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good morning. welcome to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. faith communities across the country pay a lot of attention to the ways in which it communicates the goings on of its particular community to itself and to the world. we'd like to invite you into a wonderful conversation with steve gelman, the publisher and sue fish, the copy editor of "the jewish news of northern california." welcome. >> thank you. it's great to be here. >> thank you very much, eric. >> let's jump in, sue, and tell us what is "j. the jewish news of california." >> we've only been around 120 years, but many people don't know we exist. many people who donate to their local jewish federation will get "j." newspaper in their mailbox and

won't know why. they haven't subscribed. that's because they get it as part of their donation. people ask what is a jewish newspaper, right? so, we look at ourselves as a way to understand the world through a jewish lens, but that's not an uncritical lens and it is not a uniform view. it is a way to give a sense of identity and of belonging to the approximately 400,000 jews who live in the san francisco bay area. we have here the third or fourth largest jewish community in america depending on whose numbers you are looking at. we are so geographically dispersed that i as the editor and steve as the publisher, we look at "j.," the newspaper as a way to give a sense of belonging, give a voice to that geographically and politically and

denominationally disparity community. >> that's so interesting. i think a lot of people don't realize demographically speaking across the country, new york and los angeles are considered one and two and then it's the san francisco bay area. >> or south florida. >> or south florida. >> that's correct. and also we have lots of structures in our community. the jewish federation community you mentioned early is like a jewish community united way people donate to for the sake of services to the community and then that people who as a benefit of that donation oftentimes get a subscription to the newspaper. >> correct. i wanted to turn it over to steve for a little bit to talk about how we function as a newspaper, how people with find us. >> while we call ourselves a newspaper, we're evolving and we use the term "media outlet" because there's many ways to access our content now. we have a print edition that comes out

twice a month and that's the traditional newspaper we've been publishing for 122 years. we have a new website jweekly.com that was just redesigned and we relaunched in january that is breaking news throughout the day. it is updated throughout the day. if you sign up for the friday e-mail newsletter of the top stories of the week, you'll also get breaking news as it happens in the community. we're very proud of that because for this new website, we were uploading our weekly content to the website every week. now if you go to jweekly.com two or three times a day, you'll see different stories. >> i think it is interesting in this ever changing world about how we live in an information age and communicate to one another on many, many different levels. there used to be and maybe i think even still is in print newspaper world a byline of all the news that is fit to

print as a way of saying it captures everything of importance in the world to communicate to the community and so in that framework, what is jewish news? >> what is jewish news? what is jewish art? what's a jewish film? what's a jewish book? that's an ongoing conversation. for our publication, it would be we're very hyper local, and that's very interesting. i would say 20 years ago people who read "j." would wait for the newspaper to come on friday or saturday morning for their news of what was happening in israel, for their news of what was happening in washington, and that's no longer true. that was 20 years ago. so, today, our function is much more what is happening in your synagogue. what is is a new jewish film coming that you can see at the landmark cinema. what is a new jewish book you might want to be reading. what are different rituals that are being innovated in the peninsula or in marin. it is a

different role we fill for people as the community has changed and as technology has changed. >> that is so interesting. we'll take break in just a moment. it seems interesting that there's a kind of conceptual paradox in a world of ever increasing globalization and even the globalization of how the information is given out in digital form or in the internet. the news becomes focused locally. >> that's our sweet spot. that's what our readers want. in the print edition, it is more and more and more local. web we still have the ability to post national news and international, but what our readers want is to know what's going on, jewishly in berkeley or walnut creek or san francisco or palo alto or marin or anyplace like that. that's really our sweet spot. that's what a local community publication should be. if we do it right, we help people enjoy being jewish in the bay area better than if they didn't

have access to our content. >> let's take a quick break and come back and pickup on that topic. when we come back in just a moment here on "mosaic."

good morning. welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and glad to be your host. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the editor and publisher of "j." welcome back. >> thank you very much. >> good to be a here. >> we talked about how in a

world of increasing globalization and especially the dissemination of information on so many different platforms that the "j. jewish news of northern california" focuses locally. it's kind of a big question. how do you think about this local, global spectrum? >> we'll both weigh in on that. from my perspective on the business side, i think it is fascinating and interesting and correct that most of the stories we have are exclusive to "j." you won't read them anywhere else. a couple weeks ago the san francisco board of services passed an antisemitism resolution. we covered it. breaking news. we had it on-line. we had it in print. i don't think it was covered anywhere else in any other local media. two years ago, mayor lee went to israel. his first trip to israel. san francisco and haifa are sister

cities. he brought a delegation to israel and we had a reporter with him and it became a cover story. not only was that a cover story in "j.," i didn't see it mentioned in any press or local coverage or anything. we have dozens and dozens and dozens of examples like that, coverage that's important to us that it would be a cover story or breaking news that might not go reported if it wasn't for us. >> so interesting. you know, i wonder faith communities across the country spent a lot of time thinking about how do you develop, support, sustain faith development or jewish identity or christian identity or muslim identity structures in your community and i'm just wondering how it is that people then see it because it seems to me it is very interesting that

maybe you really come upon something that's quite humanly real which is that we developed individually and locally by our families, our neighborhoods, our communities in which we have communities of care and that's what emanates out globally. i'm just wondering if that's a way in which you understand your contribution to jewish identity development. >> well, let me take that when you say faith community. i smile a little bit because there's an ongoing conversation in the jewish community. >> yes, please. >> what is judaism? what is jewish identity? we're a faith. we're an ethnicity, we're a culture, we're a history. it's important to understand that "j." as a jewish newspaper, we are not promoting the jewish faith. we are not looking for converts to judaism. we serve the interest of the jewish faith in the sense that we believe and we know because we are jews living

in this community that jews today in the bay area are looking for what gives their lives meaning and in a jewish context, what gives jewish aspects or parts of jewish tradition or jewish culture or jewish faith give my life meaning and my family's life meaning and we really look to that as a service that we can provide. >> it's a beautiful service i think. who do you consider your read center. >> our readers are people who want to look at the world through a jewish lens. that is a phrase that i choose very carefully because who is the jewish community? in this bay area where the majority of jewish families contain technically nonjewish people, but nonjewish members who have chosen to identify jewishly whatever that means, our readers, our jews and people who are concerned with issues

and topics that jews are concerned with. >> in the bay area, it's such an innovative community. we are lucky and proud and happy to be reporting on the bay area jewish community not that boston, philadelphia and new york don't have vibrant communities, but there's something different here. there is something more innovative and more diverse and that's what our readers are looking for when they are reading local stories. that's our sweet spot. that's where we want to be. >> we'll take another quick break and come back to this wonderful conversation here on "mosaic" in just one moment.

good morning. welcome back to "mosaic." we're in the

middle of a wonderful conversation with steve gelman and editor of "the jewish news of northern california." we were talking about the diversity of the jewish community and our community is so diverse across the demographics, in the way which the community across the culture, community at large, religiously. so many different ways. i am just wondering. how do you account for our common diversity in the way you give news, the way you present news? >> i'm going to turn that over to sue because that's really an editorial thing, but i think it is amazing that day after day and week after week how sue chooses the opinion pieces, the op-ed pieces every week, the editorial that "j." runs as our official position on something, the letters to the editor, and

talk about diversity. it is so balanced. you will see two positions in the same issue of the print edition diametrically opposed and it is fascinating and the next issue of the print edition you'll see letters supporting each of those sides and that can go on for weeks. i don't know how you do it. i don't know how she does it because this is a very diverse community. x% think we're too left and x% think we're too right, and x% think we're just right, but there's no -- everybody has an opinion. that's a good thing. that's part of being a community pub. >> it is interesting because we live in a world where in a stereotypical way we say a news outlet is of this perspective and that perspective and many times go to that news outlet to support what we already believe about the world or in some cases want to find out a

different perspective even though we may or may not agree with it. it is interesting because i think here in the community the "j." basically encompasses the diversity itself. a diverse community has diverse opinions. when it comes down to it on an editorial level, you know, time to time when somebody is literally reading something, how do you decide a particular perspective at any particular time about anything that's happening in the world be it an election, a country like israel, a situation in another part of the world with a jewish perspective? >> you really touched upon the central, delicate balancing act that i as the editor and "j." as a jewish publication have to engage in every day. we have two roles. we are a community watchdog. we are reporting the news. we are holding truth --

holding power to accountability and at the same time we are an advocate for our jewish community. so, we are criticizing and advocating for the same community we are a part of. what is our role vis-a-vis israel? we will have jewish community institutions who say we should be supporting the policies of a given government of israel, but that's part of what a jewish publication is supposed to do, and then we have other readers who say, no, you need to look to my key individual values of whatever that person writing to us are and those of the keys of judaism you need to listen to not just the policies of a current israeli government. we support israel as the most exciting national project of jewish expression in history. within that, there's a wide range of opinions that are acceptable to us and sometimes

we have to listen to our gut. does this op-ed or letter to the editor feel right? does it feel that the criticism is constructive? is it coming from a place of love and support of the community and of jewish values? we balance. >> it is interesting because judaism at its core is a constellation of peoplehood and culture and theology. we need a device. we need an information device that reflects all of that. it is a little different than other faith communities that might have the perspective of a theological stance or something like that. so, i'm wondering really it seems to me that in your thinking you've become a kind of mirror to the community itself. you've become a kind of educational device for the community itself, and really you've become a kind of knewishing,

nourishing community kind of reflective experience. i'm wondering what letters to the editor reflect that deeper kind of i would say yearning that we all have to be connected and to care for one another. >> that's a beautiful way of putting it. i think we do all have a yearning to connect and that's what a jewish publication does for a jewish community. again, not an unthinking or uncritical connection, but exploring what is meaningful about this. at the same time, this week we in the jewish press around the country are very involved in looking at hate groups and white nationalist, white supremacist groups who are spouting antisemitic as well as antiimmigrant hate. i as the editor of "j." has to be concerned about how it is effecting our local jewish community and people also want to read recipes and get ready

for shabbat and cook and send their children to jewish schools and want to read the commentary of the week so we have to pay attention to the diverse roles that we play in the community as well as the diversity of political opinion. >> you know, we're going to take a break in just a moment. it seems then if it is a communal enterprise, it is kind of a big question. before we go to our next break, i want to ask you what is the responsibility of rearedship? does readership have a responsibility? >> i think the responsibility of the readership is to be engaged and when you see the amount of letters we get and you see people answering letters in a subsequent issue, when you see the comments we get on our facebook page where we have 11,000 followers on our facebook page, it is a very engaged audience. we are a

nonprofit now. four years ago we became a nonprofit. there's really a way for our readers to tell us how much they appreciate the work that we do in the community. since we became a nonprofit, we have over 3,000 donors that have contributed to keep "j." publishing the way it has been publishing. >> thank you, steve and sue. we'll take another quick break and come back to "mosaic" in just a moment.

good morning. welcome back to "mosaic." i'm honored to be your host this morning. we are about to conclude a wonderful conversation with steve gelman, the publisher and sue fishkoff the editor of "j. the jewish news of northern california." thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> can you talk about general things about how people reach you and subscribe and get the news and a little bit about your internal staff and how you function? >> absolutely. one thing i wanted to mention we were talking about diversity and diversity of opinions is we are independent. we are not owned by an individual and we are not

owned by the federation. in many cities the jewish newspaper, the jewish publication is owned by the federation. we are governed by a board of directors and we are independent which means that like all print-based media entities, we base our revenue on advertising and we would love to see more nonjewish advertising like jewelry stores, car dealers, anything like that to reach a demographic that's a very hard to reach demographic. the jewish community of the bay area. i wanted to just give a couple web addresses. if you want to subscribe to the print edition, it is jweekly.com/subscribe. if you want to sign up for the weekly newsletter which is a roundup of the top stories in "j." and it comes to your inbox, it is

jweekly.com/newsletter. if you want to donate because we are so proud we are a nonprofit, it is jweekly.com/donate. i say that because it magically appears in your mailbox every two weeks without fail for 122 years. it's a state of the art website, and we base it all on the money that we receive from the community and advertising and the community aspect is becoming more and more important to us and one that we embrace as a new nonprofit. >> can you talk a little bit about who your reporters are, who your staff is? >> i'll just give a couple numbers. we have 18 full or part-time staff members that put out this newspaper and website. we have an annual directory called "resource"

which is a guide to jewish life in the bay area. it's a guide to everything you would want or need from senior living to bar and bat mitzvah to camps and it is jweekly/resourceguide. we do it with 18 part-time reporters and three full-time and when we talk about it is local, we are doing it with 1.5 part-time reporter. >> we are driven by mission. we are driven by passion and caring for the jewish community. we are part of the jewish community. we want to hear from our readers. i answer every letter that i get. steve responds to every call that he gets. you, our readers are a part of determining what we write about. let us know what you want to know about. >> sue and steve, thank you so

much for this wonderful conversation and please go to the website and pay attention to the jewish news here in northern california.

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