Elisa Spungen Bildner, as the new head of the JTA, says she’s committed to doing whatever she can to help print newspapers.
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January 1, 2009
Elisa Spungen Bildner of Montclair, a philanthropist and former journalist, has been appointed president of the board of directors of JTA, the international Jewish news service.
Spungen Bildner herself issued the announcement this week of her November appointment, combining it with an appeal for year-end financial contributions to the agency. She succeeds Daniel J. Krifcher, a dot-com executive in Washington, who is now chairing the board.
The 90-year-old organization, formerly the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, is a not-for-profit providing news, photos, and opinion pieces to over 100 Jewish community newspapers, including NJ Jewish News. It also maintains a well-trafficked website.
In an interview with NJJN following the announcement, Spungen Bildner acknowledged that she is taking over the reins at a particularly difficult time both for Jewish institutions in general and newspapers in particular.
“What with the economic decline and the Madoff business, money has just dried up. What’s going to happen to Jewish nonprofits, whether it’s the federations or JTA or our sister and brother charities is an open question,” she said.
She emphasized that her commitment is to the “core business of JTA — providing information for newspapers as well as serving people who read JTA on-line.”
The challenge, she said, is going to be to help “hard-copy” publications survive.
“People accept the idea of paying for print media, but they regard on-line material as a free commodity, and the media organizations haven’t yet figured out very well how to charge for it,” she said.
The issue is an urgent one for JTA, given that the agency is funded primarily by the print publications that subscribe to its service and by donations.
“I come out of the newspaper business and I love nothing more than to hold a newspaper in my hands,” Spungen Bildner said. “I read the Jewish News and three daily papers from cover to cover, and I’d be in dire straits if they disappeared.”
She said her four children — who range in age from 15 to 25 — “are all news junkies but they do much of their reading on-line, like all their cohort do. Are print papers going to survive with the next generation? I’d need a crystal ball to answer that, but I’m committed to doing whatever we can to help them.”
Spungen Bildner and her husband, Robert, president of RLB Food Distributors in West Caldwell, are cofounders of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. In addition to the JTA, she serves on the boards of six other organizations and recently ended a term as chair of the Jewish Funders Network, a consortium of family foundations and independent philanthropists.
She said that her new position reflects two of her main passions: journalism — she was a reporter and editor on The Star-Ledger and taught journalism at Rutgers and New York universities — and strengthening the worldwide Jewish community.
Raised in Skokie, Ill., Spungen Bildner graduated from Yale University and went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University, where she met her husband. She attributes her early passion for philanthropy to her parents, who she said were generous with their time. Marrying into a family known for its philanthropic involvement, she said she learned of the many ways to use money for tikun olam and to develop areas of personal interest.
She is the second JTA president from New Jersey after Martin S. Fox of Newark. She is also the third woman in the position.
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