Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service that primarily covers Judaism- and Jewish-related topics and news. Described as the "Associated Press of the Jewish media", JTA serves Jewish and non-Jewish newspapers and press around the world as a syndication partner. Founded in 1917, it is world Jewry's oldest and most widely-read wire service.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was founded in The Hague, Netherlands, as the first Jewish news agency and wire service, then known as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau on February 6, 1917, by 25-year old Jacob Landau. Its mandate was to collect and disseminate news affecting the Jewish communities around the world, especially from the European World War I fronts. In 1919, it moved to London, under its current name.

In 1922, the JTA moved its global headquarters to New York City. By 1925, over 400 newspapers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, subscribed to the JTA.

In November 1937, the Gestapo (the secret police of Nazi Germany) closed JTA's Berlin bureau, charging it with "endangering public safety and order."

In 1940, the JTA spawned the Overseas News Agency (ONA). Although designed to appear like a normal news agency, it was in fact secretly funded by the British intelligence service MI6. ONA provided press credentials to British spies, and planted fake news stories in US newspapers. Meyer Levin was a war correspondent in Europe during World War II, representing the Overseas News Agency and the JTA.

Its cable service improved the quality and range of Jewish periodicals. Today, it has correspondents in Washington, DC, Jerusalem, Moscow, and 30 other cities in North and South America, Israel, Europe, Africa, and Australia. The JTA is committed to covering news of interest to the Jewish community with journalistic detachment.

As of 2014, JTA had a budget of $2 million.

In 2015, the news service merged with Jewish education website MyJewishLearning to create 70 Faces Media, the largest Jewish media group in North America. MyJewishLearning was founded in 2003 and hosted more than 5,000 articles about Jewish life history, culture, and education.