Court Orders Liquidation of Influential Haredi Media Group After Founder’s Death

An Israeli court has approved a liquidation request filed by about 75 employees and ordered the formal winding up of the companies behind the Haredi local newspaper network Kav Otiyut and the group’s climbing wall venues. The ruling came about two months after the sudden death of the network’s founder and owner, Ariel Konik, at age 62.

Konik’s death left the companies in severe financial distress, cash flow stopped, and salaries for dozens of workers went unpaid for a long period. After the liquidation order, employees will now submit wage and severance claims to the National Insurance Institute to recover the money owed to them under the law.

The collapse of the network ends a major era in sectoral Haredi media. Konik was considered one of the most influential figures in the ultra-Orthodox communications landscape, and he began in the field in the 1990s in Petah Tikva before expanding to Bnei Brak, where he founded the local paper that became the base of a national network.

Over the years, the group included popular titles such as Kol HaIr and HaShavua BeYerushalayim. Konik also helped found the radio station Kol Barama and served as its first CEO. In 2018 he led the purchase of the veteran paper Yom LeYom in an effort to save it from closure. In 2017, foreign investors from South America joined the company in a deal valuing it at tens of millions of shekels, and Haim Cohen was appointed chairman. Konik maintained a conservative editorial line aligned with leading rabbis and kept the group fully closed on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.