Something Extra
Covering The World
merica's major newspapers and news-
magazines gave significant coverage to the
Iraq war, but whether they did enough to
prepare and enlighten readers about terrorism and
related issues before 9-11 is a legitimate concern.
A top Los Angeles Times editor hammered on this
theme in his greetings at an awards banquet of 80
Jewish journalists last week in California. The ban-
quet, the highlight of the four-day annual confer-
ence of the American Jewish Press Association,
took place at Universal Studios in Universal City.
"Did we travel enough to those obscure countries
many of our readers couldn't find on the map?"
asked Alvin Shuster, the senior consulting editor.
"Before 9-11, did we deal enough with the
prospect of terror at its roots?"
"Of course not," he said, "but those of us with
major operations overseas made the effort. For
example, our reporters did quite a few stories on
the rising threat of Islamic fundamentalism."
Mideast coverage has strong local interest around
L.A. Los Angeles County has the largest concentra-
tion of Muslims and the second-highest number of
Jews outside the Mideast (Metro Detroit ranks sec-
ond and 11th, respectively).
To cover Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Times
assigned 30 reporters and photographers to the
region. "Some, of course, were imbedded with the
troops, that innovative approach to war coverage,"
Shuster said. "I had qualms about it at the begin-
ning,
ly. but it seems to have worked quite effective-
ni of Detroit's Schulze Elementary School that she
grabbed a shovel on May 28 and helped plant a tree
in the school's front yard. The school is located
south of the former Jewish Community Center at
Meyers and Curtis.
The tree is a gift from the JCCouncil in apprecia-
tion for Straus' years of service to the community. In
addition, its planting marks the founding of the
Schulze Alumni Organization, a member of the
Detroit Jewish Coalition for Literacy (DJCL). The
alumni will begin tutoring at the Detroit school
during summer school and will continue during the
regular school year.
A program of the JCCouncil, the DJCL comprises
34 member organizations, with 370 volunteers who
tutor and provide other services at 36 schools in
Detroit, Oakland County and other sites. To volun-
teer, contact Phyllis Jarvis at (248) 642-5393 or e-
mail Jarvis@jfind.org
— Diana Lieberman
of '61, was_ reunion chairman, heading a 20-person
planning committee. Goldstone gave kudos to corn-
mittee member and former Temptations' guitarist and
songwriter Cornelius Grant, Class of '61, of L.A.,
who headed up the party's entertainment.
Those who flew in from the Detroit area included
Doreen Curtis Hermelin of Bingham Farms, Class of '57;
Susu Miller Sosnick of Bloomfield Hills, Class of '61; and
Norton "Norty" Stern and Sherrie Gross Stern, Class of
`62, of Farmington Hills. The committee planned for
150 guests and twice as many came, said Goldstone.
So her committee contacted another Mumford
alumnus, Dr. Kenneth Burnley, Class of '60, current
superintendent of Detroit Public Schools. Any money
left over will be donated to Mumford High School.
"Mumford was a special place," Okum said. "The
Jewish, Afro American and gentile communities lived
close to one another, knew one another and the
bonding at Mumford was incredible."
— Sharon Zuckerman
55
The Times now has five reporters based in Iraq
with others working from Afghanistan, Israel and
Egypt. "Normally," Shuster said, "we have about
33 reporters permanently stationed overseas — a
few less than the New York Times, a few more than
the Washington Post."
Shuster, a former Los Angeles Times foreign editor
and a current Columbia Journalism Review con-
tributing editor, worries about world coverage.
"I worry about whether the media in general will
continue to devote the time and energy and talent
to covering global issues in the way they have since
9-11," he said.
"I worry that too soon, too fast, the media will
forget Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rest of the
world, and once again turn inward. Do we really .
want to go around the world in 80 seconds or one
minute, depending on your cable network?"
There's no waffling at the Los Angeles Times over
interest among Americans in global news.
As Shuster put it: "Explain the issues, make them
relevant, present them with skill and style, and the
readers will be there. That's been our experience.
So we'll keep at it."
—Robert A. Sklar
Schulze Alumni Unite
etroiter Kathleen Straus is president of the
Michigan Board of Education and immedi-
ate past president of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
But it was in her capacity as a parent of two alum-
D
Kathleen Straus wields a shovel at
Schulze Elementary School.
Former Mumford grads and spouses: Pattye Asarch of Mar Vista,
Calif; Joyce Crenshaw of Los Angeles; Howard Goldberg of Oxnard,
Calif; Joel Gilman of Beverly Hills, Calif; Karen Goldstone Encino
Calif; David Molitz of Henderson, Nev.; Gloria Taylor of Pacoima,
Calif; Rick Gold of Laguna Beach, Calif; and Leslie Molitz of
Henderson, Nev.
Mumford 'West'
Wins Fellowship
bile the first graduates of Detroit's Mumford
High School celebrated their 50th reunion
in Detroit last month, more than 300 for-
mer grads also gathered in Los Angeles for the first
Mumford reunion on the West Coast.
Former and current Detroiters swooped into L.A.
for the gala reunion party May 24 at the El Caballero
Country Club in Tarzana, and continued their festivi-
ties at a picnic the next day. They came from as far as
Hawaii and Florida as well as Utah, Washington,
D.C. and, of course, Detroit. Although the event was
open to all Mumford alumni, a majority of the atten-
dees were from the classes of 1953-1970.
"We don't see people from high school often so this
was really special. The atmosphere was wonderful,"
said Ron Okum of San Marino, Class of '58 and past
president of the Rose Bowl.
Karen Rodgers Goldstone of Encino, Calif., Class
taff writer Sharon
Luckerman has been select-
ed to participate as a Gralla
Fellow in the Gralla Fellows
Program for Journalists in the
Jewish Press at Brandeis
University in Waltham, Mass.,
July 20-24.
She will join 17 other journal-
ists from around the country in
Zuckerman
classes about American Jewry,
including the study of Jewish
texts and history, interfaith rela-
tions and issues concerning the current and his-
toric Israel-Arab situation.
The fellows will meet Jewish and Muslim schol-
ars and tour sections of Jewish Boston.
—Keri Guten Cohen
w
s
ITN
7/ 4
2003
11