Jewish Telegraphic Agency


The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency and wire service serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world, with about 70 syndication clients listed on its web site.

Mission

The JTA is a not-for-profit corporation governed by an independent board of directors. It claims no allegiance to any specific branch of Judaism or political viewpoint. "We respect the many Jewish and Israel advocacy organizations out there, but JTA has a different mission — to provide readers and clients with balanced and dependable reporting", wrote JTA editor-in-chief and CEO and publisher Ami Eden. He gave the example of the JTA's coverage of the Mavi Marmara activist ship.
JTA is an affiliate of 70 Faces Media, a Jewish media company. Other sites under the 70 Faces Media company include Kveller, Alma, and Nosher.

History

The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news affecting the Jewish communities around the world, especially from the European war fronts. In 1919, it moved to London, under its current name.
In 1922, the JTA moved its headquarters to New York City. By 1925, over 400 newspapers subscribed to the JTA. Its cable service improved the quality and range of Jewish periodicals. Today, it has correspondents in Washington, DC, Jerusalem, Moscow and 30 other cities in North and South America, Israel, Europe, Africa and Australia. The JTA is committed to covering news of interest to the Jewish community with journalistic detachment.
In 1940, the JTA spawned the Overseas News Agency. Although designed to appear like a normal news agency, it was in fact secretly funded by the British intelligence service MI6. ONA provided press credentials to British spies and planted fake news stories in US newspapers.
In 2015, the news service merged with the site MyJewishLearning to create 70 Faces Media.

Staff