Publisher, columnist for Chicago Jewish News
Joseph Aaron was the longtime publisher and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Jewish News, for which he also wrote a weekly column.
“He loved that (the newspaper) gave him the forum to tell it like it is,” said his brother Maury. “He said whatever was on his mind, regardless of whether or not it was controversial and regardless of whether it was a family friend. He said what he believed and he did not hold back.”
Aaron, 64, died of a suspected heart attack Nov. 16 outside a restaurant in Jerusalem, his brother said. He lived in Jerusalem while also maintaining a home in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, his brother said.
Born in Chicago, Aaron grew up in West Rogers Park and graduated from Hebrew Theological College in Skokie. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1978.
Aaron began his career as a reporter for Lerner Newspapers and later was the editor of JUF News, the monthly magazine of the Jewish United Fund.
In late 1994, Aaron left the Jewish United Fund to start the Chicago Jewish
News, which today has a circulation of about 40,000.
Denise Plessas Kus, the newspaper’s production manager, said Aaron’s weekly columns “showed that he was proud of his Jewish community and every once in a while saddened when it didn’t live up to what he thought they could be.”
“Over the many years, I regret not clipping Joe’s editorial columns that made me cry, made me laugh and made me think, for it was these columns that I wish the world could read,” she said. “There was so much clarity and compassion. He looked for the good in people.”
One theme Aaron often explored was the positives for Jewish people in the U.S. today, compared with how Jews have been treated at other times in history, said Rabbi Meir Shimon Moscowitz, regional director of the Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois. Moscowitz is the son of Aaron’s longtime friend Rabbi Danny Moscowitz, who died in 2014.
“He didn’t like people who always found the negative in others,” Moscowitz said. “He liked people who found the positive in others. And he kept going at it for years and years, which is not easy. And he wasn’t afraid to say what he thought. He was very open and direct.”
On a lighter note, Kus recalled Aaron’s frequent mentions in his column of his fear of dogs. Despite that, “he always asked about my dog and even welcomed her to the office a few times,” Kus said, “as he shut his office door.”
Aaron recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of Chicago Jewish News.
A marriage ended in divorce. Aaron is survived by another brother, Fred; and two sisters, Susie Alter and Sharon Aaron.
Services were held.