' -
BY,IIET All AMEPHKA
ClIACATI3 FOPBALIEBA ?
N
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Special to The Jewish News
.
ovoye Russkoye Slovo,
the oldest Russian
----
language newspaper
in the United States, has
seen a lot of revolutions. But
> , even the 1917 Bolshevik
revolution did not change
the newspaper — known in
English as the New Russian
Word — like the current in-
flux of Soviet Jews.
In the early 1960s, New
York-based Novoye Russkoye
Slovo was a four-page paper.
Since then, it has expanded
to a sprawling forty-page
daily format, featuring
international, national, and
local news, all in Russian.
"We needed to be more
modernized," said Valery
Weinberg, publisher and
' editor-in-chief of the news-
paper founded in 1910.
"Now, we use the Associated
Press and other press agen-
cies. We have our own cor-
respondents in the Soviet
Union and Europe. And we
have hired more professional
journalists from the Soviet
Union."
The 56,000 daily copies of
Novoye Russkoye Slovo are a
source of news for many re-
cent immigrants about both
their new and old homes.
The Russian daily gives ad-
- vice to new immigrants,
recalls memories of the
motherland, and explores
the political undercurrents
of Soviet society today.
"This is a very popular
newspaper," said Bela Gel-
fand, a recent Soviet immi-
grant. "Even some people
who can read English news-
papers read this news-
' paper."
Weinberg said that the ar-
rival of Soviet immigrants
has provided an incentive to
his newspaper to improve.
"People who are really
educated enough to under-
stand what newspapers are
about know these im-
provements right away," he
said. "They can tell that the
reports are not being done by
unprofessional journalists."
Since the Soviet Union is
undergoing a quiet revo-
' lution, Novoye Russkoye
Slovo has found a new
reason to publish. In addi-
tion to reaping the benefits
of heavy Soviet immigration
to the United States, which
boosted subscriptions, the
Noam M.M. Neusner is a staff
reporter for our sister news-
paper, the Baltimore Jewish
Times.
'MEDIA MONITOR
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Covering The
Immigrant Beat
A New York-based Russian daily has grown in circulation
and content because of the increasing numbers of
Soviet Jews entering the United States.
newspaper now has the op-
portunity to look deeper into
Soviet history, an interest of
many Soviet immigrants.
"They give a lot of mate-
rial about the previous life of
Russia," Gelfand said. "In
every newspaper they
publish one or more articles
about why . . . the country is
in such a terrible situation
now. For 70 years . . . we did
not even know what they did
with us, we really did not
understand."
For many immigrants, es-
pecially the elderly, Novoye
Russkoye Slovo's
reminiscences about the
Soviet past are often more
revealing than its articles
about current events in the
Soviet Union. Frequently,
the newspaper publishes
stories, journals and diaries,
sometimes dating from
World War II.
Glasnost has presented
challenges for the news-
paper as well. Since the in-
troduction of Pravda and
other Soviet papers in the
United States, Novoye
Russkoye Slovo's appeal has
dropped among Soviet ex-
perts.
"There is a lot inside the
Soviet Union newspapers —
much more than in any anti-
communist publication out-
side the Soviet Union," said
Valery Petrochenkov, a Rus-
sian language professor at
Georgetown University in
Washington, D.C.
He said Mikhail Gor-
bachev's reform policies and
their implications have had
no affect on the content of
Novoye Russkoye Slovo.
"It's a very good source of
information for the immi-
grant community," Pet-
rochenkov said. "But it does
not initiate anything. It's
not the leading newspaper.
It used to be the best Rus-
sian paper outside of
Russia."
Weinberg countered that
as long as Pravda is financed
by the Soviet government, it
could not tell the complete
truth.
"Pravda is still a commu-
nist ruled newspaper," he
said. "No matter who is
editor-in-chief, that paper
will not give you news that
is 'fit to print.' My news-
paper, unlike Pravda, is giv-
ing new Americans an
understanding about
America."
Weinberg said one of his
paper's primary goals is to
appeal to Soviet immigrants
living in the United States.
"We are an American-
Russian paper, not a Soviet-
Russian paper," he said.
Novoye Russkoye Slovo
carries American news, in-
cluding cultural events,
sports, a real estate section,
and even a personals section
for single immigrants look-
ing for mates. The paper —
which employs an editorial
staff of five editors, 18
writers and about 25
freelance writers — has even
featured Marla Maples,
Donald Trump's alleged
mistress, on its front page.
Since most of its reader-
ship is Jewish, Novoye
Russkoye Slovo also prints
articles from Israel and
about Judaism. Weinberg
said that as much as 70 per-
cent of its articles deal
directly or indirectly with
Jewish issues, like problems
in the Israeli settlements,
Jewish holiday observance,
and anti-Semitism in the
Soviet Union.
Novoye Russkoye Slovo
differs from Pravda in other
ways. It has continued its
long legacy of strong anti-
communist sentiment. In re-
cent months, it has publiciz-
ed and supported the efforts
of secessionist Soviet repub-
lics like Lithuania and
Estonia.
In one recent article, a
writer described the poten-
tial for a separate Tatar re-
public in Crimea. The
Tatars, an ethnic nation-
ality, were forced to move
from Moldavia, in the
southwest Soviet Union,
during Soviet premier Josef
Stalin's reign.
After listing the
difficulties of achieving in-
dependence, the article
declared: "The Tatars have a
role in the political dis-
integration of the Soviet
Union."
Alex Grant, an editor at
Novoye Russkoye Slovo, said
that kind of writing is not
unusual at his newspaper.
"Our information has
nothing different than [what
is] in American papers," he
said. "We are objective .. .
without accentuation of the
facts."
Gelfand, who left Len-
ingrad a year and a half ago,
said the paper's anti-
communism springs from a
natural antagonism with the
motherland. Referring to
Novoye Russkoye Slovo's
largely immigrant reader-
ship, Gelfand said readers
want to be sure this time the
grass isn't greener on the
other side.
Professor John Dick, a
Russian language scholar at
Georgetown University, said
the newspaper has
cultivated a self-fulfilling
identity: Its readers want to
know that things are bad in
their native land, so that's
what the paper reports.
"These are people who
wanted to leave," Dick said.
Weinberg, who is proud of
his anti-communism, said
his paper's duty is to push
for greater reforms.
"The new face of Soviet
reality is because of the
economic burden that Gor-
bachev inherited," he said.
"My newspaper is for
changes and democracy .. .
because we understand how
the readers were misled for
72 years." ❑
THE DFTRnIT
NFWS