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July 5, 2002
Voices of our community
Should the Jewish Bulletin be a PR magazine or reflect
reality?
KYLE BERGER AND CYNTHIA RAMSAY
In the June 21 issue of the Jewish Western Bulletin, we
ran a cover story reporting Or Shalom Rabbi David Mivasair's attendance
and comments at a symposium on the Middle East. In that same issue,
we ran an opinion piece by MP Svend Robinson who defended his recent
controversial trip to Israel. The response from many readers has
been interesting. Rather than being angry with what Mivasair or
Robinson actually said, some readers are angry at the Bulletin
for running these stories. The main rationale is that the views
of Mivasair and Robinson do not represent the majority of the Jewish
community and, therefore, they should not appear in the Jewish community
newspaper. We respectfully disagree.
We might agree that some of Mivasair's views are not representative
of the Jewish community at large – although he strongly believes
in Israel's right to exist and that it is the homeland of the Jewish
people. And we acknowledge that Robinson isn't a member of the Jewish
community. Why then did we run their stories? Why do we run any
articles about people who hold controversial, minority views in
the community, especially when we risk losing subscriptions and
advertising revenue every time we do?
Since we bought the paper more than three years ago, the mission
of the Bulletin has been to reach and reflect every branch
of British Columbia's Jewish community, bridging numerous religious,
ethnic and political divides. We accomplish this by maintaining
a stringent adherence to freedom of debate within our pages.
We have chosen this mission because we feel that it is the most
valuable role we can play in the community. We are not a public
relations magazine or an oversized promotional pamphlet. We want
to provoke thought, promote education, create dialogue and offer
a truthful and open-minded view on issues pertinent to the community.
We cover such distasteful topics as the writings of the late Doug
Collins and the efforts of groups like Jews-for-Jesus because pretending
that they aren't there will not make them or their ideas go away.
Jewish and general history has proven repeatedly that ignorance
is not the "bliss" it is said to be. Only if we are aware
that these people and these groups exist can we organize our community
to counter their misinformation and stem their influence.
As well, it would be a disservice to the community for us to ignore
the many challenges and battles we face as Jews, both here and in
Israel.
The Palestinian people play a very significant role – both
positive and negative – in the lives of our friends and families
in Israel. As much as some people would like to pretend that this
is not the case, it is. We feel that we do the community a better
service by informing them about what the Palestinians and their
supporters are discussing and doing than by avoiding the topics
and allowing our community to remain ignorant about the issues.
Someone like Robinson has touched our community, even though he
is not Jewish and whether or not we agree with his views. After
his trip to Israel, where he tried to meet with Yasser Arafat and
during which he expressed his sympathies for the plight of the Palestinian
people, Robinson had the Middle East file removed from his foreign
affairs duties by New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough. Why?
Because his actions enraged many Jewish and non-Jewish Canadians.
What if the media had decided not to report any news of his trip?
What if the reactions criticizing his visit had not been covered?
It is precisely because the media covered Robinson's junket that
he was called on to take responsibility for his actions.
Knowing that he upset many of us, Robinson requested an "audience"
with our community, through the Bulletin. We granted him
this audience because we accept that there are many different sides
to any story and because – regardless of our own personal views
on the matter – we know that there are people in our community
who happen to agree with Robinson's assessment of the situation
in the Middle East. And for the people who disagree with him, we
feel it is important nonetheless for you to know where he stands,
especially given that he is a democratically elected member of Parliament.
It would be easy for us to produce a community paper that ignored
the not-so-rosy truths or the opinions with which we disagree. No
doubt this would serve to create an environment of contentment and
complacency, and many of our readers would prefer this to our even
pointing out basic problems in our community. But, for example,
if we didn't publish that there are many Jews in our community living
below the poverty line, would people know they need to make donations
of time and money to the Jewish Family Service Agency or the Kosher
Food Bank? If we didn't let people know that Beth Hamidrash was
having financial trouble, would people have contributed as much
as they did?
As well, imagine what would happen if we only covered events and
opinions reflecting the majority. You would never hear about Chabad
or Community Kollel events, concerts at the Peretz Centre or the
initiatives of Canadian Friends of Hebrew University. In fact, if
we were to try and represent the majority of Jews in British Columbia,
we would probably be more secular than anything else. After all,
if Statistics Canada is to be believed, there are some 30,000 Jews
living in British Columbia, yet the longest mailing list of Jews
in the community has fewer than 10,000 names. That means another
20,000 are not affiliated with synagogues, community organizations
or other Jewish community institutions.
There is much anxiety about the control that CanWest Global has
over the mainstream media. People were up in arms – and rightly
so – when they found out that journalists may have been fired
for criticizing the prime minister. There is an inherent understanding
of the importance of a free press to a democratic regime that respects
basic human rights and freedoms.
When it comes down to it, no matter how angry you get when you read
about this one per cent of the community or that one per cent of
the community who don't represent your views, remember this: What
if it were your voice that we chose not to hear?
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