About 145 years after its establishment in 1875, The Jewish Week is terminating its print edition on July 31, according to a message from its recently appointed Editor in Chief Andrew Silow-Carroll and Kai Falkenberg, President of the Board of Directors of Jewish Week Media Group.
Falkenberg, who is married to a former US Secret Service agent, and Silow-Carroll, who lives in Teaneck, NJ, told the paper’s 155,000 readers “it is no secret that the media and the Jewish publishing landscape have shifted drastically in recent years,” and that the move from print to strictly online “offers opportunities for engagement, flexibility and information-sharing that can’t be matched by print products, even daily ones.”
“Starting in August, the weekly print edition of The Jewish Week will go on hiatus,” Silow-Carroll and Falkenberg told their readership, which has to be one of the saddest euphemisms yet for passing away. Granny went on hiatus, Billy, she’ll send postcards. Hiatus comes from the Latin hiatus, meaning “gaping.” And so, before our eyes, 145 years of Jewish newspapers in America go gaping into the sun. Andy and Kai have to put a happy face on this tombstone, but I don’t. I’ll miss The Jewish Week in print on Shabbat mornings.
Some people I know and love in the paper have also been sent on hiatus, and my heart is with them. The world of Jewish publishing should be a ride in Disneyland: a haunted house where the walls keep pressing in and the floor is creaking open.
Andy and Kai wrote the following note, which you can’t read without imagining those paintings of tearful toddlers managing a brave smile in the pouring rain: “We’re asking you, as loyal readers, to be more proactive in accessing and sharing the wealth of content available on our website. Subscribe to our newsletters. Times change, technology evolves, but our relationship with our readers remains the heart of The Jewish Week enterprise.”
I wish them great success, and may there always be print Jewish newspapers and fresh fish for Shabbat.
