THE JEWISH NEWS COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE

1942-1992

too tied to the hands that feed them?

that appeared a few years ago
in one New England paper:
"Mexico Earthquake Kills
Seven Jews."
Yet, notwithstanding these
admirable developments, The
Jewish News of Metropolitan
Detroit, like its counterparts
around the country, main-
tains an uneasy, ambiguous,
and somewhat unhealthy
relationship with organized
Jewry. Reading through issue
after issue of these papers,
one is struck by the large
number of "successful" lec-
tures, campaigns, task forces,
weekends, leaders, telethons,
breakfasts, lunches and din-
ners. Synagogues, federa-
tions, defense agencies, JCCs
and every conceivable corn-
munity organization seem to

enjoy unparalleled success at
every turn.
Everything the Jewish corn-
munity does can't be so
wonderful. Why are there no
stories of flat campaigns or
insipid lectures, to say
nothing of occasional official
malfeasance or incompe-
tence? These sorts of stories
are part and parcel of the
Israeli press coverage of

Israeli leaders and officials,

and they help make the press

there a vital part of Israel's

vigorous democracy.
Milton Himmelfarb, former-
ly of the American Jewish
Committee, was fond of
noting that "Jews are in-
dividually smart but collec-

tively dumb." Are we to
believe that the Himmelfarb
doctrine is restricted only to
Israeli precincts? Can it real-
ly be that the air of Diaspora
Jewish communal life
somehow makes Jews collec-
tively wise?
But not only does The
Jewish News (again, like
other papers) run relatively
few reports on outright short-
comings in Jewish organiza-
tional life, it also avoids many

politicking„ that preceded
those fateful decisions..
Where are the views of the
critics, the nay-sayers, the
upstarts, the minorities, the
gadflies, the muckrakers, the
dissenters, the disgruntled,
the heretics, and what Spiro
Agnew called (thanks to
William Safire, I believe) the
nattering nabobs of nega-
tivism? Why don't we read of

matters of internal controver-
sy. We certainly read about

our cherished institutions?

major new communal in-
itiatives once they are an-
nounced; but we hardly ever
hear about the difficult
deliberations and, yes, the

principled (or unprincipled)

attacks upon our leaders and

Why don't we read of alter-
natives to major commit-
ments of funds, of site re-
location, or of personnel
changes? Why don't we read
of such fundamental matters
as the budgets of our agencies
and the salaries of our elected
and appointed leaders, the
sorts of information readily
available in any free and open
polity?
American print and broad-
cast news media give promi-

nent coverage to the frequent-
ly sharp and vigorous debates
over the federal, state and
local budgets. Health care ad-
vocates square off with sup-
porters of a strong defense.
Where are the comparable
stories in the Jewish press
over parallel struggles within
our own community?
In times of scarce resources,
Russian immigration, and
challenges to Jewish con-
tinuity, the boardrooms of
federations and other agen-
cies around the country are
rife with heated debates over
where to allocate limited

MARCH 27, 1992

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