Cohler-Esses to Become Editor at The Forward

My friend and once-in-a-while journalistic collaborator, Larry Cohler-Esses, has just accepted the number 2 job of assistant managing editor at The Forward. He’ll be leaving Jewish Week and starting his new position on December 1st.  This is part of the changing of the guard at the Forward, which involved J.J. Goldberg stepping down recently to be replaced by Jane Eisner.

Larry is one of the truly great Jewish investigative reporters (there aren’t many).  Unlike the writing of most Jewish journalists, his stories are deeply sourced and reported.  He probes the big issues and doesn’t pull punches as so many do (take that, JTA!).

This is a wonderful promotion for Larry.  And it will make a good newspaper even better.

To be perfectly candid, I criticize The Forward along with other Jewish publications when their journalism is lacking.  The former isn’t perfect.  In fact, sometimes it drives me around the bend (a case in point is its acceptance of Republican Jewish Coalition anti-Obama smear ads).  But despite this, The Forward is one of the best national Jewish papers.  And Larry will make it even better I expect.

So mazel tov, Larry. You deserve it.