Help support your little slice of Jewish Rhode Island

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Fran Ostendorf, EditorWe are part of a small network of “niche” newspapers in the United States. You might even call us exclusive. We are a Jewish newspaper. It’s in our mission statement, and it’s proudly part of our name. There’s no mistaking the readership we aim to serve.

This is your newspaper. This is where you can learn about the Rhode Island Jewish community (and that of nearby Massachusetts) and find interesting stories pertaining to national and world Judaism and Israel. Our advertising is aimed at you, and it comes from all over Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts, only limited by matters of taste and kashrut.

No one will cover our community the way the Voice does. No one else will bring to Rhode Island a Jewish perspective on local, national and world events. This is Jewish journalism, little Rhody style. But in a world of declining general newspaper readership, we face the same struggles that all newspapers do. And the Jewish press looks to find creative ways to finance itself as do all newspapers. Newspapers everywhere are looking for “new revenue streams.”

And so you see the ad for our yearly Patron Campaign on page 16 of this week’s paper.

Participating in the Patron Campaign is an important way that you can demonstrate your support for Jewish voices in our area while helping to offer an important piece of funding for The Voice. 

From the feedback I get, I know you read every issue of The Voice, even if you wait a week or two to do so. And I know you read it cover to cover. One reader tells me that his kids grab the paper first so they can look at the pictures and see if their friends are in the paper this week. Another says that she shares the paper with friends and family near and far.

We’ve recently expanded the space devoted to our community calendar because we receive so many notices from organizations, including those in nearby Massachusetts communities.

And we’ve resisted charging for obituaries because we view this as a community service to our loyal readers. Our out-of-town friends always seem surprised when I tell them that there is no cost to run an obituary in our newspaper.

Rhode Island has a proud history of supporting Jewish newspapers. And we want to keep publishing a quality paper worth you taking the time to read. But we need your help.

One way to make this happen is by contributing to the Patron Campaign. Your gift helps The Voice continue to serve as a window into Jewish Rhode Island as it has for many years.

We are grateful for the financial support of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and to our advertisers for their support. But our readers play an important role in our survival, too.

You can help keep this newspaper going with your gift to the Patron Campaign. And it also helps when you patronize an advertiser. Be sure to tell that business where you saw its ad!

As for our small staff, we are always striving to make the paper more of a community voice. We have plans to add more content that appeals to younger readers. We want to be a forum for our readers’ opinions. We are looking for new columnists to bring fresh voices to the paper. And we hope to make improvements to our web presence, too.

We take a lot of pride in this paper – and in this community. We hope you do, too. Let us hear from you with your ideas and thoughts. And we hope you will help us keep The Voice going for many years to come through the Patron Campaign. It’s an investment in Rhode Island’s Jewish future.