A Bit of History

This is an anniversary of sorts for me. The first issue of The Jewish Journal was published Feb. 28,1986, which means that this newspaper and my tenure as its editor began just about 14 years ago. Not exactly a historic part of Jewish Los Angeles, but not a brash newcomer either.

When we started the paper in 1986, I harbored doubts. Most enterprises like ours were lucky to last more than two years. And, indeed, by summer of 1987, after publishing each week for one and a half years, we were broke. Not enough advertising and, moreover, we were underfinanced.

Jewish newspapers in other cities came calling. Were we for sale? They were primarily interested in acquiring The Journal at a nominal cost. All of which meant that our financial "backer," The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, would be out approximately $660,000. It was a grim scene.

A major concern was The Federation's role in our funding. Before The Journal came into being, The Jewish Federation published a weekly, The Jewish Bulletin. A committee of more than a dozen lay leaders with backing from then-Federation President Osias Goren had conducted an extensive study of The Bulletin and concluded it was not quite what they wanted. The paper was losing money, reportedly $400,000 a year, and it was a house organ. They preferred a quality, independent Jewish newspaper. Such a newspaper would better serve the community, they said.

In the end, the proposed independent Jewish community newspaper was approved by The Federation's board. Bruce Hochman, who had followed Osias Goren as president, carried out the board's mandate and oversaw the launching of The Jewish Journal.

Not everyone within The Federation agreed with the decision. There were debates; arguments; protests. Perhaps an upgraded house organ would work, was one point of view. More critically, a number of voices objected to the very idea of using Federation dollars to establish an independent Jewish newspaper. What benefit would there be for The Federation; and, beyond that, for the Jewish community? A quite legitimate set of questions.

The answers were optimistic. The Federation would receive a heavy discount both for subscriptions and advertising. It would thus serve as a way of reaching all contributors, initially perhaps at a higher cost than the subsidy for the house organ. However the end product, an independent newspaper, presumably would be widely read and respected. Beyond that, there was the hope that The Jewish Journal might serve as a way of reaching many Jews in the city; or at least "of connecting" with them.

An admirable set of suppositions. What no one had anticipated was that we would proceed in such a straight line to bankruptcy.

Enter the

Benefactors

It was at this point that a group of about 10 Jewish leaders in L.A., led by the late Ed Brennglass (our former publisher) and Stanley Hirsh (our present one) came together and purchased The Jewish Journal for $660,000. The Federation recouped its investment instantly, thereby averting a round of bitter arguments. Meanwhile, the Benefactors, as they referred to themselves, established The Journal as a non-profit, independent Jewish community newspaper. The purchase came just in time: We were able to continue publishing without a break in stride.

Part of the purchase price included the signing of a contract with The Federation that called for us to mail The Journal to all its contributors for half the regular price of the newspaper; that came to about $12.50 a year, with us bearing the cost of mailing. The other part called for significant discounts in advertising for The Federation and its agencies.

At the end of six years we registered a very modest profit. Soon thereafter we began to turn back most of our profit to The Jewish Federation. Last year that sum came to $180,000; before that $125,000; and the preceding year $250,000.

An Editor's

Perception

Of course it is not for me to pass final judgment on The Jewish Journal. I am pleased with the paper; think it has improved and continues to improve each year. The writing tends to be quite good; the stories (mostly) highly readable; the picture of a Jewish world, with its home base in Los Angeles, reasonably authoritative. There are still improvements to be made.

We have been called many things by our readers. Anti-Orthodox by some; pro-Orthodox by others; ignorant of the Orthodox world by still another contingent.

More than a few readers find us too liberal; but others feel we are too conservative. A close friend wants The Journal to be more "serious," by which he means that we should grapple in a profound way with the major issues that confront American Jewry today. He may be right in his criticism, although I fear that would turn us from a weekly newspaper into an intellectual journal. Another reader finds the paper still out of touch with the community, by which I believe he means The Federation community.

My Education

The fact is there is no single Jewish community in Los Angeles. There are many, each with a different kind of affiliation. There are religious oriented Jews; Jews primarily involved with Jewish organizations, some of whom who are not particularly observant; and Jews whose major concerns are political. There are among us many who simply want to raise and live in a Jewishly oriented family. There are those who experienced the Holocaust directly, as well as their offspring, known as The Second Generation.

There are a fair number of Israelis who live in our midst. And Russian and Iranian Jews as well. There are wealthy Jews who tend to congregate among themselves out of choice, and poor Jews thrown together more by circumstance than any voluntary act.

And, naturally, there is The Jewish Federation, the central Jewish address in town. It tries to serve those in need here and abroad; and it claims the role, in all our names, as the umbrella organization for Jewish Los Angeles. This Sunday, as you may have gathered from our cover, is Super Sunday -- the launching point for The Federation's annual fundraising drive. We support it wholeheartedly. I say that as editor of an independent newspaper, which still is not a Federation house organ.

To this day, 14 years after the founding of The Jewish Journal, there remain leaders within The Jewish Federation (not all, nor even a majority) who are somewhere between uneasy and unhappy with us. Deep down, they want to know what they are getting for their subscriptions; and want to have a say in the editorial content of The Journal. After all, they are our major subscriber. Shouldn't we behave more like a team player, meaning publish a weekly that falls somewhere between an independent newspaper and a house organ.

My argument remains the same: We try to function as a link for all our readers; try to inform and "connect" the Jews in this city. To the degree that we are independent, accurate and fair (and at times even willing to reveal dissension) we earn their trust. It is my hope that we become their voice -- even when they disagree with one another and with us. Otherwise we are a lobbyist, engaging at times in something that approximates public relations. Not a good role for a newspaper, at least not this newspaper. And, I contend, not particularly good for the Jewish community. -- Gene Lichtenstein