Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox newspaper
The Jerusalem Post is an English language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name to The Jerusalem Post. In 2004, the paper was bought by Mirkaei Tikshoret, a diversified Israeli media firm controlled by investor Eli Azur (who in 2014 also acquired the newspaper Maariv).<ref>'Maariv' Newspaper to Be Sold to Businessman Eli Azur Template:Webarchive News flash at israelnationalnews.com</ref> The Jerusalem Post is published in English. Previously, it also had a French edition.
The paper describes itself as being in the Israeli political center,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which is considered to be center-right by international standards;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> its editorial line is critical of political corruption,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and supportive of the separation of religion and state in Israel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is also a strong proponent of greater investment by the State of Israel in World Jewry and educational programs for the Jewish diaspora.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The broadsheet newspaper is published daily Sunday to Friday, except for Jewish religious holidays and Independence Day, with no edition appearing on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath). Regular opinion columnists write on subjects such as religion, foreign affairs and economics.
HistoryEdit
The first attempt to establish an English-language newspaper in Jerusalem was The Jerusalem News, established in 1919 under the auspices of the Christian Science movement, but this had no relationship to The Jerusalem Post.Template:Sfnm
The Palestine Bulletin, 1925–1932Edit
The direct journalistic ancestry of The Jerusalem Post can be traced to The Palestine Bulletin, which was founded in January 1925 by Jacob Landau of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<ref name=Birnhack>Template:Cite book</ref> It was owned by the Palestine Telegraphic Agency, which was in practice part of the JTA even though it was legally separate.<ref name=Birnhack/>
On 1 November 1931, editorship of the Bulletin was taken over by Gershon Agronsky (later Agron), a Jewish journalist who had immigrated to Palestine from the United States.<ref>Palestine Bulletin, 31 October 1931.</ref> In March 1932, a dispute arose between Landau and Agronsky, which Agronsky resolved to settle by establishing an independent newspaper.<ref name=Birnhack/> Landau and Agronsky instead came to an agreement to transform the Bulletin into a new, jointly owned newspaper.<ref name=Birnhack/> Accordingly, the Palestine Bulletin published its last issue on 30 November 1932.<ref name=Birnhack/>
The Palestine Post, 1932–1950Edit
The Palestine Post Incorporating The Palestine Bulletin appeared the following day, 1 December 1932.<ref name=Birnhack/> On 25 April 1933, the masthead was reduced to just The Palestine Post although its founding year still appeared as 1925.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It appeared on 24 August 1934<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but not in the following issue, 26 August,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or later.
During its time as The Palestine Post, the publication supported the struggle for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and openly opposed British policy restricting Jewish immigration during the Mandate period.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to one commentator, "Zionist institutions considered the newspaper one of the most effective means of exerting influence on the British authorities".<ref> Wilson, Cynthia: Attributed to Penslar D. Template:Webarchive at footnote, p. 34, Always Something New to Discover: Menahem Pressler and the Beaux Arts Trio, Paragon Publishing 2011, accessed at Google Books, 5 August 2014</ref>
1948 bombingEdit
On the evening of 1 February 1948, a stolen British police car loaded with half a ton of TNT pulled up in front of the Jerusalem office of the Palestine Post; the driver of a second car arrived a few minutes later, lit the fuse and drove off.<ref name="google1948">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The building also contained other newspaper offices, the British press censor, the Jewish settlement police, and a Haganah post with a cache of weapons. Arab leader Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni claimed responsibility for the bombing, but historian Uri Milstein reported that the bomb had been prepared by the Nazi-trained Fawzi el-Kutub, known as "the engineer", with the involvement of two British army deserters, Cpl. Peter Mersden and Capt. Eddie Brown.<ref>Uri Milstein, History of Israel's War of Independence, Vol III (English edition: University Press of America, 1997, Template:ISBN), pages 105–107.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Four people were killed in the bombing, including three Post employees.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the Palestine Post at the time, a newspaper typesetter and two people who lived in a nearby block of flats died.<ref>The Palestine Post, 5 February 1948, p3.</ref> Dozens of others were injured and the printing press was destroyed. The morning paper came out in a reduced format of two pages, printed at a small print shop nearby.<ref name="google1948"/>
The Jerusalem PostEdit
Labor movement, 1950–1989Edit
In 1950, two years after the State of Israel was declared, the paper was renamed The Jerusalem Post.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Until 1989, the paper supported the Labor Party.Template:Citation needed
Black's Hollinger, 1989–2004Edit
In 1989, the paper was purchased by Hollinger Inc., owned by Conrad Black. A number of journalists resigned from the Post after Black's takeover and founded The Jerusalem Report, a weekly magazine eventually sold to the Post. After the acquisition, the Jerusalem Post underwent a noticeable shift to the political right.<ref>"The press in Israel" Template:Webarchive BBC News, 8 May 2006</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Under editor-in-chief David Makovsky, from 1999 to 2000, the paper took a centrist position on defense, but began to reject socialism.<ref name="Judaica"/> In 2002, Hollinger hired the politically conservative Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal as editor-in-chief. David Horovitz took over as editor-in-chief on 1 October 2004.<ref name=Balint>Anat Balint, Jlem Post change of editors Template:Webarchive, Haaretz, 5 Sep. 2004</ref> From 2004 onward, editor David Horovitz moved the paper to the center.
Azur's Mirkaei TikshoretEdit
On 16 November 2004, Hollinger sold the paper to Mirkaei Tikshoret Limited, a Tel Aviv-based publisher of Israeli newspapers owned by Eli Azur. CanWest Global Communications, Canada's biggest media concern, had announced an agreement to take a 50 percent stake in The Jerusalem Post after Mirkaei bought the property, but the deal soured. The two sides went to arbitration, and CanWest lost.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2011, Horovitz was succeeded by the paper's managing editor, Steve Linde, who pledged to provide balanced coverage of the news along with views from across the political spectrum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Linde professed to maintain political moderation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Yaakov Katz, the paper's former military analyst, former adviser to former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, succeeded Linde in April 2016.<ref name=Katz /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In January 2008, the paper announced a new partnership with The Wall Street Journal, including joint marketing and exclusive publication in Israel of The Wall Street Journal Europe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Since 2012, the newspaper has held an annual conference in New York, The Jerusalem Post Conference, with the participation of senior figures in the Israeli government and the Jewish world. The conference was founded by media entrepreneur Ronen Lefler and Linde, and is currently managed by the CEO of the Jerusalem Post Group, Inbar Ashkenazi.
In 2020, the Israeli online newspaper 972 Magazine published a three-year investigation revealing that the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs had paid large sums to The Jerusalem Post to publish content against human rights movements, including a screening of a documentary produced by the ministry that sought to discredit the BDS movement. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2020, Reuters reported that The Jerusalem Post, along with Algemeiner, The Times of Israel and Arutz Sheva, had published op-eds written by non-existent people.<ref name="Reuters">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="JWeekly">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, The Daily Beast identified a network of false personas used to sneak opinion pieces aligned with UAE government policy to media outlets such as The Jerusalem Post.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Twitter suspended some of the accounts of these fake persons on its own platform.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In January 2022, The Jerusalem Post's website was hacked by pro-Iranian actors. The JPost.com website homepage was replaced with an image depicting a bullet shot from a red ring on a finger (likely in reference to the ring worn by the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani) and the caption "we are close to you where you do not think about it". The hack occurred on the second anniversary of the Assassination of Qasem Soleimani and is largely seen as a threat towards Israel.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In March 2023, Katz stepped down as editor-in-chief and was replaced by Avi Mayer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nine months later, Mayer was replaced by Zvika Klein.<ref name=zk>Template:Cite news</ref>
Products and servicesEdit
Influencer listsEdit
The Jerusalem Post has been publishing an annual list of the world's "50 most influential Jews" since 2010.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The list is released on Rosh Hashanah. In 2023, The Jerusalem Post announced the launch of a "50 most influential Jews" congress, including an awards ceremony for the honorees.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MagazinesEdit
The Jerusalem Post also publishes a monthly magazine, IVRIT, edited by Sarit Yalov. Its target audience is people learning the Hebrew language and it is described as "an easy-Hebrew" publication, meant for improving basic Hebrew reading skills. It uses the vowel notation system to make comprehension of the Hebrew abjad simpler.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Jerusalem Report, now edited by Steve Linde, is a fortnightly print and online glossy newsmagazine.
JPost.comEdit
JPost.com was launched in December 1996. Its current version also contains an ePaper version of the daily newspaper, a range of magazines and other web versions of the Group's products.
The site is an entity separate from the daily newspaper. While sharing reporters, it is managed by different teams. Its staff is based in Tel Aviv, while the newspaper offices are located in Jerusalem.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The site contains archives that go back to 1989, and the default search on the site sends users to archive listings, powered by ProQuest, where articles can be purchased.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Free blurbs of the article are available as well, and full articles are available when linked to directly from navigation within JPost.com or from a search engine.
JPost.com includes the "Premium Zone", a pay-wall protected area, containing additional Jerusalem Post articles and special features. The site, which was given a graphic facelift in September 2014, recentlyTemplate:When relaunched its mobile and tablet applications, as well as its special edition for mobile viewing.
EditorsEdit
- Gershon Agron (1932–1955)
- Ted Lurie (1955–1974)
- Lea Ben Dor (1974–1975)
- Ari Rath and Erwin Frenkel (1975–1989)
- N. David Gross (1990–1992)
- David Bar-Illan (1992–1996)
- Jeff Barak (1996–1999)
- David Makovsky (1999–2000)
- Carl Schrag (2000)
- Jeff Barak (2000–2002)
- Bret Stephens (2002–2004)
- David Horovitz (2004–2011)
- Steve Linde (2011–2016)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Yaakov Katz (2016–2023)<ref name="Katz">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Avi Mayer (2023)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Zvika Klein (2023-)<ref name=zk/>
Agron familyEdit
Gershon Agron founded the newspaper and served as its editor until he went into public service. One of his early reporters was his nephew Martin Agronsky, who later became a famous American political journalist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Agronsky left the paper after only a year.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He felt he had been hired out of nepotism and didn't like this, wanting to earn his jobs.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Agron's son Dani Agron worked for the newspaper, serving as its business manager in the 1970s,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while his wife Ethel wrote for Hadassah Magazine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Martin Agronsky's son Jonathan Agronsky became a journalist in the United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:Official website
- Template:Official website Template:In lang
- Palestine Bulletin—complete searchable contents 1925–1932
- Palestine Post—complete searchable contents 1932–1950