminating online original student journalism for teens; and The Conversation, an annual retreat for leaders and emerging leaders from around the country to discuss the challenges and promise of what it means to be a Jew today.
This past year has been one of growth. We redesigned our website (www.thejewishweek.com), adding new areas of exclusive content while making the site more attractive, and easier and faster to navigate. With fresh content each day, our website expands the way we fulfill our mission to connect, enlighten and strengthen the Jewish community in New York and around the world.
This summer we acquired NYBlueprint, JerusalemBlueprint and LosAngelesBlueprint, a leading online source of information and events for single Jewish professionals in their 20s and 30s in New York, Jerusalem and Los Angeles. We plan to expand their reach in the coming year.
Last November we held a gala dinner and presented the first Jewish Week Excellence in Journalism Award to New York Times columnist David Brooks and legendary journalist, photographer and humanitarian Ruth Gruber in her centennial year. We are already planning another gala for 2013.
Today, at a moment of increasing political and denominational rifts dividing us as a people, The Jewish Week is a powerful tool in keeping Jews connected to each other, and to Jewish life.
Committed to inclusiveness and tolerance, we are the community’s Big Tent, entering homes and inviting a shared dialogue across denominations, political points of view and neighborhoods. Each week we explore the way our community thinks, acts and lives.
In the coming weeks we will launch, with pride, The Jewish Week Investigative Journalism Fund, allowing us to both deepen and broaden our reporting, strengthening the community by telling the truth — about, to and for the community. We believe that the sign of a strong and confident society is its free and robust press.
All of our efforts help connect us as a community; all of them cost money.
You can play a vital role in keeping The Jewish Week a vibrant source of news and educational activity with a tax-deductible contribution to FJC, which holds donor-advised funds for The Jewish Week (www.thejewishweek.com/support)
Support the New York Jewish Week
Our nonprofit newsroom depends on readers like you. Make a donation now to support independent Jewish journalism in New York.
So please invest in The Jewish Week now, and join us Nov. 8 at our next event, at Park East Synagogue, when we present two thought leaders, Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, and Yossi Klein Halevi, the Israeli author and journalist, in discussion on the challenges facing Israel and America.
It promises to be the kind of thoughtful, spirited discussion associated with The Jewish Week and its projects. So we ask you to continue your support, and we, in turn, renew our commitment to bring you a strong, independent voice in our community, a voice whose loyalty is to the truth, echoing the values of the prophets of old.
Thank you, and may this be a year of good health, happiness, sweetness and peace for us, and all Israel.
Shana Tova.
Sincerely,
Peter Wang, President
Billie Gold, Co-chair
Stuart Himmelfarb, Co-chair
Jewish Week Board of Directors
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
