About Us
This Web site is owned and operated by j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California.
J. is a weekly newspaper that traces its history back to 1896. Today the newspaper serves nearly 20,000 homes throughout Northern California. Our publication was the first weekly Jewish newspaper to launch a Web site in 1995, and it included all the stories that appear every week in the printed edition. Today our Web site still provides all our weekly issues for free, along with blogs, videos, photo galleries and more.
Below is more information about j., its mission and its history.
Mission
The mission of j. the Jewish news weekly, and the Corporation is:
2. To be a forum for news, information, ideas and opinions affecting Jews locally, nationally and internationally.
3. To enrich the cultural, religious and social life of the community through articles, interviews, reviews and features.
History
J. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California was born Sept. 19, 2003, but its predecessors go back more than 100 years.
One of the oldest Jewish publications in America, we began publishing Nov. 22, 1895, as the Emanu-El. The Emanu-El cost 10 cents an issue, and a year’s subscription was $2. In 1906, the year of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the Rosh Hashanah issue featured the ruins of Temple Emanu-El, rising from the rubble.
On May 13, 1932, Emanu-El and another Jewish newspaper, which competed with it for a short time — the Jewish Journal — merged, creating a consolidated newspaper that included both names.
Editor Sol Silverman, in a front-page editorial titled “A Message,” stated the paper’s mission: “To advance the dignity, solidarity and significance of the Jewish people.”
On Jan. 4, 1946, following another merger, the paper was renamed the Jewish Community Bulletin, but “consolidated with Emanu-El” was printed underneath the new name, in smaller type, in honor of its heritage.
Coming shortly after the end of World War II, an unsigned editorial, titled, “A Pledge,” lays out the Jewish Community Bulletin’s functions:
- To defend unfalteringly the ideals of American democracy and to fight for the preservation of the American way of life.
- To present accurately and without bias the changing scenes in Jewish life — locally, nationally, and internationally.
- To interpret the news informatively, revealing its implications and its trends.
- To report fairly and impartially the activities of all Jewish organizations and to this end to open its columns freely to them.
- To strengthen Jewish morale and to serve as a medium for the exchange of views and ideas.
With a format resembling a broadsheet newspaper, and dispatches from Washington and Tel Aviv, the Jewish Community Bulletin covered the tumultuous events leading to and following the founding of the State of Israel.
On March 30, 1979, the top story in the renamed San Francisco Jewish Bulletin (“Covering greater San Francisco, Marin County and the Peninsula”) was “We’ve Got A Treaty!” — trumpeting the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.
Five years later, on Jan. 27, 1984, the paper was called the Northern California Jewish Bulletin when it announced the appointment of Marc S. Klein as editor and publisher.
Another important milestone was the July 28, 1995, announcement of the first online edition, making the (slightly renamed) Jewish Bulletin of Northern California the first Jewish weekly newspaper to be available in its entirety on the Web.
In our last issue of the Jewish Bulletin, on Sept. 12, 2003, we announced that the following week, our publication would become j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California — the same, only better.
In September 2011, Marc Klein stepped down. Nora Contini became publisher, after 25 years as associate publisher, and Sue Fishkoff was hired as editor.
j. Now
j. covers the full range of what it means to be Jewish today — from politics to the arts, religion and food, as well as spirituality, life-cycle events and our, local, national and global community.
j. emphasizes well-written feature stories by our talented staff writers. If you'd like to know more about our staff, click here.
We augment our staff-written content with contributions from skilled, seasoned freelancers.
We strive to fill j. with the diverse voices — religious and secular — that characterize our vibrant local Jewish community, to engage the reader in the kind of lively debate that enriches and defines Jewish life.
We invite you to explore our Web site in depth, but our print edition is a must to get a real feel for our magazine. It’s available at newsstands, Jewish community centers, synagogues and by subscription — which is how nearly 20,000 households get j. every week.
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