Type Weekly newspaper Editor Stephen Pollard Language English | Format Tabloid Founded 1841 | |
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Owner(s) Kessler Foundation (UK) | ||
The Jewish Chronicle (The JC) is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.
Contents
- History
- Publication data and readership figures
- Editorial position
- Interviews
- Libel lawsuits
- Chief editors
- References
The newspaper is published every Friday (except on days which are Jewish holidays, when it appears earlier in the week) providing news, views, social, cultural and sports reports, as well as editorials and a spectrum of readers' opinions on the letter page. It is independent and owned by the Kessler Foundation (UK), a charitable trust in the United Kingdom which has overall control of the newspaper and its assets.
History
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. The late Francis Henry Goldsmid's leadership was missed by the Chronicle 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.
Publication data and readership figures
The average number of copies sold per week is estimated to be in the region of 32,000 (accurate as of June 2010). 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.
The JC sponsors the Jewish Sunday league system in London, known as the Maccabi Football League.
Editorial position
The newspaper has been seen as "a firm and influential champion of Zionism". In 2014 the paper published an advertisement for the Disasters Emergency Committee's Gaza appeal, for which it received complaints from a significant number of readers. The editor issued an apology for the publication of the advert, stating that the paper's position was supportive of Operation Protective Edge, and that he did not accept the generally published figures on the number of civilian casualties, believing many were terrorists. The editorial stated that "Almost alone in the British media the JC has stressed Israel's right to defend herself and sought to explain why Israel was faced with no choice but to take action in Gaza."
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.
Libel lawsuits
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 2012 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.