NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Forward, America’s most influential Jewish weekly newspaper, is relaunching the Jewish Daily Forward online at Forward.com. The redesigned and expanded website provides fresh news, features, arts coverage and opinion every weekday, in addition to the blogs on arts, food, popular culture and women’s issues and the podcasts and videos that readers have come to expect and enjoy. The Forward’s content offerings also have been expanded to include:
- “Forward Thinking,” a new blog where Forward editors will discuss and analyze the most important Jewish news of the day – and other stories from a Jewish perspective.
- “The Yiddish Scene,” a new online content channel, in English, focusing on Yiddish culture and translating the best new articles and essays from the Yiddish Forverts.
- New columnists in print and online, including Eric Alterman, Deborah Lipstadt and David Hazony.
“The new Jewish Daily Forward website completes a transformation that has been underway in our newsroom for several years, as we’ve moved from being a print-only newspaper with a website to a fully integrated news organization in print and online,” said Jane Eisner, editor of the Forward. "The new Forward.com is designed for readers to come to our site every day to receive the latest news and fresh content in the Forward's well-written, analytical style. The Forward will still produce a dynamic and relevant weekly print edition, but the new website is a response to the change in today’s media landscape, making it a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Jewish story.”
Samuel Norich, publisher of the Forward said, “Many Jewish websites offer some news, opinion, arts and culture, but none can come close to the breadth and depth of coverage that a fully staffed newspaper, with a wealth of tradition and experience can provide. The new Forward.com epitomizes our unique role and value as the only truly independent Jewish newspaper in the United States, unaffiliated with any branch of Judaism, unbeholden to any religious or communal authority, and free from bias or conflicts of interest. It is the natural evolution of a paper that started in the 19th Century as a daily Yiddish paper, evolved in the 20th Century into weekly English and Yiddish newspapers, and now in the 21st Century is embracing the potential of digital media channels to be a more accessible and more immediate news source, appealing to Jews and to a broader community.”
With this initiative, the new Jewish Daily Forward online will feature a new blog “Forward Thinking,” a place for timely analysis of the news and sharp meditations about the issues and trends facing the world, served up by a talented group of editors in an environment that invites lively exchange. Featured on the blog will be editor Jane Eisner, opinion editor Gal Beckerman, and editor-at-large J.J. Goldberg, whose insightful, individual blog will be folded into “Forward Thinking.” In addition, Goldberg will continue to write his popular, weekly column and Beckerman will add his own monthly commentary to the newspaper.
Also joining Forward.com will be three new columnists who will write regularly for Forward.com. They include:
- Eric Alterman is a distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Alterman will be moving his column from Moment magazine to Forward.com. He is also "The Liberal Media" columnist for The Nation and a fellow of The Nation Institute, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., where he writes and edits the "Think Again" column, and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute. He most recently won a “Mirror Award” for excellence in media industry reporting from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.
- David Hazony is a writer based in Jerusalem, whose writings have appeared in Commentary, the New Republic, the New York Sun, Policy Review, the Jerusalem Post, and other publications. From 2004-2007, Hazony served as editor in chief of Azure, the quarterly journal of Jewish public thought published by the Shalem Center. Currently a frequent contributor to Commentary’s “Contentions,” blog, Hazony will now bring his conservative perspective to a monthly column on Forward.com.
- Deborah E. Lipstadt is a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University and the author of “The Eichmann Trial,” published in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Eichmann trial.
The new site will also feature “The Yiddish Scene,” showcasing all of the Forward's Yiddish-related content and the best of the Yiddish language newspaper, both in English and in Yiddish. In doing so it creates a bridge between the English Forward and Yiddish Forverts’ websites, and provides an easily accessible spot for English readers to read about Yiddish and Yiddish culture, regardless of their Yiddish fluency. In addition, it provides a window onto the rich offerings published each week by the Forverts.
For more information, please visit http://www.forward.com
About The Forward:
The Forward, published weekly since 1990 with online content added daily to http://www.forward.com, is widely regarded as American Jewry's essential, independent newspaper. The English language weekly grew out of the legendary Yiddish language newspaper, Jewish Daily Forward, founded in 1897. The Forward is committed to rigorous reporting and balanced, thoughtful commentary on news, politics, arts and culture in the Jewish world. Headquartered in New York, the newspaper is owned by the Forward Association, Inc., a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3 organization. It is published on Fridays and is available by subscription and on newsstands in selected cities nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.forward.com.