A World in Flux: Jewish Journalism Struggles to Survive / Shalom Hartman Institute / 2018
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A WORLD IN FLUX JEWISH JOURNALISM Around the World JEWISH JOURNALISM STRUGGLES TO SURVIVE Jewish media outside North America reflect the countries and communities in which they work. With few exceptions, they face existential struggles. They wish for and need more resources, influence, and contact with Israel and North America. ALAN D. ABBEY MAX MOSER Shalom Hartman Institute Jerusalem, Israel June 2018 A World in Flux: Jewish Journalism Struggles to Survive / Shalom Hartman Institute / 2018 Authors Alan D. Abbey is Director of Media at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, which he joined in 2008 after a 30-year career in journalism in the U.S. and Israel. He founded Ynetnews.com, the English-language website of Israel’s largest media company, Yedioth Ahronoth, and was Executive Vice President for Electronic Publishing at the Jerusalem Post. Alan is Adjunct Professor of Journalism at National University of San Diego, and ethics lecturer for the Getty School of Citizen Journalism in the Middle East and North Africa. He was a leader of the Online News Association's digital ethics team, which created the “Build Your Own Ethics Code” course and website and chaired the Hartman Institute-American Jewish Press Association Ethics Project. Alan is the author of Journey of Hope: The Story of Ilan Ramon, Israel's First Astronaut. He has a Master's Degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon. He is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children. [email protected] | @alanabbey Max Moser was a 2016-2017 Begin Fellow and research and marketing associate at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He joined the Hartman team after five years in the market research industry, conducting research surveys and studies for many of the world's Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, and also after a brief stint working with AIPAC in Los Angeles. Max is a 2011 graduate in communication from Arizona State University and made aliyah to Israel in the summer of 2017. He works in high-tech in Tel Aviv. [email protected] The Shalom Hartman Institute is a pluralistic center of research and education deepening and elevating the quality of Jewish life in Israel and around the world. Through our work, we are redefining the conversation about Judaism in modernity, religious pluralism, Israeli democracy, Israel and world Jewry, and the relationship with other faith communities. The Hartman Institute's work focuses on five “pillars”: • Judaism and Modernity • Religious Pluralism • Jewish and Democratic Israel • Jewish Peoplehood • Judaism and the World hartman.org.il - 1 - A World in Flux: Jewish Journalism Struggles to Survive / Shalom Hartman Institute / 2018 Acknowledgements This research report could not have been completed without the support of many colleagues, friends, and family. The authors would like to thank past and present leadership of the Shalom Hartman Institute, led by its President, Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, for their ongoing encouragement of this and earlier research. Present leadership that has supported this project includes Shiri Mersel, Mick Weinstein, and Yehuda Kurtzer. Laura Gilinski and Hana Gilat, who left the Institute in 2017, were helpful and supportive in the project's opening days. Of course, this study could not have been completed or even attempted without the willing participation of more than 50 journalists across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. We are grateful for their help and admire the way they persist in their important and underappreciated work, often in difficult conditions. We especially want to thank the individuals who allowed us to conduct extensive interviews with them by telephone. Not everyone wished to have their name included, but those who can be named are. Ianai Silberstein deserves added special acknowledgement for translating our survey into Spanish. The answers and comments we received from Latin America and Spain from Spanish-speaking journalists enriched the final report. Marshall Weiss, publisher of the Dayton Jewish Chronicle, and others at the American Jewish Press Association have been supportive of our research into the field of Jewish media for the last five years, and we look forward to further cooperation in the future. Alan would like to add special thanks to Max Moser for his dedication to this project throughout his year at the Hartman Institute as a special research associate. A great deal of this project, from the conceptualizing of the questionnaire, to follow-up interviews, to data analysis, and writing belong to him. It would have been impossible without him. Alan D. Abbey Max Moser Jerusalem, Israel June 2018 - 2 - A World in Flux: Jewish Journalism Struggles to Survive / Shalom Hartman Institute / 2018 Contents Authors .............................................................................................................................. - 1 - Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... - 2 - Executive Summary, Key Findings, and Recommendations .............................................. - 4 - Key Recommendations ...................................................................................................... - 5 - Introduction ....................................................................................................................... - 6 - The World of Journalism Today ......................................................................................... - 7 - Minority Group Journalism in the Twenty-First Century .................................................. - 9 - Summary and Outcomes of the 2013 Survey .................................................................. - 11 - Why is This Study Being Done Now? ............................................................................... - 12 - Why is it Important that Jewish Journalists Succeed in Their Profession? ..................... - 13 - History of Diaspora Jewish Media ................................................................................... - 16 - Jewish Media Journalists in the Diaspora and North America ........................................ - 22 - Journalists and the Jewish Community ........................................................................... - 27 - Jewish Journalism is a Labor of Love, Not Money ........................................................... - 28 - Engagement with Israel ................................................................................................... - 31 - Jewish Journalists and Anti-Semitism .............................................................................. - 36 - Does Jewish Journalism Have a Future? .......................................................................... - 40 - Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................................... - 43 - Study Methodology ......................................................................................................... - 45 - Appendix 1: World Jewish Media .................................................................................... - 46 - Appendix 2: 'Reporting Jewish' Survey ............................................................................ - 49 - Endnotes and References ................................................................................................ - 55 - - 3 - A World in Flux: Jewish Journalism Struggles to Survive / Shalom Hartman Institute / 2018 Executive Summary, Key Findings, and Recommendations Jewish media outside North America are run by dedicated individuals, who report for and manage their newspapers, radio stations, and TV programs out of a desire to support their communities, inform the outside world about Jewish life in their countries, and to keep a connection to Jews in North America and Israel. But their challenges are fierce, and they need help and support. They need to know that their efforts are important, that the rest of the Jewish world is paying attention to them, and that they are part of the larger Jewish world, including Israel. The number of Jewish media entities worldwide has shrunk by more than two-thirds in the past century, with Europe the hardest-hit. These results reflect the concentration of Jewish population worldwide in Israel and North America, which together account for fully 83 percent of the world's Jews. 1 Despite the decline in Jewish life and Jewish media in the Diaspora outside North America, Jewish media journalists worldwide are close cousins. Our research found significant similarities in their demographic, educational, professional, and Jewish affiliations. 2 Diaspora Jewish media outside North America believe that their role is to support their communities and Israel, and not be critical of them, while American Jewish media hew closely to Western norms of detached observers eager to uncover problems. 3 The journalists in the current survey feel deeply connected to Israel. They have visited Israel more often than their North American cousins, are unwilling to report critically on Israel, and rate Israel's meaning and centrality to the Jewish people more highly than Americans do. 4 Jewish journalists outside North America put on a brave front, but our survey data tell a different story. Other than in English-speaking countries, Diaspora Jewish journalists are cataloguing the slow but inevitable decline of their communities, while facing rising anti-Semitism at home. 5 - 4 - A World in Flux: Jewish