Establishing a newspaper is never easy. Starting one that is a combination of local news, community gossip and international affairs is probably even harder. Vivienne Harris achieved this with the newspaper that she helped to start more than 60 years ago on her dining room table — a paper which today runs to four individual editions.
The Jewish Telegraph, a long-held ambition of Harris and her journalist husband Frank before they finally sat down at their table and started work, has become an institution in the North of England and in Scotland — the kind of institution which, for Jews living there is as important as the candles they light on Friday nights and the chicken they eat to welcome in the Sabbath.
Harris was always regarded as a mainstay of the paper, with its editions in Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow as well as its home base in Manchester. Up until just before her death, she was still working as its financial director, still following the local news and meeting people at the hairdressers.
Vivienne Hytner — Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, was a cousin — met the man who was to become her husband while travelling together on a number 62 bus from Manchester’s city centre to Heaton Park. They had both been involved in civic and Jewish affairs.
He was, in addition to working as a freelance journalist, information officer for the local Zionist Central Council. She had been a domestic science teacher who also ran, in the Manchester suburb of Wilmslow, one of the famous Second World War British Restaurants, one of a chain of eateries set up under Government supervision to provide cheap — nothing was allowed to cost more than five shillings — but nourishing food.
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She also ran the kitchens as a volunteer at the local Delamere Forest School for children with what would today be described as learning difficulties.
They had both been members of one of Britain’s best known Jewish youth organisations, Maccabi. He played football, she was a hockey player.
They were married in 1949 and it was soon afterwards, in their Salford house dining room, that they talked about the need for a Jewish newspaper to serve the needs of a population numbering 40,000 of their coreligionists.
The national Jewish Chronicle sold some copies north of the Humber, but Harris and her husband believed that the newspaper’s northern news service was not sufficient. There was also a small free newspaper, the Jewish Gazette.
Their four-page paper was almost an instant success which seemed to kill off the competition — although today the Jewish Chronicle, known throughout the land simply as the JC, now runs a full Manchester edition, after constantly trying to beat off its rival. In 1960, the JC bought the Gazette but sold it to the Telegraph in 1995.
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That was just part of its further expansion, buying the Liverpool Jewish Gazette, setting up the Leeds edition and the Glasgow paper.
All the editions are called the Jewish Telegraph. They have certain common pages, but they vary in size. The Manchester edition now has between 48 and 100 colour pages. They have a combined circulation of 16,000, which is considered satisfactory enough considering the demographics of its readership and their treatment of the Telegraph. The people who buy Jewish papers are renowned for handing over their copies to a bevy of other people week in, week out.
All the time, Harris was regarded as the public face of the Telegraph. She was always on hand to welcome distinguished visitors, such as the Lord Mayors of the cities the paper serves, various Israeli ambassadors, statesmen and the Chief Rabbi. It is now run by her son Paul who is the Editor and managing director.
She was appointed MBE in 1997 for services to journalism and her community.
Her husband Frank predeceased her. Harris is survived by two sons.
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Vivienne Harris, MBE, co-founder of the Jewish Telegraph, was born on November 7, 1921. She died on March 4, 2011, aged 89