Censored

NB: This article was not published, neither in this form nor in a drastically watered down version. It was felt that it was offensive to the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. That which might have been offensive, I agreed to omit. Nevertheless, the September 21, 2007 edition of the Jewish Voice and Herald appeared without its usual "From the Old Olivetti" column. People noticed.

If the postal service is on the ball, you'll receive this shortly before or on Yom Kippur. Around the globe Jews rise and confess their sins. “Avenu Malkenu (Our Father our King) forgive us for the sin of...” and then there is an alphabetical recitation of crimes against man and God. Here's my confession. I didn't actually do any of those things. I wouldn't even think of doing most of them. But, still, ritualistically I rise and recite; I beat my breast with the congregation around the world. Somebody did those things. In case he's busy and can't make it to schul, I'll ask for him to be forgiven.

But this I do confess in sincerity: Avenu Malkenu, I did not fight hard enough to prevent a stain from besmirching the Rhode Island Jewish community. I tried. Really I did. But I lost. This newspaper was conceived as a tool to aid the campaign of the Jewish Federation, and so it remained for several years. But for the past dozen years the editorial board has been struggling to give the paper credibility by expanding coverage beyond pictures of rich people at fund raising events, and puff pieces on the good work done by Federation and its agencies. Those still intrude, but of late we've diversified into hard news covering stories of Jews in local, national and world events that didn't make it into the ProJo. We have added columnists whose job is to express an opinion, not to serve as cheerleaders, sometimes critical of Federation and its agencies, sometimes critical of Israel. We've doubled our output, going from a monthly to a bi-weekly, increasing the number of pages, adding color, etc.

A few years ago the then editor, the late Jane Sprague, suggested we publish obituaries. The editorial board approved. The obituaries were a community service, a gift of the Federation newspaper to the bereaved. Rich or poor, important or unknown, what we received we printed. For the first time in their lives, the little guys in the community got recognition—though they had to die first.

Concurrently it was decided that the paper should break even. Now, half the paper is editorial content, half is adverts. But still there's a shortfall, covered by Federation. A business committee was established to figure out ways to reduce Federation's subvention. One idea was to charge for obituaries. “No!” I railed when this was brought to the editorial board. “The ProJo does it.” “I didn't care. It's not Jewish.” “But Jewish papers do it.” “I didn't care—they are not behaving as Jews.” I lost the argument and a few weeks ago an announcement was posted that we would start charging for obituaries beginning September 1. (The implied suggestion, of course, was you were smart enough to die in August you'd beat the fee.)

What does this mean? It means that even in death the little guy and his family are to be marginalized. At least three people were so upset about this outrage that they wrote to the paper in protest. The Rhode Island Board of Rabbis voted unanimously to oppose the decision.

The business committee asks, “How else can we raise the money to meet the deficit?” Well, frankly, that's their problem, not mine, but here are some answers. Make the fee optional; start charging Federation for the advertising it puts onto our pages; increase the cost of commercial advertising; find an angel willing to make a whopping contribution (give the person naming rights—The Menachim Pupick Jewish Gazette has a nice ring to it); start charging a subscription fee; sell donuts in the lobby; cease publication.

But in the end all of these solutions fail to recognize that the job of Federation is to give money away! It raises $4,000,000 a year, keeps some to pay salaries and expenses and then apportions the rest to the Bureau of Jewish Education, to the Family Service, to schools to the JCC, and to this newspaper, no longer merely its shill, but now a valuable resource to the community. Every dollar Federation spends on the paper is not spent at the Seniors' Agency, but every dollar spent at the Senior's Agency is not spent at the Bureau. Which is more important, seniors or students? It's a stupid question. They are equally important. So is this newspaper, the one that contains this column you have read till nearly the end.

Avenu Malkenu, forgive us for even thinking of trying to balance our budget on the backs of the grieving poor.