'Jpost, NY Post are natural partners'

'Jpost New York edition' launching next week; 48-pg. tabloid to be sold with 'NY Post' from June 14.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, NEW YORK
jpost ny edition 248.88 (photo credit: Richard Lee)
jpost ny edition 248.88
(photo credit: Richard Lee)
A diverse, dynamic mix of 150-plus Jewish leaders, business figures, media personalities and celebrities gathered in New York last week for a party to mark next week's launch of The Jerusalem Post's New York Edition. The new 48-page tabloid will be carried in 105,000 copies of the New York Post each Sunday, starting June 14. Guests at the event, held at Manhattan's Chiam restaurant, praised the venture as a "natural partnership" that will enable New Yorkers to better understand Israel and deepen their connection to it. There was warm applause when Ira Ellenthal, the publisher and coordinator of advertising for the New York Edition, praised Les Goodstein, senior vice president of News Corporation, which owns the New York Post, and Eyal Golan, managing director of Mirkaei Tikshoret, which owns The Jerusalem Post, for bringing the arrangement to fruition. Also present were Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League; Michael Miller, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council; Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding; and Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a WABC radio talk show host, said he had been to Israel many times and founded a chapter of his organization there. Other talk show personalities and journalists in attendance were Flo Anthony, Mitchell Fink and Fox's John Gibson. Israeli actress Meital Dohan, best known for her role in Showtime's hit series Weeds, was there too, as was former Miss America, Suzette Charles, who said her daughter had recently celebrated her bat mitzva in Israel. Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz described the introduction of the New York Edition as "one of those 'of course' moments: Of course The Jerusalem Post should be available in New York," he said, noting that The Jerusalem Post has been published daily for 76 years for the relatively small English-language readership in the Holy Land, "while here, in New York, is the largest group of English speakers on the planet - Jews and non-Jews alike - who care passionately about Israel and want to know everything about Israel from a source they can trust." He went on: "And of course our partner in this venture should be the New York Post - the newspaper that's already so widely read by precisely this audience, a newspaper already so committed to Israel and to Israel's well-being." The Jerusalem Post New York Edition will initially be inserted in 105,000 copies of the Sunday New York Post that are sold in designated neighborhoods of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The New York tabloid will also handle the pre-press and printing of the newspaper at its state-of-the-art facility in the Bronx. As a Sunday publication, the newspaper will have a strong week-in-review orientation, as well as contain the latest news and feature material from Israel, the region and the Diaspora. A central aim, say the new paper's editors, is to give New Yorkers a sense of Israel in all its diversity: the security, diplomacy and political issues, as well as the medical breakthroughs, the high-tech innovations, the arts and archeology that foreign publications covering Israel report less frequently. The Jerusalem Post New York Edition, being edited in Jerusalem by Lawrence Rifkin, will also include reports and features unique to New York, highlighting the city's vibrant Jewish community life, the key personalities, the hot spots, cultural trends and much more. New York Post representatives have also expressed excitement about the alliance, noting that they expect the weekly appearance of The Jerusalem Post New York Edition to impact positively on current Sunday readers and on new ones who will buy the newspaper for its new Israeli addition.