NEWS EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

Gone? How?

from such a large stage? Why would I
risk a career in mainstream journalism?
What could be important about writing
for and about a tiny community that
relies far more on bigger news sources,
The reasons for my reticence: I am
anyway, for its information?
in a race against time to get through the
I leave with a whole lot more humili-
piles on my desk. Endings
ty, not to mention a much
make me grumpy. And, like a
more
open mind.
student packing up for a year
My
experience here as
abroad, I recognize that the
both
a
Jew and member of
skeins of my identity are tied
The Jewish News staff has
to my family and to the com-
been life-altering. I have met
munity. I cannot roam too far.
amazing rabbis who have
The Jewish News has always
exposed me to the beautiful
been much more than a work-
patterns
and the profound
place for me. It has put me in
depths
of
Jewish life, and I
touch with family I never
have
had
the
privilege, along
JU
LIE
knew I had, people whom I
with other colleagues, to learn
ED GAR
haven't seen in years and
Torah each week here in The
News Editor
remarkable individuals I never
Jewish News building. To say I
knew at all. Perhaps most
have gained an appreciation of Judaism
importantly, it has re-introduced me to
would
be vast understatement; rather, it
my heritage.
has
changed
the terms of my relation-
I am like many Jews of my genera-
ship
with
myself
and the world.
tion: Judaism was a take-it-or-leave-it
Coming
to
work
each day has been a
proposition. Nobody ever pressured me
joy. A spirit of cooperation prevails
to become more observant or even
inside the newsroom, even if, like a
encouraged me to learn more. It was a
family, we churn and boil and occasion-
matter of fact among most of the peo-
ally snipe at each other. People here give
ple I know that religion was a quaint
their heart and soul to making sure we
relic, an opiate, a dodge from the chaot-
put
out a respectable newspaper week
ic reality of the universe, an irrelevancy.
after
week. Gail Zimmerman, the tire-
Judaism, Catholicism, Islam or Bud-
less
'editor
of Jewish News and Enter-
dhism, for that matter, only served as an
tainment, brings an intensity and per-
artificial and destructive division
fectionism to the task and most impor-
between people.
tandy, lets us know which actors, writ-
So joining The Jewish News was a
ers
or musicians are Jewish. Alan Hit-
scary and an almost laughable proposi-
sky,
the veteran of the newsroom, is a
tion three years ago. Why would I make
wellspring
of memories and knowledge,
a de facto declaration of my Jewishness

'm leaving The Jewish News at the
end of the week without having
said a lot of goodbyes.

a_mensch with a scowl. Staff writers
Julie Wiener, Lonny Goldsmith and
Harry Kirsbaum toil as hard to deliver
the clearest picture of the community as
they can. Editorial assistant Sy Manello
is the newsroom wit who also has the
patience of Job as he explains to callers,
with the utmost politeness, why the top
of a head was cut off in a picture. A
new member of our staff, Jonathan
Friendly, is raising the caliber of profes-
sionalism here while inspiring us to take
risks. And Editor Bob Sklar finally
seems to have stabilized after taking
some hard knocks from readers over our
last Purim cover (it was a rite of initia-
tion, Bob).
Speaking of readers, they, too, are
like family — and that can be good or
bad. They pay attention to what is writ-
ten and let you know how they feel,
sometimes brutally. They are highly
educated, but are easily annoyed by
honest criticism of their institutions.
They are critical, but don't like to air
their grievances in public. Nobody is
more exacting. But rather than sending
us away screaming in frustration, they
have inspired us to be better.
And as for writing for and about the
Jewish community week in and week
out, we could not exhaust all the stories
that are out there. Within a community
of 100,000 or so Jews, there are
300,000 stories (or is that 300,000
opinions?). Of the ones I have written
and of which I am most proud, I think
of the story of Debbie Findling, a
courageous young woman who went to
Poland to find out what happened to

her grandfather, who disappeared over
50 years ago. After hiring a driver and
translator, Debbie found his house in a
tiny hamlet and in it, a man who had
known David Findling well. She
learned that her grandfather had per-
ished along with other Jews in his vil-
lage, shot and dumped into a shallow
grave. A fate as numbingly horrible as
that of the millions of other Jews mur-
dered in Europe, but one that moved
me deeply. I cried a lot while I wrote
that story.
I've laughed a lot during Purim time,
when we get to skewer and otherwise
poke fun at ourselves and the people we
cover. Most of the time, our readers
don't seem to mind the spoofing.
As a staff, we put together editions
that focused on a theme, like love and
Judaism and Israel's 50th. I learned a lot
about both, but what stood out for me
was the teamwork behind those edi-
tions. The newsroom held a palpable
excitement during those weeks, the
kind of atmosphere journalists live for.
I've enjoyed doing the "smaller" sto-
ries, too, like personality profiles and
features about people celebrating their
50th anniversaries or their weddings or
their bar mitzvahs. They remind me
that everybody is fascinating in his or
her own way.
I don't want to say goodbye. That
would be misleading. I'll just say, see
you around.

age and more positive feedback from
their Jewish newspaper.
Deborah Shayne Syme

vis the peace process, which has the
backing of a majority of Israeli voters,
including the support of American
Jewry's most authoritative national
organizations, AIPAC and the Presi-
dent's Conference of Major American
Jewish Organizations, includes the fol-
lowing unmistakable provisions: ends
unilateral concessions, ends land for
peace unless and until the self-pro-
claimed "president of Palestine" effec-
tively curbs the murder of Israelis,
amends unambiguously the PLO's
National Covenant calling for the liq-
uidation of Israel, reins in and disarms
the terrorist Hamas, ends the deceitful
practice of revolving-door justice by
detaining and promptly releasing
known terrorists, reduces the size of
his militias to conform to the number
sanctioned by the Oslo Accords and,
PEACE on page 37

❑

—Julie Edgar is starting ajob as a
reporter at the Oakland County bureau of
the Detroit Free Press after Rosh
Hashanah.

LETTERS

Don't Dwell
On Cornplaint

The JCC Maccabi Games provided a
memorable and meaningful experi-
ence for thousands of Jews in the
Detroit community. Many wonderful
and heartwarming moments were
captured through pictures that
appeared in The Jewish News. Maybe
that is where the coverage should
have stopped.
After spending an entire week vol-
unteering at the games, I am dis-
mayed as to what purpose Mr. Sklar
felt the newspaper had to continually
remind his readers of the two glitch-
' es that occurred over the course of
the week. He didn't let them forget
that the opening night ceremonies
were too long, or there were prob-
lems busing athletes home the night

9/11
1998

34 Detroit Jewish News

at Maybury State Park.
In Mr. Sklar's article, "Editor's
Watch" (Aug. 28), he led his readers
to believe that all the coaches
thought the events were unorganized,
while the vast majority of adults I
spoke with had only praises regard-
ing how well organized the events
were. Most distressing of all was the
amount of space given to one athlete
in the article, "You've Got a Friend,"
who complained about having only
two choices of food, food lines that
were too long and that the athlete
didn't get home until midnight.
What purpose did this serve?
I do believe it would be more pur-
poseful and supportive that when
Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and
unaffiliated Jews are able to come
together and volunteer their time
and effort, they deserve better cover-

West Bloomfield

Support Peace
With Security

While the United States is gearing up
for a long-range assault against world
terrorism, local armchair ideologues,
echoing the strident yet fading voices
of Israel's leftist Meretz party, issued a
ringing denunciation of Prime Minis-
ter Binyamin Netanyahu and his
Likud coalition for doing what the
Israeli electorate authorized them to
do: take the necessary steps to put an
end to Palestinian terrorism so that
Israel may have peace with security.
The prime minister's stance vis a-

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