Sixteen years of Jewish debate

GEOFF SIFRIN

EDITOR, SA JEWISH REPORT

The SAJR was launched a few years after the 1994 democratic elections, amidst the euphoria of the time, when building a true “rainbow nation” was the abiding vision. President Nelson Mandela sent us a goodwill message, saying: “Whenever and wherever freedom of expression is upheld, the advent of a newspaper adds to the desirable diversity of voices and enriches the market of ideas.

“I welcome the addition of The South African Jewish Report to the beautiful tapestry of the South African media… in playing a critical role in shaping a new South African policy and culture. I wish your publication success and rapid growth.”

Today the SAJR print edition reaches some 50 000 Jewish readers in South Africa and is also read by members of other groups and faiths. Its online version is read throughout the country as well as in Toronto, Sydney, New York, London, Tel Aviv and other places around the world. 

Editors of Jewish papers face a delicate balancing act in serving both their craft of fearless, quality journalism, as well as the well-being of the Jewish community. Most of the time they complement each other – good journalism and open, transparent debate is good for the community.

We live in a complex and often dangerous world, however, and there are times when the balancing act requires difficult choices.

Who is a Jew and what is authentic Jewish life to our readers? Sounds like a simple question to an outsider, but every Jew knows how contentious it is, like many other Jewish topics. Since the SAJR’s establishment as the sole paper serving South African Jewry, it has at various times been accused of everything from being too left-wing, right-wing, secular, religious, intellectual, folksy, sensational, and mild. You name it, it’s been thrown at us.

The Jewish world is pluralistic – our content has always reflected this. The editor of a legendary American Jewish weekly put it thus: “[A Jewish newspaper] reporting on the many aspects of Jewish cultural, political and religious life should be proof positive that We Are Not One. We Jews may be united in support of the State of Israel and the continuity of the Jewish People, but we are passionate and outspoken in our differing views about how best to ensure those and other goals.

“The more views that are reported on and reflected in the Jewish newspaper, the more vibrant the community – and the more reason younger people will want to identify with that community.”

Not everyone agrees. A letter-writer once told us to drop the word “Jewish” from our title because we were an “affront to true Judaism” by including non-Orthodox Jewish streams in our content.

An early challenge after launching was to establish ourselves as an “independent” paper, a platform for diverse news and open, vigorous debate – not to be any organisation’s or person’s deferential mouthpiece. Our first loyalty is to the truth.

Journalism is a craft, not an exact science. Therein lies the challenge – to do it with excellence. All papers sometimes get things wrong. The New York Times said in an editorial in 2003 apologising for an error: “The good of any particular institution depends on its people, but this one depends equally on the confidence that readers place in it, a confidence based on the belief that every day, the paper struggles mightily to get things right.

“Journalism is an imperfect business, the work of reporting, understanding and writing about the complexity of human affairs. Like all human enterprises, journalism is not perfectible. But it should always be heading in that direction.”

We are a patriotic South African paper committed to this country’s development and the myriad facets of Jewish involvement in it. Covering Israel and the Palestinians, however, is probably our most sensitive challenge. It has at times evoked disapproval of the paper, either for publishing material critical of Israel or not critical enough, depending on who you ask.

We once refused to publish an article submitted to us by a left-wing Jewish minister in the South African government, likening Israelis to Nazis and were slammed for supposedly suppressing freedom of speech. On another occasion we were accused of being “anti-Zionist” by a women’s Zionist group for not giving a large enough space to a report on a terrorist attack in Israel.

“If criticism comes from both sides, we must be doing something right” is the maxim serious newspapers reach for when attacked. A paper develops a thick skin. You can never please everyone, nor should you aim to. But the goal has always been to make SA Jews across the spectrum feel that the SAJR is “their” paper.

There have been charming and humorous moments. A distraught reader once called, who believed throwing pages of the Jewish Report away was forbidden because they contained words of Torah. “What should I do? These old papers are filling up my apartment,” she pleaded. We consulted a very senior rabbi, who told her it was halachically permitted to dispose of them.

The SA Jewish Report is part of a global network of Jewish papers, including the century-old London Jewish Chronicle; the New York Jewish Week, which reaches 90 000 households; The Forward in New York, established 100 years ago in Yiddish by legendary socialist Abe Cahan; and Israeli papers like the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Yediot Acharanot and a host of others.

At a Jewish editors’ conference in Jerusalem some years ago, the late Rabbi David Hartman, head of a think-tank on Jewish identity, who was an adviser on religious pluralism to several Israeli prime ministers, expressed wryly the difficulty Jewish editors face in being inclusive: “For Jewish papers, there will always be the frummies who say you are destroying Judaism, and there will always be the secularists who say you are trying to make them religious! Jewish newspapers are the public voice of the Jewish tradition. They must be the media of the best voices in the Jewish tradition.”

After these fascinating and exciting 16 years, I wish the SAJR and its new editor continuing success in carrying these best voices. It is a thrilling and worthy task.