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To dontchalish: You heard from “a chashuva person in the name of Reb Yaakov.” Interesting that no one ever hears these kinds of remarks from the rabbonim themselves, only from an unnamed “chashuva person.” If you describe the Jewish Press as “a piece of pig wrapped in a mezuzah” (and there’s no indication anywhere that Reb Yaakov said any such thing), you’re including in that description such Jewish Press columnists as Rav Dovid Goldwasser, Rav Moshe Meir Weiss, Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi BenZion Schaeffer, Rabbi Rafael Grunfeld, Rav Avigdor Miller (the Jewish Press carries columns based on his writings), Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis and a whole host of other rabbis, Torah scholars and kiruv activists from across the Orthodox spectrum. So be careful with what you say if you believe one is not supposed to cast aspersions on Torah scholars.
Actually, the Jewish Press did not endorse Carter in ’76. They endorsed neither candidate, saying something like Ford had not earned the endorsement because his policies vis-a-vis Israel were problematic and Carter was unknown. The endorsements of Clinton were somewhat unusual in that they were more of a vote of no confidence in his opponents — in ’92 Bush I had proven himself cool to Israel at best, and Baker had made his anti-Jewish remark, while in ’96 Bob Dole had a mixed record on Israel, waxing hot and cold throughout his Senate career. By the way the Jewish Press endorsed Lou Lehrman over Cuomo in ’82. In ’86 and ’90, Cuomo, who had established a strong relationship with the frum community, was running against very weak Republican candidates who had a hard time drumming up support from even hard core Republicans.
Medziner, your statements about endorsements are simply not true. Prior to endorsing Clinton in ’92, the Jewish Press endorsed Nixon in ’72, Reagan in ’80 and ’84, and the first Bush in ’88. And the paper endorsed Giuliani for mayor in ’89 (when he lost to Dinkins) as well as in ’93 and ’97, well before Rabbi Klass’s passing. The paper also endorsed Al D’Amato for Senate in ’80, ’86, ’92 and ’98 (when he lost to Schumer). And it endorsed Pataki for governor in ’98 and 2002.
The remarks here indicate that people either haven’t read the Jewish Press in a long time or just have an agenda. I keep an eye on ethnic/religious periodicals for a major public relations company, so I’m quite familiar with the Jewish Press in terms of the paper’s content and its inner workings. The paper’s endorsements of Clinton were an exception to the rule; they regularly endorse Republicans for president. And they have plenty of right-wing/yeshivish columnists. By the way, they have never had Krauthammer as a regular columnist, though they did run an interview with him a couple months ago. So again, a false comment. As to the charge that most of the content is paid, meaning that people pay to put it in the paper, that also is totally false. If you make a charge like that, you should back it up with specifics. Since most of the paper’s content is comprised of news stories from Israel from wire services like JTA and INN and the Jewish Press’s own website in Israel, as well as columns by various academics and rabbis, the notion that most of that content is paid is absurd as well as a lie. Finally, the story about the bathroom has been circulating since the 1970s, attributed to various rabbis. Its veracity has never been proved; the comment above that someone from the Klass family supposedly verified it is not accurate — as avhaben writes, the family member merely confirmed that he heard it in school. That’s not the same thing as verifying the truth of the comment.