Historic Boston Area Jewish Newspaper Stops Print After 118 Years

BROOKLINE, MA — The future of a Greater Boston newspaper that billed itself as the oldest continuously published English language Jewish weekly is in question after it announced it was suspending print publication.

"The current economic environment and challenges for newspapers in general, and Jewish weeklies in particular have made it impossible to continue," reads an article in its Sept. 24 edition.

The publication was founded in Boston in 1902 by Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern political Zionism. It was among the very few newspapers to sound an alarm about German Adolf Hitler's impact on the Jewish population. Then, throughout the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s the paper was at the forefront Greater Boston's Jewish community’s social and religious issues and movements.

The news of its plans to stop print publication came with mixed responses.

"For years the Jewish Advocate was a vital source of news for the Greater Boston Jewish Community," said Brookline resident Michael Burstein, who reported for the paper for some four years until 2017.

Burstein said when he first settled in the Boston area he found the Advocate to be a valuable resource for someone new and looking for news that was relevant to the Jewish community.

"There was always a lot of good information in the paper," he told Patch. "Over the years it would change in quality. There were times when it was really excellent, there were other times when the quality dipped, but over the years, in general, it really helped create connections."

Now, citing the decline of advertising revenue, donations and readerships amid pandemic, the publisher said the paper is going on hiatus. The announcement comes as other Jewish papers have made similar announcements, it said naming seven other papers.

There is a possibility that the advocate will continue in some fashion.

"Plans are currently being developed to launch a new digital edition of the Jewish Advocate focused on advocacy, to advocate for Jews, the Jewish community and for the State of Israel, so as thereby to continue the mission envisioned by Theodor Herzl in founding the Jewish Advocate 118 years ago 'to inculcate Judaism into the community and progress the cause of the reestablishment of the Jewish faith and a Jewish state,'" the Advocate said.

Burstein said that's hopeful news.

"I find it sad that the paper is currently suspended and not able to keep going," he told Patch. " I think part of the problem is that the advocate never seemed to embrace the digital world as much as it could have."

But it's not clear how or when that will happen. A fundraiser the paper's board of directors began in August to raise $250,000 has had no donations as of Sept. 23.

"The Advocate has been part of the Boston Jewish world for as long as I can remember and I grew up here," Nomi Burstein said. "So it will be very strange to think of it not being around anymore. Even though my reading of the paper version waned, I still looked to it in the digital edition for news of the local Boston scene."

Some have less fond memories of the paper.

Former Brookline resident Daniel M. Kimmel was editor of the newspaper for a year and a half from 2014 to 2015 and describes himself as a disgruntled former employee.

"I've been saying this for years, the Boston Jewish Community could use a good Jewish newspaper, unfortunately the Advocate is not it," he told Patch.

During his time there Kimmel tried to expand the paper's editorial content to cover a wide variety of both religious and political views, he said.

"It was not easy, and my understanding is that it became even harder after I left," he said.

Kimmel said it's no wonder the Jewish newspaper, which only appealed to a narrow, conservative segment of the Jewish community and gave short shrift to other voices, lost advertising over the years.

"It misread the audience and failed to address the majority of the Jewish community," he said. "They were playing to a political conservative viewpoint and anyone who considered advertising just thought: who is my audience?"

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