By COLlive reporter
Chabad’s long-time Hebrew weekly Kfar Chabad is trying to get its act together with the help of some Crown Heights residents.
The ailing magazine, which the Rebbe encouraged, has been grappling with a declining circulation and constant change of management.
In 5769 Rabbi Yisroel Brod, a fundraising expert with experience in repairing organizations, was named the new CEO.
Facing a worldwide migration of readers to free news online, Brod said then: “I’m in the industry for over 30 years and have dealt with bigger problems.”
He promised to restore the trust of the readership once he managed to balance the defaulting budget and “stop relying on donations.”
Brod held a meeting Wednesday at the Brooklyn home of real estate developer Menachem Gurevitch with potential supporters.
Among the attendees were Rabbi Gedalya Shemtov, Director of the Shluchim Office; Moshe Pinson, President of Congregation Bais Shmuel; and Dovid Rogatsky, a construction builder.
The group also included former Israelis, who grew up reading the magazine, and may feel sympathetic to its remaining in business.
COLlive Media articles:
+ ‘Farbrengen’ Gets New Look
+ A New English Haredi Weekly
+ Jerusalem Post Prints NY Edition
+ Yalda Editor Wins $100,000
+ Magazine Cuts Down, Back
+ Kfar Chabad Magazine in Debt
i see mendy edelkopf hes the best!!!!
i have many of the old copies of the uforatzto magazine and cherish them. over 30 years later i still see new publications clipping and reprinting articles and photos from it. i used to wait eagerly for each new issue and would devour ever single word. no one had and still doesn’t have, the great photographs it featured. would love to see it revived.
what a magazine that was. would love to see it again
the problem with both of the above publications is that you can’t be two things and be in two places at the same time. mixing yiddish with english/hebrew with english, does not work. as in every business undertaking, you gotta know who your pimary markets is, cater to it, keep an open mind and with a little luck (lotta luck) you’re gonna succeed. men ken tisht tantzen oif tzvay chasenes mit ain toches. PRINT IS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE. I dont know about ya all, but to me, there is just nothing like laying back on a long friday night… Read more »
however, i want to throw my 2 cents in and suggest that rivkin join with ceitlin and together create the greatest publication chabad has produced. these are two of the most talented guys and could actually pull this off. ceitlin has proven himself with collive many times over and i still remember rivkins uforatzto journal. water can flow from the same again.
Well at least they had a nice spread at their meeting. Looks like most people are there for the food…
When they dropped the fabulous English portion. They saved a few $, took away parnassa from some brilliant American Olim and lost a significant audience outside of EY. In chutz l’aretz, people read English, not Hebrew.
Why are we even bothering with this? Is this something that’s crucial in any way to Chabad? With Chabad.org and multiple other informative web sites, this is a pointless mission and deserves little to no attention. This has nothing to do with Kfar Chabad vs Bais Moshiach. Kfar Chabad is not with the times and no longer needed. Let’s face this fact and move on.
The printed media choice is clearly on the disadvantage but if you think about it unlike the NY Times or other mags any jewish printed media is still important for anyone looking to read something on shabbos since you have no access to internet published material (unless you print it out on friday) the course of action is clear you need to gear the mag marketing to the shabbos reader’s needs with extra material in the summer when shabbos is longer There is nothing you can’t cure if you throw enough money at it and lastly you must have an… Read more »
is to create a magazine that you would proudly and without any hesitation give in to the Rebbe…keeping in mind that all and everything in the magazine is on the right track…..stay focused ……Then you will have hatslocho.
mishpacha is doing great…
there seems to be this innate fascination of chest hair…i have noticed it mentioned so many times on col! and #21 couldnt agree more.mendy & the golum was brilliant.proffesional,informative and fun me and my family grew up on it.any chance of a revival?
Es is shver tzu zeyn a yid. Shverer noch tzu zeyn a halber yid.
For those who want their heads totally immersed in sand (and not face the real issues of Chabad as a derech in avoidas Hashem) – Bais Mashiach fits the bill. More, more, more, of the same.
Kfar Chabad wants to cater to those who will only bury their heads half-way. Doesn’t work.
A publication the had true freedom of expression without any ideological strangle-hold would probably succeed, although it would be difficult to keep nit-wits (onn seychel) out.
i didnt know chest hair can get you that far [on the kfar chabad board]
bring back mendy and the golem now that was a good publication
Do they really need so much mashke
it’s a magazine not Purim
u should start a mens hair removal salon so u wont be annoyed by chest hair anymore
the uforatzto journal. now that was a magazine. over 30 years ago and in english, it brought the rich history of lubavitch, its ideals and activites to more people than any magazine had ever before. it had almost as many readers back then, as kf has today. guys like meir rivkin, eli touger, daniel goldberg, fishel bronstein, vechulhu, vechulhu, made it the success that it was, until money became an issue and that was that. tzach initially foot the bill and then…could no longer do so. can only imagine how far that publication could have gone and how many more… Read more »
i agree its a chutzpah to get advice from people who have chest hair showing as well as anyone with rimless glasses. also all people with an “s” in their mothers maiden name should be excluded. they have nothing to add and should not be allowed to contribute ….. now on to people who only eat chicken ……. not making any sense???? # 3 get a life
hey. it’s called kfar chabad. it was created as with a foothold in israel.
either the geniuses in israel figure out a way to sell it to its target audience or it folds.
if you/they want to make another mag call it something else.
catering to english, america is another mag.
truth is, i guess, no one cares about kfar chabad.
bais moshiahc stil hangs on by a thread because come still care about 770.
Bitul Torah
Nice house you got here. it’s beautiful to see that u use it for good things as well. What Hachnosas Orchim!! Keep it up!
The only weekly english Chabad magazine is bais Moshiach. Any English reader, whether he is a moshicist or not, has onlu one choice if he wants to read nice stories etc. in a magazine. Kfar Chabad dousn’t cater the the massive market of the English readers, whereas Bais moshiach has both the English market AND the Hebrew market.
Personlay I would LOVE to buy a non-meshichist English magazine. But there isn’t any….
agree with #3 what a chuzpah!!!!
all these guys with chest hair sticking out
UGLY UGLY UGLY!!!!!!
plz go for a real Rebbe’s dugma chaya!!!
is this anyway. just fix up the magazine and stop wasting time on showing off!
If you would include an English section as before the sales would rise sharply
your everywhere
1) bais shmuel
2) shluchims kids
3)shluchim office
kol hakovod
the B/M mag is on track to brake a new sales record.
Ps. menachem G, was that the official chanukas habias? or your gonna make a grand one soon!!!
bais mosheach is doing well……….
wonder why
why are you bashing bais shmuel
Nothing A few Dollars cant Cure
But if they would have been more receptive to the Poshitah Chassidim, Rather than triying to appease some high eshcolans they would night have been at thsi stage
1) make an English edition as well
2) don’t ask guys with trimmed beards and chest hair sticking out
no chance for print media
old news
glad to see you helping the mag
(you know itsa hebrew mag)