Sivan Rahav-Meir in the TV studio of Channel 2 News, Israel. Photo: Ofir Hadad
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Hundreds attend RahavMeir’s weekly shiurim in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
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president of Israel, or a former prime minister, go to jail. Although you cover it [because] ‘Wow, it’s exclusive,’ you feel badly. [On the positive side,] I’ve covered very meaningful funerals—Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Arik Einstein (the famous singer) . . . I like to report on things that have a touch of destiny. And I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many people I think of as holy—families of the terror victims, whose stories I cover a lot, unfortunately. You have to go to the shivah and speak to people. It’s a tragedy, but sometimes it’s the only chance to bring such messages to prime time.” When asked to recall the most fascinating interview she’s conducted, Rahav-Meir replies, “I’m still looking for it.” As a rare Orthodox Jew in the secular Israeli media, Rahav-Meir has experienced her share of dilemmas when the ideologies of her two worlds collide. “I think the hardest thing for me as a journalist is covering religion, because the media assumes that Judaism is a problem,” she says. “The media is seeking instances where religion is excessive, extreme. As if we have to ‘solve’ it somehow. It took me a few years to understand that I’m playing the wrong game because I think Judaism is a solution, not a problem. I can’t wake up [and look for] a settler or the ultra-Orthodox or a rabbi who is not politically correct enough for the media [to lambast]. So I stopped [working on those kinds of stories.] “[I’ve also had to counter the mindset that] if you come from the Orthodox sector, you’re suspected of not being objective. Supposedly, if you’re a secular Ashkenazi left-wing journalist from Tel Aviv, you’re objective. [But really] there’s no such thing as an objective journalist—we all have our opinions. [When] people insinuate, ‘Hey, that’s your own point of view,’ I reply that what they are saying is not Torah 34
JEWISH ACTION Winter 5778/2017
The hardest thing for me as a journalist is covering religion, because the media assumes that Judaism is a problem. mi’Sinai, it’s not an eternal truth either, it’s also their point of view. There are many points of view here. “I think the media doesn’t cover the real things that are happening,” continues Rahav-Meir. “Take Selichot, for example. Every year 100,000 people come to the Kotel for the last night of Selichot. The Kotel plaza is full [but it’s not covered in the news]. [And yet,] when an old band comes to sing in Ramat Gan’s park and draws 1,000 or 10,000 people, the media will livestream the event and all the reporters will be there. I think Selichot is a mega event. We should be there live with the studio. That’s one example, but I've seen it many times.” Though her career as a TV and radio personality continues, Rahav-Meir’s parashah class is her passion now. She says that two things changed that engendered this metamorphosis, this new mission in life, that manifests itself in her classes and columns and on social media. First of all, the media works differently today, she says. During the years that she covered the Supreme Court, the Knesset and politics, people would wait for the news at night [to find out the day’s news.] But today everyone knows everything immediately, so there