By Michael Regenstreif
There are primarily three different kinds of articles that we publish in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. There is a different approach applied to each of these kinds of articles.
The first are news stories, which are usually written by Bulletin staff or assigned to freelance reporters, or taken from JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), the wire service to which almost all mainstream Jewish newspapers in the Diaspora subscribe.
We strive for measured objectivity in our news stories. The personal opinion of the reporters and editors should be irrelevant. When we cover a speaker at an event, we report on what the speaker has to say in the news story, not what our personal feelings happen to be about what the speaker has to say.
For example, I disagreed with much of what the well-known American commentator Daniel Pipes had to say when he spoke in Ottawa in 2008. But my news article was about what he said, not what I felt about what he said. Rereading the article more than three years later, I can confirm that my personal opinions were, indeed, irrelevant to the story I wrote.
The second kind of article we run are submissions that come from the various agencies and organizations in our community. The byline for such a submission will generally include the name of the organization that submitted the article, along with the name of the author. These articles might include news about the organization or its programs, or previews and reviews of its events. We edit such articles for space and newspaper style and fact-check the accuracy of what is said to the best of our ability. But, essentially, such articles reflect the message of the organizations that submit them.
The third kind of article we publish in the Bulletin are opinion-driven and include all of our various columns, guest columns and letters-to-the-editor. These pieces generally reflect the opinion of the individual, or, in some cases, the organization they represent. Such submissions are also edited for space, newspaper style and, when appropriate, fact-checked.
But we do not censor our columnists’ opinions. Within the mandate of their column, they are free to say what they want to say.
In a diverse community, and in a community newspaper that welcomes diversity of opinion, not everyone will agree with everything written in our opinion columns. Nor should they, and nor should a columnist generally refrain from expressing an opinion because someone will disagree or because someone with a vested interest will take offence.
Last issue, one of our columnists expressed a critical opinion that made some people angry – and that some people applauded in agreement. By press time, one person wrote a reasoned response, which is published in our Mailbag on page 8.
As I noted in a column last year when another columnist expressed an opinion that made some people angry, none of our opinion columnists, including me, has a monopoly on truth. You might agree with some things our columnists write and disagree with others. I’m the editor and I don’t agree with every opinion expressed in our pages.
If you want to dispute or applaud something you read in the Bulletin, please do so. Write a letter-to-the-editor or submit a guest column. While personal attacks are unacceptable, feel free to argue with opinions.
Yours is just as important.
East of Berlin
The night before this issue went to press, I attended the opening of Hannah Moscovitch’s East of Berlin at the Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC). I read the play a few weeks ago in preparation for an interview with Moscovitch published last issue so I knew it was a very strong work. But reading it on the page and seeing it come to life on stage are two different things.
In East of Berlin, Moscovitch explores the effect of the Holocaust on the son of a Nazi war criminal wracked by the guilt never felt by his father.
There are strong themes, language and sexuality, which make the play inappropriate for children, but the GCTC production, well acted by an all-local cast, is the most powerful play I’ve seen recently. It continues at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre until April 8.
Passover
Passover, which I’ve always found to be the most inspiring of Jewish holidays, is almost upon us. As we sit down at our seder tables to retell the story of Moses leading the Children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt thousands of years ago, we should not forget the continuing relevance of the story in our own time in a world that still knows too much repression and even slavery. Until freedom reigns in every corner of the world, the journey begun by Moses continues.
On behalf of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I wish all a Chag Sameach.
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