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www.jewishnews.co.uk
Jewish News 4 August 2022
Opinion
Our Jewish media should follow America’s example MARCUS DYSCH
HEAD OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, ORT
W
hen you visit America you know what to expect. Everything is so big family cars the size of minibuses; dinner plates piled to mountainous heights; single occupancy hotel rooms that have two kingsize beds (what is that all about?). As I witnessed on my visit to Atlanta, Georgia, last month, the States are also home to a Jewish media landscape that dwarfs anything we see in Britain and across continental Europe combined. My presence at the American Jewish Press Association’s annual conference was primarily to present an award for writing about education issues on behalf of my organisation, World ORT, the global education network driven by Jewish values, and our American fundraising arm, ORT America. But as a former journalist myself, what I also experienced was a thought-provoking
insight into the changing role of Jewish media organisations. Publications with exotic titles such as the Intermountain Jewish News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the St Louis Jewish Light were among those represented. The journalists and news executives themselves were a similarly colourful bunch. But for all their joviality they had a less happy story to report. In a crowded market the American publications have been forced to do whatever they can to diversify their products, add extra value and – in contrast to what we have seen in Britain – co-operate with each other to ensure their collective survival. Many are long-standing, well-respected titles struggling to hold back waves of challenges: the soaring cost of printing, plummeting advertising revenue, ageing readers whose children and grandchildren have not bought a newspaper for years and probably never will do again. Sounds familiar? The state of British media – Jewish or not – is a microcosm of this. The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York
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JEWISH-AMERICAN TITLES, IN CONTRAST TO THE UK, WORK AS ONE TO ENSURE SURVIVAL Times columnist Bret Stephens presented a withering analysis of the US media’s many ills and the industry’s almost total fall from grace in the eyes of a distrusting public. But he also lamented the state of a society in which 130 million American adults cannot read above the level of a 12-year-old. His strongest criticism was reserved for the impact of social media on the traditional media and its readers. Stephens questioned the media’s unwillingness to act as a countercultural force. Why not present more good news stories about people being nice to each other? Why pander to online algorithms that promote nastiness, rather than give people what they really want?
That positive approach is one we see daily at ORT – and which our tens of thousands of students actively pursue and promote. Our schools, universities and vocational training programmes in more than 30 countries are packed with young people whose priorities appear somewhat different to their elders’. They are passionate about climate change and projects promoting sustainability. They understand what it means to be a global citizen in an increasingly interconnected world. Furthermore, they are committed to understanding their Jewish history and gaining the skills they need for life after the classroom. These young people are, in short, mensches, and their positivity gives us hope for the future. Our British Jewish media arena may be smaller than on the other side of the Atlantic, but if our publications can follow the American blueprint and invest in telling great stories while providing fresh opportunities, then they too can be a source of pride for our community for many years to come.
These Games hark back to that golden summer LAURA MARKS
FOUNDER, MITZVAH DAY
B
irmingham is proudly hosting the Commonwealth Games. The opening ceremony was spectacular, watched by millions. The Games, which attracts competitors from around the vast Commonwealth family of 54 nations, say they are committed to “embrace and champion the youth, diversity, humanity and pride of the region and the Commonwealth” and “transform and strengthen local communities” . Ten years on I can’t help but hark back to the splendour of the London Olympics and to consider both how the world has changed since 2012 and to reflect on the Jewish response to the two global events. A year before the Olympic doors opened across the capital, I remember the frenzy of planning, ticket-buying and diarising, with everyone determined to be a part of this all-encompassing event. We were brimming, even before the cascade of British medals, with national pride. The Jewish community, too, was on heat – no holds barred – to ensure that every Jewish athlete and visitor was welcomed, fed, watered
and, ideally, escorted to shul. Jewish volunteering was pumped up for the occasion (led by Leonie Lewis, who sadly died in April) and cross-communal committees planned meticulously and for months a series of welcomes, receptions and Jewish fact sheets. We all had Jewish friends in the welcome ceremony – dressed as goats or NHS workers, taking time off work for rehearsals and costume fittings ready for the sumptuous and spectacular opening ceremony. As the journalist Steve Rose reflected last week in the Guardian: “The ceremony feels more dreamlike than ever. This was Britain as a rich, diverse, multicultural, imaginative, inventive nation comfortable with its identity and capable of reconciling its contradictions.” Ten years have taken their toll on the nation, with the process of Brexiting and the pandemic most obviously tearing into its very soul. The expansion of the internet into every aspect of our lives (who can even remember pre-social media?) and the resultant explosion in hate speech, then Partygate, the cost of living crisis and the prosect of sending refugees to Rwanda have all divided, not united us. And what of the Jewish community over these past 10 years? While there have been controversies on the edges of the community, such as kaddish for Gaza, JVL and Charedim
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IT’S TIME TO WIN SOME MEDALS, AND MAYBE TO INVITE SOME OF THE JEWISH VISITORS TO SHUL Commonwealth, Britain houses the largest Jewish community, with some countries, such as Zimbabwe, Barbados and Malta, retaining barely a handful. The two-yearold Commonwealth Jewish Women’s Network really does feel like the much-discussed ‘Commonwealth Family’. Our women, often the local machers and matriarchs, come together to share thoughts on Jewish education, interfaith relaLast week’s eyecatching opening ceremony in Birmingham tions, domestic violence and, of course, in small communities, future leadership. It enriches in yellow stars, in many ways we have grown more cohesive – possibly helped by the Jeremy our Jewish world but would have been a fantasy 10 years ago, before the Zoom era. Corbyn years. Certainly, in the CommonWe welcome the athletes and visitors of wealth the community has come together, all faiths and backgrounds to multicultural, supported and connected by the Commonmultifaith Birmingham and look forward to a wealth Jewish Council, revamped in 2015. wonderful celebration of sport. With America and Israel both outside the