May 20, 2013: Efforts underway to save the Canadian Jewish News

By Michael Regenstreif

In the last issue in this space, I wrote about the sad news that the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) would cease publication with its June 20 issue and noted the grassroots petition at savethecjn.com. The petition quickly blossomed into Project CJN 2.0, an online brainstorming session to come up with ideas that would keep the CJN alive and reposition it for the future.

Interestingly, the Toronto-based activists who organized the petition and Project CJN 2.0 are Alana Kayfetz and Rachel Singer, a pair of 29-year-olds from the heart of the under-40 demographic that studies tell us don’t read or care about newspapers. Many Bulletin readers will remember Kayfetz from her time working with students at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University as Hillel Ottawa’s executive director from 2008 to 2010.

Thanks to the quickly organized campaign, and to the response from shocked readers, the CJN board of directors has announced “an all-out effort to save the print edition of the newspaper” that would involve new financing, campaigns to increase subscriptions and advertising, building a financial cushion, and a streamlined operation. Marty Goldberg, who is leading the CJN board’s efforts, set a deadline of May 31 for the effort to succeed.

As I noted last issue, newspapers are an essential part of the glue that holds a community together, and Jewish communities, in particular, have a rich tradition of such newspapers. And I am reminded of the importance of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin as our community’s newspaper almost every time I speak to someone, whether it’s on the phone or in the hallways and locker room of the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, or when I attend a community event.

To be sure, the Bulletin faces some of the same challenges that led to the initial announcement the CJN would close – particularly in attracting young readers. So it’s heartening to see the groundswell of support for the CJN has been led by young people. Our own project to redesign our print edition, launch a dynamic online Bulletin and develop more content that speaks to the concerns of younger readers – while still serving our traditional readers as well as, or even better than, we have in the past – points to an exciting future for this newspaper.

As a Jewish community journalist, I’ve found it dismaying that Toronto and Montreal’s Jewish communities – which together number more than half of Canada’s Jewish community – would lose their community newspaper. Here’s hoping the CJN’s last-minute efforts will be successful.

Stephen Hawking

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has joined the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement and cancelled his participation in Facing Tomorrow 2013: The Human Factor in Shaping Tomorrow, the Israeli Presidential Conference taking place June 18 to 20 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Under the guidance of Israeli President Shimon Peres, the almost-annual conference founded in 2008 has become one of the world’s most important and prestigious conferences for the presentation and discussion of ideas for the future. The conference attracts academics, scientists, philosophers, statesmen and even royalty and celebrities from around the world.

Hawking, in a May 3 letter to the conference, wrote: “I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this, I must withdraw from the conference. Had I attended, I would have stated my opinion that the policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster.”

In the case of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, academic and artistic boycotts are not a way forward to peace – they only serve to harden attitudes and alienate populations when, if anything, they need to be brought together in dialogue.

Hawking may well think Israeli policy toward the Palestinians “is likely to lead to disaster.” There are many Israelis who would agree. But he should go to Israel and say so, and say why. And he could offer advice or ideas that might help solve problems that have been intractable for far too long.

And perhaps Hawking could also offer some analysis of Palestinian policies that have been every bit as responsible – if not more so – in keeping the peace process from moving forward much faster and much more efficiently than it has.

Visionary events like the Israeli Presidential Conference help make the world a better place. Boycotts don’t help at all.

May 6, 2013: Loss of the Canadian Jewish News a severe blow to Canada’s Jewish community

By Michael Regenstreif

As noted in a brief report on page 17, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) announced, April 22, that it would cease publication with its issue of June 20. It was a sad and most unwelcome announcement for those of us who practise Jewish community journalism, indeed, for the entire Canadian Jewish community, particularly those in Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest Jewish communities – the markets the CJN primarily served.

The CJN published Toronto and Montreal editions. Each edition had its own local news stories, columnists and ads, and the two editions shared major stories, columnists and nationally targeted advertising.

As it happened, I had a phone conversation with Mordechai Ben-Dat, the CJN editor, at about 9:45 that morning. A few hours later, after the closure announcement was posted on the CJN website, I emailed Mordechai to say how shocked and saddened I was by the news; that I’d had no idea this was happening when we chatted earlier. In his response, he told me the CJN staff received the news at 10 am – a few minutes after we got off the phone.

I had a long history with the Canadian Jewish News. As a freelance reporter and feature writer for the CJN in Montreal from 1990 until my move here to work at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin in 2007, I wrote countless articles for the CJN. Although I’d been writing for newspapers – primarily the Montreal Gazette – and magazines for many years, mostly as an arts journalist, and continued to do so after I started with the CJN, it was my entry into Jewish community journalism. I’ve continued to read every issue of the CJN since my move to Ottawa – the Montreal edition, which we receive at home, and the Toronto edition, which comes to the Bulletin office.

The CJN’s journalists are among my colleagues in the small field of Jewish community journalism – and some of them are friends – so this bad news hits close to home.

At first, there was some hope the CJN would survive as an online news site.

“If the CJN is to be a vibrant part of the future, it will only be as an enhanced and expanded digital edition. That is our hope. However, the CJN will disappear from your mailboxes and the newsstands,” wrote Donald Carr, the CJN’s board president, in the initial ‘message to our readers’ posted on the CJN website.

A second message, headlined “The CJN to close,” posted later in the day was more telling.

“The Canadian Jewish News will cease publishing in two months,” it read. “The board of directors arrived at the decision on Friday, April 19, having regard to the fact that there were still assets on hand with which to provide meaningful severance to the newspaper’s employees and to wind up operations properly.”

The CJN has about 50 employees plus freelance contributors and there’s been no mention that anyone would be retained to develop or staff an enhanced and expanded digital website. It just can’t be done without editors and writers to develop content and some sort of sales staff to make it economically viable.

Within a day or so of the CJN’s closure announcement, an online petition to save the CJN was launched. Although more than 1,500 electronic signatures were garnered in its first few days, its success is probably a very long shot.

Newspapers are an essential part of the glue that holds a community together. Jewish communities, in particular, have a rich tradition of community newspapers. The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, for example, has been part of this community’s fabric for more than 75 years. The communities served by the CJN will be much poorer without it.

The whole nature of newspaper and magazine publishing is changing very rapidly in this digital age. Although the Bulletin has a loyal subscriber base, evidence shows that many, particularly young adults, are turning away from print and toward their screens.

That’s why the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin is currently in the process of redesigning and modernizing our print edition and preparing a new and dynamic Bulletin website as part of our strategy to carry us forward in a way that continues to serve our traditional readers and brings many new and younger readers onboard. We’re scheduled to re-launch the Bulletin with our Chanukah community-wide issue in November.