{"id":48409,"date":"2026-02-13T01:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48409"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:57:40","slug":"chronicle-of-a-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/chronicle-of-a-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of a community"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past and future of Jewish journalism were on the agenda when Cynthia Ramsay addressed the Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia, Jan. 27.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a Zoom presentation that was part of the alliance\u2019s Empowerment Series, the publisher of the Jewish Independent<\/i> spoke on the history of the newspaper and discussed the future of Jewish newspapers in general and the Independent<\/i> in particular.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Ramsay spoke about the history and future of the Jewish Independent at the Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia Empowerment session Jan. 27. (photo by Karen Ginsberg)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the paper celebrated its 95th anniversary last year, Ramsay said it could be a century old, depending on how one begins the count.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Vancouver Jewish Bulletin<\/i> was published in 1925, printed by Dr. J.I. Gorosh and this was succeeded by a mimeographed newsletter produced by the Jewish Community Centre and dubbed the Jewish Centre News<\/i>. The name Jewish Western Bulletin<\/i> dates to the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Publishing transitioned to the Jewish Community Council of Greater Vancouver, a forerunner of today\u2019s Jewish Federation, though it appears to have evolved a degree of independence under publisher Abraham Arnold, who took the helm in 1949, in conjunction with his wife Bertha.<\/p>\n

The newspaper became formally separate from other institutions a decade or so after Sam and Mona Kaplan took over in 1960.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kaplans were very much committed to advocacy journalism, Ramsay said, most notably advocating freedom for Soviet Jewry.<\/p>\n

The Kaplans ran the paper for 35 years and, after a period when it was contracted to an American Jewish media chain, it was sold to Ramsay and two partners, Kyle Berger and Pat Johnson. The latter two later left the business but Ramsay says she is happy that they remain friends and that Johnson is on the editorial board and still writes for the paper (including this story).<\/p>\n

The new leadership brought fresh policies, including accepting notices of interfaith and same-gender weddings, as well as coverage of a broader range of topics that were previously considered off limits. The paper opened up to a wider range of opinions, including on Israel.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Ramsay renamed the paper the Jewish Independent<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI changed it because I didn\u2019t think Bulletin<\/i> really said \u2018newspaper,\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201cWe got rid of the word \u2018western\u2019 also. By that point we were online \u2026 and it wasn\u2019t just people from BC who were reading it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper walks a line between supporting the community and providing a critical eye where necessary, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are concerns that should be played out in public, but then there\u2019s others that really should be dealt with privately,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a gossip rag and we\u2019re also not sensationalist or alarmist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t ignore the bad stuff that goes on in our community or in the world, but we do try to cover stories in a way that doesn\u2019t depress or paralyze,\u201d said Ramsay, quoting from an article she wrote in the paper\u2019s anniversary issue last May. \u201cWe want, rather, to open the door for solutions and at least positive attempts at change. We don\u2019t want you to put down the paper in despair, but rather [consider] what you can do to contribute to making the world a better place.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Above all, she said, the paper tries to provide a record of the community, a role it has played for most of a century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
The first issue of the Jewish Western Bulletin, Oct. 9, 1930.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Jewish Western Bulletin<\/i>, the Jewish Independent<\/i>, has been the only consistent historical record of the community since 1930,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow, of course, we miss a lot of stuff,\u201d she acknowledged. \u201cWe have a very small staff. We have a limited number of pages every issue, we\u2019re not going to cover everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

She provided an insider view of how the paper operates in terms of the amount of advertising determining the size of each issue, and how decisions are made about what is covered in each issue and on what page things appear.<\/p>\n

The pandemic was deeply challenging to the economic viability of the paper, said Ramsay, and it was at that time that the publishing schedule shifted to twice monthly from weekly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
The Jan. 23, 2026, issue of the Jewish Independent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Independent<\/i> has survived when other Jewish newspapers in Canada and across North America have not, she noted, even including Federation-owned publications that have gone under in some cities. She wants the paper to reach 100 and she also has her own retirement in mind, tentatively at age 60.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 56,\u201d she said, noting that almost 30 of those years have been devoted to the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m already starting to think about succession plans,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of got a five-year window at this point where I\u2019m looking and wanting to responsibly pass over [the paper].\u201d<\/p>\n

Innovation could make the publication more sustainable, perhaps a monthly format, she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, she takes pride in her achievements and the longer history of the paper\u2019s contributions to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve been a great success, not just because we\u2019re 96 years old, but \u2026 [almost] every year we\u2019ve won an American Jewish Press Association Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, mostly for our editorials, but occasionally for other articles,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>she said.<\/p>\n

The Jewish Seniors Alliance session was opened by Jeff Moss, the organization\u2019s executive director. Fran Goldberg introduced Ramsay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past and future of Jewish journalism were on the agenda when Cynthia Ramsay addressed the Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia, Jan. 27.\u00a0 In a Zoom presentation that was part of the alliance\u2019s Empowerment Series, the publisher of the Jewish Independent spoke on the history of the newspaper and discussed the future of Jewish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4242,1276,19687,2406,129,24326],"class_list":["post-48409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-history","tag-jewish-independent","tag-jewish-journalism","tag-jewish-seniors-alliance","tag-jewish-western-bulletin","tag-jsabc"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}