There is no dearth of reading material for the Jewish community, newspapers and magazines are readily available and here is my take on them. I am sure I left some out, but these are the one’s I have looked at or read on a regular basis. Do you have anything else to add?
Yated
The Yated is the yeshvish paper of choice it has the readers write section, in which Lakewood kollel wives complain about women wearing crocs to shul, the visiting day crisis (see explanation below) and how to solve the shidduch crisis by telling girls to stay in the freezer (Lakewood yeshiva policy for not letting guys date after they come home from Israel) just like guys.
The only other interesting feature in the Yated for someone who doesn’t want to read cut and pasted week old AP and Reuters articles is the Chinuch Round table – someone asks a question (sometimes juicy) and a bunch of Rabbis from different institutions answer it. Every Rabbi says the same exact thing and there is no diversity within the group. One week there was a question concerning this family who invites over yeshiva rebels to get them back on track but they have two teenage girls and they scared of the influence – it had the most sexual undertones I have ever seen in a yeshivish publication – but most of the time it has to do with whether or not girls should be taught aleph bais, because that may lead them to want to learn gemara.
The Jewish Week
Then you have the Jewish Week, which is trying to be a Jewish version of the New York times, well thought out articles by academics bashing anything religious or right wing, at least one article per issue about a crisis in Africa which has no Jewish appeal and items that are constantly telling us how philanthropic liberal Jews are even though they rarely give to Jewish organizations.
Hamodia
The Hamodia is actually a real paper, of course its all right wing, doesn’t have pictures of women and is full of ads for kishke and kugel makers – but its a daily paper and people love it, it has absolutely nothing of interest to me, but for folks who can’t tune in to Fox news daily because their TV is behind the mirror in their bedroom it works.
The Jewish Press
The Jewish Press is famous for being the only paper in which their is an ongoing halachic debate whether you can bring it in to the bathroom or take it out of the bathroom. It also has several pseudonyms, The Jewish Mess, The Jewish Prust, etc…and for one reason or another – probably because they have the most diverse roster of writers, is hated by many in the more black hat community.
The Jewish Press has articles from Lubavitchers, secular Jews and frummies and modern orthodox. It happens to be that the Jewish Press has some controversial stuff that is not appropriate for little Ruchie fresh out of seminary. The Chronicles of Crisis in which many of the issues dealt with are swept under the rug on a regular basis is part of the Family Matters section which could be pulled out of the paper for censoring.
While they may be slightly left wing, compared to other orthodox papers, but they are still right wing by journalistic standards, for instance in their chronicles of crisis articles they like to write about frum women who discover one day after 30 years of marriage that their husband is gay – but they don’t call it gay – they call it SSA “same sex attraction” which I think was taken out of the DSM in 1960 or something. The articles viewing frum men who look at porn as diseased addicts are also quite funny.
The Jewish Press also has something that I am surprised more papers don’t have, and that is articles dealing with shidduchim and the so called shidduch crisis. You would think, if there was really a shidduch crisis facing the frum community, more Jewish publications would devote more space to it. Esther Jungreis and Shmuely Boteach love writing about it and at the back of the Press they have the shidduch page which has a male/female response to questions about shomer negiah, saying no after the first date and telling the guy you can’t send him your picture because you haven’t photo shopped it enough yet.
There are loads of local Jewish weeklies and I don’t know of them all, but maybe you can enlighten me with what they spew.
The Five Towns Jewish Times (FTJT)
The Five Towns Jewish Times it seems is devoted to advertising, its kind of like one of those countless free zines with ads for tichel washing – but in a more large print format. Every other advertisement is for an overpriced yeshiva dinner or a raffle in which you can win a dream kitchen or fully stocked beis medrish. I was published in the paper, but I still like the Jewish Star better.
The Jewish Star
The Jewish Star is the other five towns Jewish paper, reading it makes you draw the comparison between it and the FTJT in that the Jewish Star is way more mature and an actual newspaper, whereas the FTJT is just an advertisement ladden NY Post style paper. Not that either of them are that interesting, but if you want news, that’s what its about.
My favorite ads in Jewish newspapers are the ones for New Yeshivas opening up – seems that different programs for off the derech kids open every day. I love how they try to be all politically correct with phrases like “do you want your child to receive the attention they deserve?” Which really means that they have drug tests and wont let the kids out at night.
The Texas Jewish Post
In Dallas they had the Texas Jewish Post which was really an overpriced undervalued edition of the Jewish Week, it was tiny, colorful and had nothing of interest to anyone besides for Texas Jewish Community Center directors – so they could know who to hit up for money.
Mishpacha Magazine
Mishpahcha magazine is the only Charedi magazine, and its actually pretty good. I really like their articles about great Rabbis that passed away or on their yirtzeits. The magazine caters to women it seems, and once in a while they go a little risque and talk about the shidduch crisis or judging within the frum community – but most of the time it is Rebbe stories and how to make sushi for your next vort, or how to wash and set your sheitle.
Heeb
I bought Heeb magazine once and it was great, it was before I started writing and entered the Jewish literati world. The Beastie Boys were on the cover, they had an ad for kosher butt lube and a picture of a ketuba for same sex couples, but the next time I saw the magazine it had degenerated into an elitist hipster rag of kitschy Jewish things like glow in the dark dreidles and too many bagel and Jewish mother guilt articles.
Lifestyles Magazine
Lifestyles Magazine has got to be one of the most ridiculous magazines I have ever seen. Basically one thick magazine full of maserati, rolex and personal jet ads with picture after picture of cocktail party attendees with lifted faces smiling because they just gave away a million dollars to some Jewish environmental fund. Its really pathetic, and its like $8 an issue.
New Voices, Jvibe and Presentense
These are the low budget versions of Heeb for college students who use the term Jew-ish. I enjoy all three of them, but am waiting for my subscriptions so I can find out more.
Periodicals I don’t read and therefore can’t throw forth my two cents:
Moment and The Forward – two world class publications which I would love to write for someday. Other than that I know nothing.
The visiting day crisis: The Readers Write section of the Yated erupted with chaos last year when one reader brought up the visiting day crisis, how something deteriorated into a crisis so fast boggled my mind but based on the letters it seems that anything that bothers anyone in Lakewood or Boro Park becomes a crisis.
With that said the so called visiting day crisis revolved around the fact that parents couldn’t afford the costs of visiting day. You have to give tips, drive up and then take the kids to Woodbourne to fatten them up and buy them nosh. I recall visiting day as going for a hike with my dad. But I guess parents have lost the concept of not spoiling their children and turned it into a crisis instead.
I hope to continue this with a satirical critique of Jewish news websites for there are many…and possibly a more in depth look at the types of advertisements in Jewish news papers.
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I would say the Baltimore Jewish Times is the most laughable. It was so amazing that they published a lot of gutsy expose`s on abuse. But they are still a joke as they have ads for treif seafood joints a page a way from torah discussions. Jeez, i know you are trying to be diverse but come on, you get no credibility after that.
Mr Grandfather reads The Forward, it is basically a leftist Jewish (secular) Weekly Newspaper
There’s another frum magazine for women called Binah. They also have a children’s supplement called Binah Bunch.
Best one that wasnt mentioned here is The Jewish Exponent. This Philadelphia Jewish weekly has huge ads prior to Yom Kippur advertising for “Seafood Buffets for your Yom Kippur Celebration” None of these ads contain anything that is remotely kosher or cooked by Jewish people (Kosher style food in philly means that the owner is jewish and there is 20 mexicans in the kitchen cooking the food, I sometimes think that maybe somewhere down in Puerto Rico or Tijuana there is some hispanic person who teaches everyone how to cook kosher/kosher style food)
You refer to the Yated news section as “cut and pasted week old AP and Reuters articles”. But actually the Yated performs a valuable service here by removing objectionable content, making the news stories suitable for frum consumption. For example, one Yated article described a report released by executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. The article carefully omitted the name of the firm (it just quoted John Challenger), so their readers’ delicate sensibilities would not be offended by reading the word “Christmas”.
@anon for this:
Hilarious!
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@Sheindy
Spam much??
Quite thorough and accurate, Heshy!
Another way to compare the Jewish newspapers is by looking at the quality, amount, & frequency of comics offered in its pages (where applicable).
I write “where applicable” because most Jewish newspapers don’t bother to include any comics in their pages.
Hamodia is one of the papers that has carried a comic strip (in color, yet!). The Journeys comic strip was collected into a book published by Mahrwood Press – http://www.mahrwoodpress.com
As an aside, I should point out that Hamodia is the only Jewish newspaper that contauns “Ham” in the title. Nonetheless, it is a kosher publication.
The Jewish Press has had a wealth of comic strips in its pages over the years, many of them by the wonderful team of Speilman and Fine (most notably the golem and Maharal comic strips).
The Forward doesn’t always have a comic strip or cartoon in its issues, but when it does, they’re quite excellent, as they use the most famous and talented cartoonists – Art Spiegelman (syndication of In the Shadow of No Towers – in color!), Ben Katchor (syndication of his book The Jew of New York, as well as Julius Knipl and other comic strips), Leela Corman (partial syndication of her forthcoming book Unterzakhn) and Eli Valley’s 1-page satirical editorial cartoons.
Great post. Some observations.
Yated was teh first teh put in color centerfolds of pictures of various Rabbis at events. The Roundtable was almost banned at the recent Torh Mesorah convention, too open-minded, give the Yated credit for carrying this hugely popular column.
Hamodia is just plain holier than thou articles about Yehsiva dinners.
Mishpacha is a class act. You arent being fair enough.They have totally upped the ante for orthopubs, introducing depth to the writing. They also feature the best writers the wider commutnity has, and are risque enough to tackle real issues. They put David Pelcovitz, the abuse guru on the cover.
Jewish Week manages to fnd one charedi bash story a week, which ensures that all charedim buy it hoping for some good loshon hara that their own pubs cant give them.
Liefstyle is very passe. Bernie Madoff types month after month.
I only read some of these occasionally. In general, I never buy any newspapers, they are always hand me downs.
Mishpacha: Probably the one I read most, as one of my friends gives me the copies once he’s done. Probably the most journalistic, but have some stupid policies, such as when they photoshopped Laura Bush out of a picture of Chanuka at the white house because she’s a woman.
Hamodia + yated: My heimish brother in law reads them, I find them way too heimish. Full of pics and articles about “rebbelach” no one ever heard of unless you live within a 2 mile radius.
Jewish Press: Haven’t read since back in the days when Rabin and arafat were negotiating with Clinton. It was all doomsday back then, I’m sure it hasn’t changed much. I dubbed it the Jewish depress.
Canadian Jewish news: Mix of center leftwing articles, sprinkled with an occasional right wing opinion from a Rabbi and a French page for Sephardim. Totally boring and extremely gay if you ask me (not in the homo sense). My parents are somehow still subscribed, I don’t think they read it either.
PS.
Be real careful about taking some of these into the bathroom. The less religious ones often print hashem’s name, happened to me reading RJ (reformed judaism) once, they had an ad for a necklace with y-h-v-h- in hebrew.
Mishpacha makes an effort to remove them, but misses some once in a while.
Other thing is, you can’t read divrei Torah in there either. As many of these publications tend to carry Torah thoughts, and sometimes mix a story about a particular rebbe with some of his teachings, be aware of where you are reading each article.
No one comes close to Mishpacha in terms of professionalism, though they are a little too charedi in outlook for my taste.
Yated has something very ‘readable’ about it. Kind of New York Post appeal
Heshy I am amazed at your ability to come up with genuinely amazing content day after day – as a failed blogger I know how hard it is to write even once a week.
This post is great – although you should have written about the Baltimore Jewish Times and their crusade against child molesters in the frum community.
RE anon for this – read your paragraph out loud to yourself and tell me what you just said – censoring news for consumption is a very dangerous business.
Heshy, you are the king of satire!
Is there a chance “anon for this” was was being satirical?
Mishpacha has some interesting content, but their journalistic standards aren’t very high. They ran an article a few months ago about whiskey, arguing that you shouldn’t drink it without a hashgacha, because it’s often made with alcohol from grapes. And that Irish whiskey always contains wine!
They need some people actually checking these “facts.”
Speaking of reading material.I know a website called frumsatire.com.It’s a rather strange read.A modern twist on jewish comedy.More power to ya Hesh!!!
Phil: The Jewish Press has changed a lot since the Clinton-Arafat days. The writing is much better, the articles and columns more diverse, and the editorials, while politically right-wing, are on the whole well argued and not at all extreme. It’s basically the only modern orthodox-religious zionist publication left in the orthodox community.
What the heck is with that columnist arnold fine. (besides for him recycling the same articles for the past 10 years). I can’t stand people who bash technology and how spoiled the ‘new’ generation is. the way he writes he makes it sound like he was around during world war 1. awww is the cell phone too obnoxious for you? Can’t stand digital tv? He acts as if he doesnt use any of this stuff. What a moron.
Arnold Fine is a very well decorated WW11 veteran.If not for people like him putting their lives on the line and beatin the shit out of Nazi Germany you’d be talking German and Hitler would be president of Germany(fromally America)and you would be a slave to the third reich and the new world order.
Stan,
I wouldn’t know, I don’t know anyone that reads it, so I don’t get any hand me downs. Anyway, whether or not the articles were well written wasn’t why I found it depressing. It was the constant coverage of what the arabs and politicians were planning and saying that got on my nerves. Same goes for J post, Arutz Sheva, etc. Who gives a s**t what they say? God’s watching over us no matter what these criminals plan.
Find something exciting to write about. At least with Mishpacha, articles are interesting and they generally tend to stay away from the same old story over and over again.
How about Der Yid and Der Algemeiner Journal?
Hesh, how could you have spennt all that time in Monsey and not mention the Community Links?
The first time I saw a hamodia newspaper I found a fatal error: there was a picture of the cherry trees around the tidal basin in d.c. and the caption was something along the lines of “the cherry trees are in full bloom in front of the Washington Monument.”
If the picture on the top fold can’t get a proper caption (it was in front of the Jefferson Memorial), I have no urge to open the paper and read the rest of the useless unedited and uneducated drivel found within.
I’ll stick to my goyish, anti-semitic, obama loving papers.
Arnold Fine’s column is one of the few things I still read in the JP.
Hesh – you forgot to mention the hot Chani Sheitel ads in the Jewish Press. They’re the best!
Ah, Der Forvertz (The Forward in Yiddish). Historically, they were a Yiddish language newspaper for Jewish Social Democrats. To this day they have leftist leanings. My Zeide, who was a freelance Yiddish humorist whose articles appeared in many Yiddish papers, tried working for The Forward, but didn’t last very long. Basically, he was born a Gerrer Chossid, but then when he moved to America became a ‘Snag, and eventually became one of the first musmachim of Chofetz Chaim in Villiamsboig. As a bunch of secular lefties, the people at Der Forvertz didn’t take kindly to my Zeide the frum Rabbi.
One thing that Der Forvertz was known for was its “Bintel Brief” (‘lots of letters’, currently “The Bintel Blog”), which was the first advice column devoted to new Jewish immigrants. This was at a time when America was seeing a huge influx of Jewish immigrants, and many of them were completely lost. The Bintel Brief had all kinds of people writing in asking for all kinds of advice. The letters were usually answered by the editor himself, Abraham Cahan.
@Leah, my Zeide used to write for Der Yid. They’re Satmar, if I remember correctly. He was never much for Satmars to begin with, but a job was a job. He was basically their correspondent for secular stuff. Like every issue would have an article by him about science, technology, politics, medicine, and whatever else he felt like writing about. One thing I remember is that he was banned from discussing any Yiddishkeit in his articles because he was a ‘Snag. The Satmars didn’t want any of his Misnagdish views in their newspapers; so, for example, if he was discussing some medical treatment, and someone found evidence that Shlomo HaMelech may have been aware of this cure, they would NOT let him mention that in his article.
You forgot to mention Country Yossi and Esra magazine for woman.
Or how about this- (from VIN news, today) “It deals with such issues as drug abuse, cigarette smoking, the prohibition of gazing upon women, reading newspapers, AS WELL AS BIBLICALLY PROHIBITED AUTO-STIMULATORY PRACTICE.
WTF!?
auto-stimulatory? is that like revving an engine? lol. I like the Star, but I have only read it online. Team Beery/PresenTense/Reboot Stereophonic (are they still around) do some cool stuff. If I bought one, I’d probably buy the JW, but I was raised with both JP and JW. And Olomeinu and The Moshiach Times. I don’t think Olomeinu is still in print.
Those who had the displeasure of attending Ner Israel Toronto in the 1990s will fondly recall a Thursday night mussar shmooze given by the late Rosh Yeshiva, when he went off on a rant about the Canadian Jewish News.
“It’s not Canadian, it’s not Jewish, and it’s not news!” he thundered from the podium, leaving a generation of students wondering why a community publication printed in Canada featuring local Jewish news and opinions was not Canadian, Jewish or News.
In fact, the real misnomer belongs to the publication sent out by Agudah of Toronto, called Perspectives. ‘Perspectives’ would imply that more than one perspective is offered, but as Heshy pointed out with respect to Yated, “Every Rabbi says the same exact thing, and there is no diversity within the group.”
Perspectives indeed!
Hesh,
You have to order a subscription to a magazine you wrote for?
I intend to pen a post sometime next week detailing all the different ads found in Jewish Newspapers and magazines including the hot channie sheitle ads and yeshiva dinners and can anyone tell me why Mishpacha magazine has so many ads for pills and drugs?
You forgot the community magazine in brooklyn, for sfardim. With the shaatra files and ask Sito. Messiah revealed is also in there.
Since you mentioned Heeb, I should point out that they have had great full-page color comics in their pages from such talented folks as Harvey Pekar, Neil Kleid, Bob Fingerman, Joe Infurnari, Adam Mutterperl & Evan Dorkin.
s(b), for more on auto-stimulation , see the alleged cause for the deaths of David Carradine (star of “Kung Fu” and Bill from “Kill Bill”) and Michael Hutchenese of INXS.
Olameinu, I think I had a subscription to that when I was in 3-4th grade. I also once had one for Tzivos Hashem, which was a Lubavitch publication for kids.
ghottistyx, I think I know more than I want to know about it just from what you wrote — and there’s no excuse for someone so well-trained in martial arts to die of that, so I’m a bit skeptical about Carradine. The act itself, though I’ve never tried it, is not my cup of tea.
I was down with Tzivos Hashem when I was a little girl; I though Moshiach times was related, but I also remember getting a newsprint publication in the mail with mitzvah missions in it and stuff. Do you have a blog, btw?
It’s like you’re spying on me… I just posted about this in my Yahoo group for women…
I suppose I’ll have to borrow from you, now.
(C)harm (C)ity & yid are correct about my post; it was intended as satire. On a more serious note, while censoring the news for consumption may be “dangerous business”, it is also the main reason many people read publications such as the Yated: to avoid any “objectionable” content. That’s why its motto is “the newspaper that belongs in your home”.
Personally I prefer to read my news without the bizarre quips & jokes that the Yated adds to its news articles. I get most of my news from the Wall Street Journal; while I often disagree with their editorial stance, their news coverage is more comprehensive than many print publications, & not biased.
I think every community is bound by some unspoken rule to have a “[community name] Jewish Week,” which is an eclectic mix of Jewish articles and treif ads. The Washington Jewish Week sounds similar to the others described in the comments. . . articles about a new hachnosos sefer torah as well as ads for treif resturaunts and clubs.
Phil – you’re right about the Canadian Jewish News. Good coverage on Israel, but very little else. It completely ignores anything Orthodox!
The paper looks as though it last underwent a makeover in 1975!
Heshy,
When you read the Forward, you can tell right away its commitment to taking a progressive/liberal angle to a story. It shines a light on scandals in the community, includes academic voices as well as bloggers in its analysis.
At the same time, it sometimes comes off as anti-Orthodox. Its online edition has a good Bintel Blog, which aggregates existing stories in the Jewish blogosphere.
You should also add JPost to your list. Many American Jews read it and write to it. Unlike many Israeli papers, it has opinions from across the political and religious spectrum.
Hey s(b), I find it hard to believe as well, but his ex-wives have confirmed that he was into freaky stuff. He will be missed.
I got a blog on myspace that I haven’t updated in a long time. There was a time when I’d have daily musings on it, but that’s several years gone. Nowadays, I mostly put up a poem or story if I’m proud of it. My latest project, especially, is The Complete Existentialist’s Guide to Jewish Folklore or Fractured Hassidic Tales. Much as I’ve swayed OTD, I still love a good story, and my project is taking some popular Jewish tales and giving them an existentialist spin. If you’re interested, my myspace name is ghottistyx as well. Just go to my page and there should be a blog there.
In my neck of the woods the only thing is “Jewish Times Asia”. It has short articles about things happening all over the East and some stuff about Israel, but the real focus seems to be Hong Kong. Most of the ads seem to be for diamond merchants.
Phil, I like how occassionally the CJN has a ‘dvar torah’, as though trying to appeal to the frum audience.
In the back they always have some interesting story about a Canadian Jewish sports star, and that’s the only thing I read.
Steven: you missed out ’shikufitzsky’ (recently ’shikufitzky street’), the comic in Mishpacha junior.
The Moshiach Times used to have ’super-neshama’ back in the day, but ‘the shpy’ by Mad magazine’s Al Jaffee keeps me reading it.
Personally, I used to get the Jewish Press, but as someone wrote above, it should be ‘the Jewish Depress’. I’ve started buying Hamodia, which is only behind the Jewish Press in discussing controversal topics and in their comics. Otherwise, they seem to have the ONLY frum crossword puzzles, the best humorist in their magazine (Mordechai Schmutter), and best of all, my Dad and I prepare for Shabbos by adding captions to all their pictures. They always use the most expressionable ones!
Hey,
Great post.
I just wanted to disagree about the chinuch round table and the letters to the editor in the Yated.
I think it is great that readers have a chance to speak their minds and other readers can respond. It is just as telling how inane MANY of the letters actually are. Sometimes the letters actually start great hashkafic discussions. This is an incredible opportunity for “non-bloggers” to interact.
Also, the round table is not the same viewpoint every week. I should know, my father is one of the “knights” of the round table. There are Rabbis on there with whom he rarely agrees.
In fact my father has gotten responses from readers disagreeing with him as well.
This is also great. The Yated gives the narrow minded Jew the opportunity to broaden their horizons and see more points of view.
Chris,
Diamond merchants… LOL! That is SOOOOOOOOOO Jewish.
Also,
I love Readers write. I miss it now that I have a subscription to Hamodia and I’m not buying Yated anymore.
re Q’s comment about Irish whiskey and mishpacha
according to the London Beth Din (which most definitely checks its facts)
“Irish Whiskey should only be consumed if it has a
Hechsher or has been Rabbinically approved.” they then list the approved ones. (update June 2008)
and the reason is because by law it may contain alchol distilled from wine
Mishpacha,
Certain Alcohols are known to contain only one source, for example single malt or 100% agave tequila (my favorite). After extensive research with different hechsheirim and distillers, I found some interesting ideas as well as conflicting rules of what’s allowed and what isn’t.
Here are some examples:
1) All clear (blanco) tequila is considered kosher. This ruling doesn’t take into account that most of the popular cheaper brands of tequila such as Sauza & Cuervo are actually “mixtos”. The Mexican govt allows manufacturers to use 49% of alcohol from non agave an still call it tequila, provided it isn’t labeled as 100% pure agave. How is this kosher without certification?
By contrast, they claim that reposado and anejo (aged, yellow) tequila needs a hecsher because companies might use additives such as glycerin or caramel in the process. I contacted the companies myself, and found some that certify that only pure agave is used in the entire process from start to end. This should be enough, seeing as we trust soft drink manufacturers such as Coke and Pepsi even though we nobody knows what their secret ingredients are.
As for sinlge malt, while our local vaad claims that anything aged in sherry or port casks is no good, their mashgiach allowed a case of Glefiddich 15 clearly marled “aged in sherry casks” om the label. I tokk this to our Rav, he said it was no problem at all, citing some ruling from R Moshe Feinstein.
Each hechsher has their own ideas and lists. After a while, the lists got too complicated to maintain with constant changes, so the MK (Montreal Kosher) website just pasted to CRC’s list and removed their own.
Correction. The Shpy isn’t written by Al Jaffee, it’s only illustrated by him.
In fact, the first time I came across a copy of MAD, I assumed it must be kosher despite the legs and cleavage, because it had both Jaffee and Dave Berg as artistic contributors…