Building a community

Editorial

The Jewish Independent cannot be everything to everyone. We know that there will always be articles in the paper that some people love and others hate, even though we never run articles to intentionally hurt or offend people. Our mission is to publish material – news, opinion and educational pieces – reflecting the diversity within our community. This is a task we pledge to continue in the new year.

When we first started down this road almost eight years ago, there was resistance from many of our readers. Anything we published that was critical of Israel, for example, made us anti-Israel. Anything we wrote that brought to light problems at a local organization was considered an inappropriate "airing of dirty laundry," even if Independent readers came to the organization's aid as a result.

Thankfully, most of those extreme reactions are behind us. With most readers, we have managed to build a relationship of trust, in which they're willing to forgive us if we stray from what they feel is the right path. They know that we are well-intentioned, if sometimes misguided or mistaken.

For our part, we have tried to acknowledge when we have erred. We run corrections on our Opinion page, as well as letters critical of our work. On several occasions, we have met with people face to face in order to address their concerns. For the most part, there is a mutual understanding that we at the Independent are doing the best we can to serve the community and the people with whom we deal are also doing the best they can for the community.

However, there are better and worse ways in which to collaborate. Bullying isn't acceptable on the school playground, so why do some people think that it's a viable way of getting their news into the paper? To those who decry us from the pulpit, those who pressure us with the loss of an advertisement if a story isn't published and those who attempt to use other forms of intimidation to get their articles into the paper, we recommend another approach: be nice. We'll still run your stories – if they're interesting and space permits – no matter how you treat us, but there's an adage worth noting: "As you build, such your house." What kind of community do we want to build?

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