I love it when this happens

By Paul Haist

The current lively letters column in the Jewish Review warms my heart. I love it when this happens. This is what I would like every edition of the Jewish Review to be, a spirited forum for the airing and exchange of ideas, even with a little bite in the rhetoric now and then.

However, in the current exchange some have suggested to me that I should not have published in the Feb. 15 paper the comments of Sandy Polishuk and Joel Glick, co-chairs of the Oregon chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, and Jonathan and Ruthie Moss, Israelis currently living in Portland.

Glick and Jonathan Moss contacted the Review in advance to request permission to write longish pieces in response to the Feb. 1 column by Robert Horenstein.

One reader said we were remiss in not confirming that the Mosses are Jewish and Israeli citizens.

The same reader said the editor of the Jewish Review does not represent their point of view.

The editor of the Jewish Review does not represent anyone’s point of view. I am here to moderate the discussion.

As a federation newspaper, it is vital that the Jewish Review be welcome in every Jewish home. The federation’s mission is vastly more important than the editor’s opinion on some burning issue.

To that end, the editor does not permit himself to be identified with any perspective on contentious issues other than a commitment to the open and free exchange of ideas.

If the Review were not a federation paper, then the paper might take stands on various disputed issues, but—with some exceptions—that is not the proper role of a paper whose publisher relies absolutely on the widespread good will of the Jewish community.

While the federation’s paper stands resolutely in support of Israel, the federation’s paper does not presume to know the answers for Israel. There is no shortage of opinion about what Israel’s proper course should be. The Jewish Review’s job is to present those opinions, not to endorse them. We trust our readers to make up their own minds, and we rely on them to understand the proper role of a federation newspaper.

The Jewish Review is a Jewish forum, but one need not be Jewish to share in this forum. The Jewish Review does not require proof of citizenship or ethnicity before allowing individuals to participate in this forum.

It is the opinion that is important, not whether the holder of that opinion can pass some personal litmus test.

Neither I nor the Jewish Review vets opinion based on irrelevant characteristics of the person offering the opinion. We afford everyone the courtesy of taking them at their word unless and until it is demonstrated that there is sound reason not to do so. We don’t insult them by questioning the validity of their opinion based on their ethnicity, religion or nationality.

Ethnicity, religion and nationality may inform or color opinion. Our understanding of the person stating the opinion may be enriched if we know those things about them. But those things do not affect the intrinsic merit of an opinion, which is its bottom line.

On the opinion pages of the Jewish Review the subject is opinion. The subject is not the person stating the opinion.

As for not publishing opinions that some among us may consider distasteful or anathema to Jewish interests, the very suggestion of such a practice is antithetical to Jewish interests and values—not to mention reflective of a low opinion of the First Amendment.

Look at the last two editions of this paper. Jews don’t just disagree among themselves; the argument gets downright rabid—and even smartly elegant; read Morris Engelson’s letter below for the latter.

Some among us may disagree mightily on important issues, as the current letters to the editor amply demonstrate, but when the subject is of vital interest to the Jewish community, this is the place for that dissent to appear. We should welcome the discussion, not calculate to stifle it.

As for concern over what the non-Jewish community might think about dissent among Jews—another mentioned this—we should be proud of the values that allow us to speak openly about ourselves. Moreover, having the discussion is inherently important and there is no better place than here.

Finally, to share an opinion in a forum created for that purpose is not to endorse that opinion nor does sharing an opinion necessarily reflect anything about the moderator other than that he or she is committed to fair play and balance.

So, keep those cards and letters coming—we prefer e-mail.