By COLlive reporter
“The magazine is not just about news. It was, and is, about publishing scholarly articles; in-depth investigative reports; details on Chabad institutions; historical articles; and chassidic stories. This you do not get on the Internet.”
Rabbi Moshe Marinovsky, a senior editor at the long-running Kfar Chabad magazine which is published weekly in Hebrew, gave this statement in 2013.
Now, in 2017, it appears that even this staple publication’s lengthy articles and scholarly essays will be accessible on “the internet.”
Kfar Chabad has announced on Sunday that it launched a new mobile app that will be featuring the entire content of its weekly magazine and its supplements Mishpacha Chassidit for women and Kinderlach for children.
While the magazine does not have a website, its editors decided to venture out in the digital medium to help their reach its international readership who have complained that the weekly arrives 2 weeks after its publication date.
“This app is primarily geared to our subscribers in the Diaspora, among them many Shluchim living in different corners of the world,” Kfar Chabad editor Menachem Cohen told COLlive.com.
“Many of them get the magazine after Shabbos and sometimes, after a few weeks,” he said. “We tried working with postal services but we realized we can’t rely on them to deliver in time.”
Cohen said the app will be available only to residents living outside of Israel and will also be excluding residents of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights where the magazine is timely delivered.
The app is currently free to download and the entire Gimmel Tammuz issue is open for reading. From next week, it will require a password to be given free to subscribers.
“The actual printed magazine will still be delivered to them to enjoy and keep when it arrived in the mail,” Cohen said.
Kfar Chabad, founded by Editor-in-Chief Rabbi Aharon Dov Halperin, typically carries a blend between spreads on Chabad figures and activities and in-depth content such as letters from the Rebbe, articles on Halacha and Chassidus.
The Rebbe was a regular reader of Kfar Chabad and has edited Sichos specifically for publication in the magazine. Rabbi Halperin has merited to receive guidance from the Rebbe on his work.
The Kfar Chabad App is designed for both iPhone and iPad devices on iTunes.
Is this also english or not?
This is great news. Downloaded it and have gone through it a bit already.