New Beginnings

This is Volume One, Number One of The Orange County Jewish Journal.

The Orange County Jewish Journal, like its sister weekly, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, is an independent nonprofit publication. Our mission is to provide the entire O.C. Jewish community with fresh and vital information that will enable members to participate fully in Jewish communal life.

This issue features 20 pages of news, information, opinion and analysis focusing on the estimated 60,000 Jews who live in Orange County. As we add subscribers and advertisers, we will, of course, add pages.

We hope this paper eventually will evolve into a weekly publication. We will distribute it only through subscription, though for the first two issues we will mail The Orange County Jewish Journal free of charge to people on the Jewish Federation of Orange County’s mailing list.

Our goal is to gather important news and present it in a fair, accurate and, we hope, engaging way. We aim to fill the same vital functions newspapers do in all communities: inform and enlighten our readers, ask important and even challenging questions of our leaders and institutions, provide a forum for opinion and analysis and offer a countywide bulletin board.

We don’t undertake this effort lightly. Already, many veteran O.C. Jewish community observers have warned us that our chances of succeeding where other publications have failed are slim. Why even start a Jewish Journal in Orange County, they ask. For them, we have a one-word answer: connection.

Connection is one of the most valuable benefits a Jewish paper can offer. This isn’t a fact of Jewish life in 2002, it’s a fact of Jewish history. One of the first institutions Jewish communities of any size anywhere in the world have established is a newspaper. Consider this: By 1765, every colony except Delaware and New Jersey had one or more Jewish papers.

Unlike in previous decades, they no longer needed to “Americanize” new immigrants. Rather, the goal is to maintain a broad sense of community and to be honest purveyors of the news.

In a community like Orange County — 60,000 Jews spread out over 33 cities, 800 square miles and 24 congregations — that function may be more difficult, but it’s even more important. As our cover story demonstrates, in troubled times such as these, coming together as a community is more important than ever. For centuries, one place where Jews have traditionally and reliably “come together” is in the pages of their community newspaper.

Can we succeed? I think so. Over the past 16 years, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles has become a community mainstay. It is, according to the Los Angeles Times, “an influential weekly,” the winner of 10 prestigious national Rockower Awards in 2001 alone. Reading The Journal is the Jewish activity more L.A. Jews do each week above all others.

In Orange County, too, we want to provide that kind of connection. Our promise is to strive to be fair and accurate and to provide a level playing field for all articulate and insightful opinions.

All we ask of you is that you allow us into your homes, synagogues and businesses. We ask that you contribute your opinions, your ideas, your stories. We want to share your celebrations, achievements and activities with us. Below you will find out how: How to join us, how to stay in touch with us and, most importantly, how to stay connected to one another.