Paper’s Demise Saddens Area’s Jewish Community
The Jewish community of Central Massachusetts is saying farewell to the Jewish Chronicle, its source of news for nearly 90 years.
“It's very sad because, for those of us who go way back in the community, we remember the Civic Leader (which predated the Chronicle and was later combined with it) and how important of a role it played in basically helping create a community,” said Bernie Rotman, a Jewish activist from Worcester who is also vice president at Rotman's Furniture. “There is something that's going to be lacking, I think, in terms of a bond.”
Although it maintained a circulation of 5,000, Philip T. Davis, publisher of parent company Mar-Len Publications, which also publishes The Fifty Plus Advocate monthly and the annual Elder Care Resource Guide, said the Chronicle recently lost major advertisers.
Davis said the paper hadn't made money for a long time.
“There has been sadness and blaming the Internet,” he said. “But you can't stop progress.”
The Jewish Chronicle's roots trace back to 1926, when five businessmen started The Jewish Civic Leader. One became sole owner in 1927, selling it to Jeda Corp. in 1978. Mar-Len launched the Jewish Chronicle in 1976 and bought the Leader four years later, combining the papers. It went from bi-weekly to monthly publication several years ago and was free at synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the region.
“It will be missed,” said Howard Borer, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. “We looked to it for local news about people in the community, about upcoming events. It was a source for national and international news.”
The news wasn't a surprise because of financial strains on the newspaper industry as a whole, compounded with the decline of the city's Jewish population.
Borer said there are about 6,500 Jews in the city and another 6,500 in surrounding communities. He said many Jewish businesses in Worcester were industrial, but owners moved out of state and their children didn't take over the family businesses.
“There are very few Jewish businesses in Worcester now,” Borer said.
J. Robert Seder, partner at Seder & Chandler LLP in Worcester, said he believes as society has evolved, so has the need for ethnic-specific publications and their value to businesses.
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