Jewish Telegraphic Agency
U.S. center, Jewish community-focused
Background
JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, in The Hague, Netherlands, by 25-year-old journalist Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau, making it the world's oldest Jewish news wire service. It relocated to New York in 1921 and quickly became the dominant conduit for Jewish communal news globally; by 1925 more than 400 newspapers subscribed to its bulletins. The Nazi regime shut its Berlin bureau in November 1937 for 'endangering public safety,' illustrating its early role covering Jewish persecution. A 1963 reorganization moved ownership to a nonprofit foundation — the American Jewish News Foundation — removing it from private control. In 2015, JTA merged with Kveller and MyJewishLearning to form the nonprofit umbrella 70 Faces Media, which now operates six Jewish digital publications. Funding shifted over the decades from Jewish federation block grants to a broader base of foundations, federations, and individual donors. Independent bias assessors (Media Bias/Fact Check, AllSides, Ground News) consistently rate JTA at or near center, though critics from anti-Zionist perspectives argue it reflects mainstream pro-Israel communal assumptions.
Sources
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency — Wikipedia
- About the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
- JTA History
- 70 Faces Media — Wikipedia
- Charity Navigator — 70 Faces Media
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency Bias and Credibility — Media Bias/Fact Check
- JTA Media Bias — AllSides
- Trump administration drops demand that Penn turn over list of Jewish employees — JTA
- I served America in the fight against antisemitism. Here's why that fight is at risk. — JTA
Profile compiled 2026-07-25; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.