The Jewish Chronicle


The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.
The newspaper is published every Friday providing news, opinion pieces, social, cultural and sports reports, as well as editorials and a spectrum of readers' opinions on the letter page. The news section of its website is updated several times a day.
In February 2020, it announced plans to merge with the Jewish News but, in April 2020, entered voluntary liquidation and was acquired from the liquidators by a private consortium of political insiders, broadcasters and bankers.

History

19th century

The Jewish Chronicle first appeared on 12 November 1841. Its first editors were D. Meldola and M. Angel. It was issued as a weekly until May 1842, when it was suspended. From October 1844, it resumed as a fortnightly, with Joseph Mitchell as its editor. In 1847, it became again a weekly newspaper. A. Benisch, who became the proprietor and editor in 1855, bequeathed the paper to the Anglo-Jewish Association in 1878, who sold it to its new editor and anti-Zionist Asher I. Myers, Sydney M. Samuel and Israel David.
In 1881, the leaders of the Jewish community in London were being criticised for not campaigning against the pogroms that were taking place in the Russian Empire. Under the leadership of Francis Henry Goldsmid, the pogroms were not mentioned by the newspaper and it was only after the feminist Louisa Goldsmid gave her support following calls to arms by an anonymous writer named "Juriscontalus" and Asher Myers of The Jewish Chronicle that action was taken. Public meetings were then held across the country and Jewish and Christian leaders in Britain spoke out against the atrocities.

20th century

In December 1906, L.J. Greenberg, a successful advertising agent and English Zionist leader, contacted the Dutch banker Jacobus Kann with the object of buying The Jewish Chronicle to promote Zionism. The same month, Greenberg, together with David Wolffsohn, Joseph Cowen, Jacobus H. Kahn, and Leopold Kessler, bought the shares. Greenberg himself became its editor.
At the time, The JC gained a near monopoly in the Jewish press, taking over its principal competitors, The Hebrew Observer and The Jewish World. Only in October 1919, did The JC get a strong opposing voice from The Jewish Guardian, paper of the League of British Jews, which counterbalanced the Zionist views of The JC, until it disappeared in 1931. After Greenberg died the same year, The JC remained moderately pro-Zionist under the leadership of Leopold Kessler.
The weekly newspaper The Jewish World was taken over in 1913. It published articles by various Zionist leaders, as well as early non-Jewish pro-Zionists. In 1934, it was merged with The Jewish Chronicle. After 1948, the paper maintained a pro-Israel attitude.
In the late 1930s, David F. Kessler became managing director to assist his chairman father Leopold Kessler, a moderate Zionist and an associate of Theodor Herzl, known as the father of the State of Israel. After service as a soldier in World War II during which his father had died, Kessler found that the editor, Ivan Greenberg, had taken a right-wing Zionist position highly critical of moderate Zionists and the British policy in Palestine. Kessler, after a struggle with the newspaper's board, sacked Greenberg and installed a moderate editor.
By the early 1960s, the Kessler family owned 80% of the newspaper's shares. To safeguard the newspaper's future, Kessler created a foundation ownership structure loosely modelled on the Scott Trust owners of The Guardian. Kessler was chairman for nearly 30 years until his death in 1999.
Joseph Finklestone wrote for the paper from 1946 to 1992 in roles including sports editor, chief sub-editor, home news editor, assistant editor, foreign editor, and diplomatic editor.
Geoffrey Paul was editor between 1977 and 1990.

21st century

Editors have included Ned Temko, 1990 to 2005, Jeff Barak, who returned to Israel, and David Rowan, 2006 to 2008, who joined The Observer. Stephen Pollard became editor in November 2008.
In 2019, after a number of years of declining circulation and a pension deficit, the reserves of its owners had been exhausted and the Press Gazette reported its situation as "facing a grave closure threat". Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, organised a consortium of 20 individuals, families and charitable trusts to make donations to The Kessler Foundation to enable its continued support of the newspaper. Alan Jacobs, founder of Jacobs Capital, became the new chairman.
In February 2020, The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News announced plans to merge, subject to raising the necessary finance to support the merger. Combined, they print more than 40,000 copies weekly. On 8 April 2020, The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News both announced their intentions to close, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Two weeks later, however, it was announced that the former could be saved by a consortium which made a bid for the publication's assets.

Editorial position

Under the ownership of Asher Myers and Israel Davis, from 1878, the paper was hostile to Zionism, in line with the official positions of the religious and lay leaders of the community. After Leopold Greenberg had taken over the paper in 1906, it became strongly Zionist and it was made into "a firm and influential champion of Zionism".
The JC supported the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the publication of which was postponed for a week in order to allow the Chronicle to publish its opinion in time. After the Declaration was issued, however, the paper became critical of Chaim Weizmann. Greenberg was discontented with the too vague definition of the Zionist goals and wanted him to state clearly that Palestine must be politically Jewish. He wanted to define the "National Home" as a Jewish Commonwealth. Although JC's support of Zionism somewhat decreased after Greenberg's death, it has consistently devoted considerable space to Israel and Zionism.
Under Leopold Greenberg, The JC was hostile to the Reform and Liberal movements in Britain. Over the years, attention shifted from Orthodoxy in Anglo-Jewry to developments in Progressive Judaism, while becoming more critical of the Orthodox position on halakhic issues.
Pollard accepts that the paper does not present a comprehensive picture of events, saying in 2009, "But don't forget who our readership is. They are interested in getting the news about Israel. It's not a biased view. We are presenting one aspect of all the news that is going on. Nobody gets all their news from the JC; we're a complementary news source."
In 2014, the editor apologised on behalf of the paper for running an advertisement by the Disasters Emergency Committee appealing for funds for humanitarian relief for Gaza. He said that he and the paper did not support the appeal and were "entirely supportive" of Operation Protective Edge. He disputed the reported number of civilian casualties and asserted that many were terrorists.
In June 2019, Pollard said "I think in the last few years there’s certainly been a huge need for the journalism that the JC does in especially looking at the anti-Semitism in the Labour party and elsewhere” and "there’s such a huge need for our proper crusading independent journalism". Kessler Foundation chair Clive Wolman said: “In the end, we and the JC Trust decided that our primary consideration had to be to preserve the editorial independence of the JC, particularly at a time when its journalists are playing such an important role in exposing anti-Semitism in British politics. In July 2019, a Jewish Chronicle editorial declared that "We want to see removed from any significant role in public life."

Notable interviews

In 1981, the publication published an interview with then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was questioned regarding the state of Israel and how Conservative policy affected the Jewish community.
In September 1999, it was the first non-Israeli newspaper to conduct an interview with Ehud Barak during his term as Prime Minister of Israel.
In December 2007, the newspaper published an interview with the Labour Party donor, David Abrahams.
In July 2013, The Jewish Chronicle hosted an audience with UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Farage was interviewed by editor Stephen Pollard, and took questions from the audience.

Lawsuits, rulings and criticism

In 1968, The Jewish Chronicle accused Labour MP Christopher Mayhew of making antisemitic comments on a television programme. Mayhew sued for libel, arguing that his comments were anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. He received a public apology in the High Court.
In 2009, a peace activist accepted £30,000 damages and an apology from the paper over false claims that he had harboured two suicide bombers.
In May 2012, Dr Othman Moqbel, Dr Hussein Nagi and Mr Mohamad Yousef of Human Appeal International received an apology and substantial damages from The Jewish Chronicle following articles published in February of that year in the newspaper and on its website, suggesting that Human Appeal International, a British charity, had been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government and had diverted donations to fund terror and to support the families of suicide bombers. An apology was published in the newspaper on 31 May and on its website on 30 May.
In August 2015, dozens of prominent Jewish activists signed an open letter criticising the paper for what they viewed as its "character assassination" of Corbyn. They wrote: "Your assertion that your attack on Jeremy Corbyn is supported by 'the vast majority of British Jews' is without foundation. We do not accept that you speak on behalf of progressive Jews in this country. You speak only for Jews who support Israel, right or wrong." They continued, "There is something deeply unpleasant and dishonest about your McCarthyite guilt by association technique. Jeremy Corbyn's parliamentary record over 32 years has consistently opposed all racism including antisemitism." Signatories to the letter included Laurence Dreyfus, Selma James, Miriam Margolyes, Ilan Pappé, Michael Rosen and Avi Shlaim.
In August 2017, The Jewish Chronicle published a ruling by The Independent Press Standards Organisation that an article it had published earlier that year about a court case was in breach of the Editors' Code of Practice by identifying family members of the defendant. The Judge did not accept the defences of The Jewish Chronicle that the family members were prominent members of the community or that the family had been referenced in the proceedings, albeit without identifying individual members.
In February 2018, The Jewish Chronicle falsely reported that Mike Sivier, a blogger and Labour Party member, was a holocaust denier. IPSO upheld a complaint by Mr Sivier that the newspaper had misrepresented online comments he had made.
In April 2019, The Jewish Chronicle published a ruling by IPSO that articles it had published on May 2017 and April 2018 about an author critical of Zionism contained inaccuracies regarding venue denial activity by Jewish organisations and the author's views on the relationship between Zionism and Nazi Germany and that it had failed to issue a timely correction. The Jewish Chronicle said that they had relied on comments made by the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
In August 2019, Interpal received an apology and damages of £50,000 after The Jewish Chronicle implied that the charity had links to terrorist activity. On 23 August, the paper published the apology in full, together with an article by Ibrahim Hewitt, chair of trustees of Interpal.
In November 2019, The Jewish Chronicle published a ruling by IPSO that it had breached Clause 1 of the Editors’ Code of Practice in relation to a number of claims over four articles about a Labour member published in February and March 2019. IPSO also expressed significant concerns about the newspaper's handling of this complaint in that it had failed repeatedly to answer questions put to it by IPSO and considered that the publication's conduct during IPSO's investigation was unacceptable. In February 2020, The Jewish Chronicle acknowledged that they had made untrue and distressing allegations, for which they apologised, and agreed to pay damages and legal costs.
In December 2019, The Jewish Chronicle published an article by Melanie Phillips which asserted that Islamophobia was a bogus term which provided cover for antisemites. The Board of Deputies of British Jews described its publication as an error, and editor Stephen Pollard acknowledged that "A number of people within the Jewish community, and friends of the community, have expressed their dismay – and anger – at its content."

Publication data and finances

The average weekly circulation in 2018 was 20,141, of which 7,298 were free copies, down from 32,875 in 2008.
The newspaper's website includes paid-for searchable archives of all editions from the first issue to the present, making it valuable for Anglo-Jewish genealogists and historians. The website was launched in 2000 and has won three successive Weekly Newspaper on the Web awards. It was relaunched in 2008.
In 2018 the newspaper had a loss of about £1.5 million on operating costs of about £4.9 million, following losses in the previous two years. The reserves of its owners since 1984, the charity The Kessler Foundation, had been exhausted and they planned to introduce revenue and cost measures to reduce losses. According to the editor, the paper had been facing the "real threat" of having to close.
In 2019, a consortium of 20 individuals, families and charitable trusts made donations to The Kessler Foundation so it could continue to support the newspaper. The identities of the members of the consortium were not disclosed. The fundraising was led by Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council.
In February 2020, The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News announced plans to merge. Two months later, however, they simultaneously announced a voluntary liquidation, citing the impact of the coronavirus epidemic.
In April 2020, The Jewish Chronicle was acquired from the liquidators by a private consortium of political insiders, broadcasters and bankers, including John Woodcock, John Ware and Jonathan Kandel. The other members of the consortium acquiring the Chronicle are biographer William Shawcross, Rabbi Jonathan Hughes, broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti, Investec’s corporate and institutional banking chief operating officer Robert Swerling, managing partner at EMK Capital Mark Joseph and Tom Boltman, head of strategic initiatives at Kovrr.

Chief editors