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Pontiac, MI 48053 (313) 332-8000 vox:up Lotus 41111111MIMIN1111111116 52 FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1989 GARY ROSENBLATT Editor Looking back now, perhaps the startling aspect about the Jewish Student Press Service is not that it has died, quietly and with- out notice, but that it sur- vived for 18 years and truly thrived for a time. This is an attempt to give the JSPS the obituary it deserves, and to explain why its demise marks the end of an era of activism unique in American Jewish life. Lack of funding is being blamed as the culprit here, but JSPS never had proper funding. And as Sam Norich, a former student activist and longtime supporter of JSPS noted, "money is never the reason why something starts or ends." Clearly, what started the Press Service was Jewish political passion. It was the outgrowth of both the cam- pus turbulence and the renew- ed interest in Israel that took place in the late 1960s. Fund- ed by the North American Jewish Students' Network and a variety of establish- ment Jewish organizations, JSPS provided articles, seminars, trips to Israel, and an organizational base for scores of Jewish student newspapers across the coun- try that had begun to spring up after the Six Day War. The budget was always miniscule (never more than $45,000), and the office was always understaffed and over- worked, but JSPS became a leading resource for Jewish student journalism. It was also a haven, and voice, for ac- tivists with a cause, often critical of the establishment in American and/or Israel, who had no other means of expressing themselves in a Jewish context. When David rnversky and David Kaufman began the Press Service in a small New York office in 1970, they were editing for a small group of mostly radical Zionist cam- pus papers There was a strong sense of change and excitement at the time and the first national editors conference, sponsored by JSPS and attended by 30 student editors in New York in 1971, was covered by the New York Times and Village Voiceas an indication of the new fervor among Jewish col- lege students. The young editors came to hear jour- nalists like Sidney Zion, Joe Flaherty and Norman Pod- horetz, to network with each other and to debate issues they felt were being neglected by the Jewish establishment. They wanted to write about the Israeli peace movement, the changing role of women in Judaism and the growth of the new Chavurah movement. And they did. Their papers gave voice to a range of criticism and dealt with Jewish student activity, or lack of it, on the local cam- puses. The problems the staffs faced were enormous, headed by lack of funding and difficulty in recruiting incom- ing students. But the sense of purpose was palpable among the small, dedicated number of editors who cared. And in . The JSPS demise marks the end of an era of activism unique in American Jewish life. its heyday, JSPS served as many as 75 Jewish campus papers and was honored by the Council of Jewish Federa- tions for its contribution to Jewish journalism. I had the privilege of ad- dressing the annual editors conference several times in the 1970s and was always im- pressed with the energy and commitment of these ac- tivists. They would meet in a large upper West Side apart- ment in Manhattan, dozens of students sitting on the floor, who wanted to learn about the workings of the Jewish organizational struc- ture and how to produce good newspapers. A favorite topic was investigative journalism — this was, after all, the post- Watergate era when Wood- ward and Bernstein were heroes — and the student editors were eager to take on the Jewish establishment. For its part, the establish- ment looked upon, the Press Service as a parent would an adolescent, with a mixture of annoynace and tolerance. Organizations like the American Jewish Congress, ORT and others each came through with a few thousand dollars each year to keep the operation going, but it was always a struggle. Somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s, the JSPS seemed to lose a bit of its pas- sion. The students I address- ed were better dressed, quieter, and as willing to listen as they were to speak out. Fewer of them were in- terested in careers in jour- nalism. This wasn't surpris- ing. They merely reflected the changes that had taken place at campuses throughout the United States as students became less idealistic and more career-oriented. The student papers were less radical, less activist. Some were quite professional looking, but they were more in the style of establishment Jewish community news- papers, supporting Jewish causes like Ethiopian and Soviet Jewry, as well as Israel. The student press was no longer an alternative to the established Jewish com- munity; it was part of that community. This may be viewed as a positive or negative sign. The point is that there was less of a need for a national Press Service to act as a network- ing agent and link between the campus and the establish- ment. Despite repeated emer- gency meetings and efforts to sustain the Press Service, it effectively stopped function- ing this past year. The sad part is how few noticed. Sandy Gruenfeld, a junior at the University of Mary- land, is managing editor of Mitzpeh, one of about a dozen Jewish student papers still appearing regularly around the country. Gruenfeld is pro- ud of Mitzpeh, and rightly so. The paper has won several journalism awards, appears bi-weekly and has a circula- tion of about 4,000. But Gruenfeld knew little of JSPS and was surprised to learn that a decade or so ago, it served dozens of Jewish stu- dent papers. Several weeks ago, there was an effort to hold the an- nual student editors con- ference in New York but only six editors were there. Still, looking back, the JSPS was a success story, surviving almost two decades as a labor of love; serving as a training ground for a number of professional jour- nalists, including several with Jewish publications. The reality today, though, is that if there is an alter- native Jewish voice on cam- pus today seeking expression, there is no Jewish Student Press Service to hear or transmit it. ❑