From its inception, The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle has covered the diverse events of the times, from the Holocaust and Israeli-Arab wars to local celebrations such as the opening of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in 1966 and the opening of the Jewish Community Campus in 1988. Now, the articles covering those events, and so many more, are available online.
The Chronicle has launched a comprehensive digital archive, featuring every issue of The Chronicle from Jan. 2, 1920, through Jan. 6, 2022—a full 101 years of content, viewable by individual issue and page, and fully searchable.
The Chronicle digital archive is offered in partnership with the Kansas City Jewish Community Digital Archive, an independent website coming soon thanks to the efforts of three community leaders: Andrew Kaplan, Alan Edelman and Dr. Norman Kahn. The Jewish Community Digital Archive will contain content from the Jewish Community Archives of Greater Kansas City, housed at UMKC, as well as historical documents and images related to congregations, Jewish organizations and other areas of Jewish life. It also will be fully searchable.
The Chronicle digital archive is hosted by BMI Imaging Systems, the company that did the digitization, converting 90 years of the content from microfilm, and 10 years from hard copies of the newspaper.
The digital archive is the latest in a string of new digital products or features from The Chronicle since the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City assumed ownership in September 2020. Starting with a redesigned website and revived Facebook presence, Jewish Federation went on to create and launch a flipbook-style digital version of The Chronicle in April 2021, as well as an online edition in August 2021, when the newspaper fully transitioned to the current hybrid print/digital model. Since then, Federation has added the Getting To Know Jew podcast as part of the online edition of The Chronicle, plus a new Chronicle Instagram presence.
The idea is to keep The Chronicle relevant to today’s Jewish community, and to meet consumers of content where they are, offering a variety of content types across platforms, says Derek Gale, Federation vice president and chief operating officer. With the digital archive, Federation offers a further enhanced experience for Chronicle readers and members of the Kansas City Jewish community, he says.
“Sustaining and enhancing the community’s news source is part and parcel of our mission to sustain and enhance Jewish life at home and around the world,” Gale said. “Our aim continues to be to inform, educate and serve the community via The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. We are so pleased to see engagement with this product continue and strengthen through a time where we have been challenged to bring people together in ways that we used to take for granted.”