First issue November 2010 Country United States Language English | Company Ami Magazine Based in Brooklyn, New York | |
Publisher Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter | ||
Ami (Hebrew: עמי, "My people") is a news magazine that caters to the Orthodox Jewish community. It is published weekly in New York and Israel. The magazine was launched by the husband-wife team of Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter and Rechy Frankfurter, former editors at Mishpacha. Since its debut in November 2010, it has become one of the three leading magazines in the New York City Orthodox community, alongside Mishpacha and Binah.
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Coverage
Ami has featured interviews with Republican political figures such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and George Pataki. Ami also featured reporting from inside the United States Supreme Court during the announcement of the "Obamacare" ruling.
Ami's political correspondant, Jake Turx (a pseudonym), became the magazine's first member of the White House press corps with the start of the Donald Trump administration. During a February 16, 2017 press briefing, Turx began asking a question about the government's response to antisemitic threats across the United States, but was stopped in mid-question by Trump, who felt he was being personally attacked and denied being antisemitic or racist.
The publication will occasionally address provocative issues, such as child abuse in the Orthodox community and religious vigilantism. A January 2012 cover story on antisemitism had photoshopped the White House draped with swastika flags while stormtroopers marched across the South Lawn. That issue drew harsh criticism from readers and elicited public and print apologies by the publisher. Ami was censured by Satmar rabbis in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn after the magazine published a piece about extremism gaining leverage in the Edah HaChareidis organization; Ami later published a retraction.
Ami has presented controversial readings of Talmudic texts that push the boundaries of Orthodox interpretation. In one issue, the editor asserted that one of the Rabbis in the Talmud suffered from mental illness and was in need of a form of "existential psychotherapy" administered by Rabbi Yochanan.
In April 2014, Ami reported that the Quebec-based Lev Tahor cult was being "persecuted," and that its leader Shlomo Helbrans was "an impressive talmid chacham and has a thirst for knowledge." As a result of the backlash from readers, community leaders and former members on the article, the magazine published a clarification in the following edition. "It should be noted that defending people's fundamental rights is by no means an endorsement of their way of life. For example one may be highly critical of some of Lev Tahor's teachings or dress code while at the same time insisting that they be treated humanely, pursuant to the dictates of both Torah and common law."
Ami also produces a women's magazine called Ami Living, and a tween magazine called Aim!. The magazine adheres to a strict interpretation of Tzniut that prohibits photographs of women on its pages and website.