The Southern Jewish Weekly

AN UNHAPPY EDITOR

We have just received a letter from an old friend - a fellow graduate in journalism at the University of Florida - who publishes a Jewish weekly newspaper on the West Coast. We have followed his career with a great deal of interest. He has done an excellent job and publishes a fine paper, but despite the outstanding success he has made, he calls himself "a very unhappy editor."

"There are some Jews," he says, "and thank God only a few, who will not subscribe to my paper. They belong to that cowardly shah-shah type who want to hush up anything Jewish. If they are anti-Zionist they are particularly vituperative and say that my pro-Zionist policy is non-representative. Perhaps now that the Jewish State is a fact, they will change their views and look upon my policy as one which was bound to be right and has been proven as such. There are a few, who, even though approving my Zionist position, have resented my solicitation of ads from non-Jews, claiming that the advertiser is being misled in thinking that the payment for the advertisement is supposed to go to some Jewish charity. While you and I know that this is a ridiculous assumption and the critics should know better, their unfair attitude has made me very unhappy.

There are a dozen or more weekly newspapers in my community with far less circulation which sell their advertising on the same basis I sell mine, on the merits of the paper. And we have some anti-Semites who buy advertising from other papers, but who never give us any, saying their budgets are used up, etc. A few actually tell us they have no use for Jews or Jewish customers. And there are yet a few Jewish critics who resent the success my paper is making because of pure jealousy and personal reasons. They claim that my newspaper is a private enterprise and gives the impression of being a public institution. You and I know that there are hundreds of Jewish newspapers, as well as thousands of non-denominational papers, which are privately owned and operated and which render a great public service.

I think that my paper and yours especially render that outstanding service to Jewry and give so much and get so little in return.

To my unhappy colleague I give my sympathy. To his critics I say this: What are YOU doing to promote Jewish education and Jewish learning, to provide Jewry with a medium for literary expression, to inform and enlighten so many of your co-religionists, to get out on the street and talk to thousands of Christians IT MEANS TO BE A JEW. Perhaps the critic himself would like to know.

To my unhappy colleague I also give encouragement. During the years you will find inner satisfaction in knowing that you are doing a great job for your people in promoting good will and understanding.

Some days you will feel like a rabbi because of educational material in your periodical; on other days you will feel like a prophet because your editorials have borne fruit as predicted. You will learn to share the joys and sorrows of your readers and feel almost as if you belong to their families. Do not despair.

PAUL M. DURHAM