points of view

>>

Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com

4, •

THE JEWISH NEWS IV 7

141,

A Weal> &vim

1.64, E,".3

Publisher's Notebook

A

The JN's Beginnings

Emerging in the midst of the horrors of World War II
and the Holocaust, the Jewish News was aligned with
community leaders who believed in the need for, and
correctness of, a Jewish homeland. This cause was at the
core of Slomovitz's career and is embedded in the DNA
of the Jewish News. So, too, was universal support for
the Jewish Welfare Federation's Allied Jewish
Campaign, now known as Federation's
Annual Campaign. Slomovitz's influential
Zionist writings helped to shape the commu-
nity's greatest leaders, including Max Fisher,
Paul Zuckerman and Leonard Simons.
And Slomovitz was not shy about utilizing
the front page of the Jewish News as a soap
box for supporting Federation's Allied Jewish
Campaign, often inviting luminaries like Fred
Butzel to make direct pitches to readers.
As the years progressed, the Jewish News
remained focused on its editorial mission
while expanding its engagement with the community.
From special sections on Jewish education, teens,
mitzvah heroes, simchahs, college students, Israel and
Detroit to hundreds of event sponsorships — large
and small — the Jewish News embraced the commu-
nity, and the community returned that embrace via
loyal readership and advertising support.
To this day, I'm contacted by well-traveled
Detroiters who, after visiting all corners of the coun-
try, are motivated to share their observation that OUR
Jewish News is the best Jewish publication they come
across. And, whenever something appears in the IN
that disappoints, my myriad business "partners" (also
known as our readers) let me know. Typically, these
"partners" tell me: "Mr. Horwitz, WE can't have that
kind of (you fill in the blank here) in OUR Jewish
News." When is the last time someone called the
Detroit Free Press and said, "Dear Publisher, WE can't
have that kind of (you fill in the blank here) in OUR
Detroit Free Press?" Perhaps the CEO of Gannett?

:.;;:T

Editorial

Loau.se

lowassVo • e

Peres Well-Deserving
Of U.S. Civilian Honors

tear

000, soc oew
sses..,at
yews,
.so.•,J
sot Moateso sse swot re,* wo.
Ira. N Ti xar
•• •
.ma
ry•te( :••••

,T WO.

.4fts he.

Viltats the Cosi of a
Wooden Star?

z 4,4 Mort.

Jewish Community
Mobilized for 5th
War Bond Drive

reas,1 fm cowl OW saege IA*
Joss, ...Jo, Sts.
rya 4 pa, fse
An..e:An
,
,
a poll Oa, 4 'sandhi ,IWO:e.o.w. swowsse
so., set so-ptyle.e, st ewe..

Wose ows ,s.esi toes
W. to...is to ....Ws,
toS sow
s.etel
i•., So. es,
NOW, W,ase
two. roo.Lol eoso LS 41, !le, reeweLLs des`, RiC,11
er cs—..1, sae> eSOLo.

roe lows
Wes. a YLews
5 , 4e c , (4,4
Mrit Wes Low, •s,14 al 44 coo
soLge woe
estoet—.4,4
crou betwo
way
.sse4e.—. c, st
Moskva:
t....-1.ouwe
+S.
YOUR
inva,v tv. .<
YO,J,

.

5th WAR LOAN

Starts Monday, June 12

fAt'd&d./

5.1VAR LOAP
Itzkgr

BUY MORE 111AICREFORE I

Z. 1444

'

34. 0140.1 .

e

June 9,1944

Changing Dynamics

In the midst of dramatic shifts in news media tech-

nology, it is more important than ever for the commu-
nity and the Jewish News to actively feed and nurture
the relationship that strengthens both. Not to do so
can create peril. Two recent examples of papers that
were once tied to the Jewish News illustrate what can
happen when the relationship between community
and independent Jewish newspaper atrophies.
In 2009, the Jewish News sold the Atlanta Jewish Times.
Earlier this year, its owner and publisher, Andrew Adler,
wrote a column suggesting an assassination of President
Barack Obama as a potential option for
those who are concerned about Israel's secu-
rity in the face of a nuclear Iran. It triggered
global scorn and embarrassed the Atlanta
Jewish community. Community leaders
condemned the column and took the added
step of organizing a boycott of the Atlanta
Jewish Times, compelling Adler to resign and
sell his publication. It was sold to someone
without a background in journalism.
Though serving Atlanta and the South
since 1925 (it was founded as the Southern
Israelite), the publication and the commu-
nity never developed a relationship rooted in mutual
trust and respect. The Atlanta Jewish Times could have
played an important role in helping to engage, educate
and connect rapidly growing numbers of new Jewish
residents to old Atlanta, but community leadership was
slow to welcome these newcomers and reluctant to col-
laborate with its independent Jewish press.
Without community support and collaborations, the
Atlanta Jewish Times was unable to generate the reader-
ship and revenue necessary to become a larger and more
credible force. If the community had a closer relationship
with the Atlanta Jewish Times, Adler would not have had
the opportunity to purchase it in the first place.

A Cautionary Example

The saga of the 93-year-old Baltimore Jewish Times is a
story of a once-synergistic relationship with the Baltimore
Jewish community that gradually weakened. Currently,
the parent company of the Baltimore Jewish Times is being
run by a trustee appointed by a federal bankruptcy judge,

The JN and You on page 43

42

.,••••

Thousand. F104-1:
To Sy o ,, alms for
Proyrrm
lova

The JN And You:
A 70-Year Bond
We Don't Take
For Granted

t its best, the relationship between a corn-
munity and its independent Jewish press is
synergistic.
A community that is knowledgeable and engaged
provides raw material that can be shaped into edito-
rial quality, revenue generation and loyal subscribers.
In return, the independent press provides its commu-
nity with a trusted and credible platform for support-
ing and questioning its leadership while also serving
as a common thread linking its diverse parts.
As the Jewish News begins its 70th anniversary year,
it continues to benefit from an overall relationship of
mutual trust and respect with the community. Since
its March 27, 1942, founding by Philip Slomovitz, the
Jewish News has been shaping and telling our com-
munity's story. As I enter my 26th year publishing the
Jewish News, I have been blessed to help shape and tell
that story while building upon the Slomovitz legacy.

•O
t...

n . •••

I

n many ways, Shimon Peres, Israel's
ninth president, is the living history
of the Jewish state:
• Strategic and visionary while rooted
in the realities of living in a dangerous
neighborhood;
• A statesman, a diplomat and a
Nobel Peace Prize winner who played a
central role in developing Israel's nucle- Shimon Peres
ar and military capabilities;
• A politician who lives largely beyond the taint of cor-
ruption (his predecessor, Moshe Katsav, was found to be
corrupt and a serial groper of women).
Shimon Peres, a Facebook enthusiast at age 88, is
about as Israeli as olive oil, pomegranates and falafel.
So it's logical for President Barack Obama to want to
present Peres with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
During his March 4 speech at the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in
Washington, Obama announced he would honor Peres
this year at the White House. The medal is the highest
honor the U.S. can award a civilian.
A few years after World War I ended, Peres was born in
a shtetl in what then was Poland. He and his family immi-
grated to Mandatory Palestine when he was 11. Admiring
Peres' life, Obama said: "He has fought for peace and
security. As a member of the Haganah and a member of
the Knesset, as a minister of defense and foreign affairs,
as a prime minister and as a president, Shimon helped
build the nation that thrives today: the Jewish State of
Israel."
Capturing Peres' essence, Obama said the former two-
time prime minister has been "a powerful moral voice
that reminds us that right makes might, not the other way
around."
Peres – who proudly talks about Israel becoming a unit-
ed democracy from a dispersed people – "has taught us
to ask more of ourselves and to empathize more with our
fellow human beings," Obama said.
Obama is right: The high honor to Peres will symbolize
the broader ties that bind America and Israel. The two
great nations not only share varied interests, but also
important values that Peres embraces – dignity, freedom,
equality.
Speaking just before Obama at AIPAC, Peres declared:
"Israel, like America, was conceived as an idea – born in
defiance of history, creating a new world by drawing on
the values of the past and the motivations of the future."
Peres talked about the restoring of Jewish statehood
after 2,000 years of Jews in exile. "We started as a doubt
and wound up as a certainty," he said. "We had to fight six
wars in six decades. We did not lose one. We never will. We
cannot afford it. We had to defend ourselves. Self-defense
is our right and obligation."
With little land, water or resources, Israel grew, devel-
oped and prospered. It longs for peace – to bring national
security. And it thirsts for knowledge – to enrich national
possibilities.
Peres, a quintessential Israeli, described America as
"the indispensable leader of the Free World" and "the
indispensable friend of our people."
In many ways, Shimon Peres is the indispensable exam-
ple of not just Jewish pride, but also human mettle. El