Recent cover of Baltimore Jewish Times. The magazine is trying to emerge from Chap. 11 bankruptcy.

CEO’S MOM  PROVIDES CHICKEN SOUP
IN THE FORM OF  $100,000 LOAN
TO CURE AILING MAGAZINE
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
UPDATE (April 2nd):  The Baltimore Jewish Times was sold at bankruptcy auction this morning to the owner of Washington Jewish Week for $1.26 million.  (Read the Baltimore Business Journal story by clicking here.)
 
Chicken soup when a child is sick has long been the storied panacea of the stereotypical Jewish mother.

It cures all ills. Or so most Jewish mothers would attest.

On Tuesday, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the mother of the CEO of Charm City’s principal Jewish publication, the Baltimore Jewish Times, was authorized by Associate Judge Nancy V. Alquist to provide much-needed chicken soup to her son’s publication in the form of a $100,000 loan to keep the magazine in business.

Brushing aside objections to giving Ronnie Buerger’s cash infusion “super-priority” administrative status — which would allow her to be repaid before most other creditors in the event the publication is ultimately liquidated — Alquist initially denied a request to give first claim to a portion of the loan that will go to pay the publication’s law firm, Tydings and Rosenberg LLP.

Alter Communications Inc. publishes the Jewish Times and is the beneficiary of the loan from CEO Andrew A. Buerger’s mother. Most of the funds will be used to cover Alter employees’ back pay and other operational costs, including telephone and Internet service, along with postage for mailing the weekly publication.

Payments will also go to the magazine’s current printer and a freelance editor, as well as for salaries and commissions to salespeople and managers that are in arrears.

PLANS TO PAY BUERGER’S BACK WAGES

The attorney representing Alter’s landlord, 901 LLC, questioned plans to pay Buerger $6,800 in back wages.

Citing family hardship, the company CEO said he had a wife with multiple sclerosis with whom he recently adopted two children, and that “if this company shuts its doors, I’m unemployed with no insurance, a sick wife and two kids.” Buerger also said he feared losing his house and having “nothing in the bank.”

His mother, before taking the stand, stopped and gave her son a hug.

In 2006 the Jewish Times claimed a print edition circulation of close to 20,000 and over 50,000 readers. Since then it has expanded with an online version and has modernized the appearance of the magazine, changing, among other things, its logo to “JT” in place of “Jewish Times.”

Andrew Buerger's mother came through with an infusion of cash to stave off liquidation of her son's magazine.

In addition to mailed copies, the magazine is also available in Pikesville and Owings Mills area supermarkets and stores, in neighborhoods with large concentrations of Jewish residents.

OLDEST AND LARGEST

As Baltimore’s oldest and largest Semitic publication, it was at one time the largest Jewish magazine in America. Founded in 1919 by Buerger’s grandfather, David Alter, it has been described as the largest weekly in Maryland and one of the country’s most respected independent Jewish publications.

The magazine’s exposés in recent years of pedophilia drew praise and scorn from members of the Northwest Baltimore Jewish community.

Led by former editor Phil Jacobs, who claims to have been abused by a Jewish youth group adviser as a child, the magazine’s attacks on rabbis and other synagogue officials — some of them deceased, many of them revered — have sometimes been based on hearsay evidence, leading many to question their veracity.

As a result, a number of rabbis’ reputations have been ruined.

The Jewish Times declared bankruptcy in 2009 when Alter and CEO Buerger were successfully sued by a former printer, H.G. Roebuck & Son Inc., which won a $362,000 judgment.

WOULD ELIMINATE THE BUERGER FAMILY

Roebuck wants to take over the publication and has proffered one of three reorganization plans under consideration. The Roebuck plan would eliminate the Buerger Family and run the business with its own officers and directors.

Alternatively, Alter’s reorganization plan would shift ownership to a new contingent of investors headed by Scott M. Rifkin, a local physician and businessman.

Rifkin, who is the founder of Mid-Atlantic Health Care LLC, a skilled care firm located in Timonium which focuses on geriatric patients following hospitalization, plans to invest $600,000 along with a group of unnamed investors, in return for an 80 percent share in Alter Communications.

Months ago, Voice of Baltimore was told by an employee of the magazine that the Rifkin plan would be finalized “within the week” and that the Jewish Times would finally be able to emerge from bankruptcy and “would survive.”

AUTHORIZATION TO BAIL THE COMPANY OUT

However, within weeks of that assertion, the plan fell through, leading to this week’s authorization by the Bankruptcy Court for Ronnie Buerger to bail the company out, if only temporarily.

Alter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a two-year-long bitter dispute with former printer Roebuck following Roebuck’s $362,000 judgment.

Negotiations on a joint reorganization plan are continuing this week, although considering the bitterness that has prevailed for more than two years, neither side was willing to offer much hope for a settlement.

Alter Communications also publishes Baltimore Style and Chesapeake Life magazines as well as a number of custom publications. Ronnie Buerger is president and majority shareholder.

The Jewish Times publishes on Fridays and averages approximately 120 pages in length.

alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org