N.Y. Votes Federation to Phase out Long-standing Subsidy of Jewish Week

The line between federation and independent Jewish newspapers in New York may blur in the wake of a UJA-Federation decision to shakes up the philanthropy’s long-standing newspaper policy.

Under the decision approved last week by the board of the United Jewish Appeal- Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, the New York Jewish Week’s long-standing federation subsidy will be phased out over three to five years.

At the same time, the Long Island Jewish World, which, for more than a decade, has loudly attacked the federation for backing its competition, will be given the chance to compete for the subscriptions of federation donors.

Sometime after June, in what will in effect become a four-week sweeps period, the roughly 20,000 federation donors on Long Island will receive copies of both papers and the choice of which paper to receive after that. Those who do not respond will continue to receive the Jewish Week.

“It’s the first step in the program of a free marketplace for Jews to get their news,” said Jerome Lippman, publisher of the Long Island Jewish World.

For the Jewish Week, the new policy spells the prospect of losing subscribers, even as the federation reduces its payment for the 80,000 subscriptions it currently buys.

But Jewish Week board members, some of whom are also on the federation board, went along with the new policy drawn up by federation as a compromise after a federation board meeting last year revealed deep division on whether to continue the special relationship with the Jewish Week.

“The Jewish Week was created by federation leaders in the early 1980s as a not- for-profit corporation, for the specific purpose of getting out its message to the Jewish community,” said Jewish Week board member and counsel Perry Galler.

The weakening of the bond with the Jewish Week will therefore ultimately hurt the federation in getting its message across, he said.

Despite these misgivings, the Jewish Week did not fight the policy at the federation board meeting out of a desire “to keep shalom,” peace, in the community, said Galler.

But whether the decision will bring peace to the federation, which was exposed to increasing collateral damage as the long-feuding Jewish newspaper war heated up this past year, is another question.

Besides the Jewish Week and the Jewish World, New York has two other Jewish weeklies competing for subscribers – the Jewish Press and the Forward – as well as the Jewish Sentinel, which is distributed for free.

And the exclusion of the Jewish Press and the Forward from the new policy, according to one dissenting federation board member, casts doubt on the federation’s stated desire to “move forward” from the controversy.

Tom Tisch, who headed a federation committee whose recommendations on the issue to establish a “level playing field” for the newspapers were shelved, predicted that the federation “will have to continually deal with it through damage control,” until the issue is resolved “in a truly principled manner.”

Tisch was one of two federation board members to vote against the proposal.

The Jewish Press, for its part, is carrying on the battle by announcing it will no longer accept advertisements – or press releases – from the federation.

“They are supporting a paper that is in outright competition with the other papers,” said Sholom Klass, publisher of the Jewish Press. “So how an you help an organization that is behind a newspaper that is in competition with you?”