Presence

I picked up a copy of the Baltimore Jewish News (which I am assuming is the publication formerly known as the Baltimore Orthodox Times) at Shoppers, hot off the presses. Keeping in mind that this is the first edition, I was, by and large, unimpressed.

The first half of the BJN can be summarized as, "Every day, more and more Orthodox Jews are born. They like to build things and eat." Seriously, who are these articles for? They aren't for the frum people, unless restating the obvious counts as news (What?!? There's a Goldman's Bakery, and Jews shop there?!? Whoah! Jews who keep kosher spend extra money to have kosher kitchens?!? Well I'll be!). So this must be for the non-Orthodox, in which case I would consider the articles superficial and voyueristic.

The second half of the BJN consisted mostly of columns, either of opinion, editorial or a Torah nature. This is where Avi Shafran let's us know that, really, his family is responsible for making Baltimore the place it is. Oh, and some other people. I counted two articles about R. Nueberger, one of which bore a striking resemblance to a column published the the Jewish Times a few months back. A Divrei Torah section, this week featuring Rabbi and Rebbetizen Goldberger, along with a column on local politics that looks promising, although it's too early to tell for sure. I did like the short interview with Dr. Andrew Goldfinger; I was jumping out of my chair when it looked as if we might get a substantive discussion of intelligent design from a frum Ph.D. in theoretical physics, but unfortunately all it left me with were some things to look up on Wikipedia (cf. Copenhagen Interpretation).

The advertising was unrestrainedly frum, replete with Yinglish slogans; clearly these advertisers have just been chomping at the bit to burst forth in all their yiddishe glory. The ads were actually the most informative part of the publication, with information about things going on in the community.

When I first heard about the imminent launch of a seperate publication for Baltimore's Orthodox community, I was skeptical and dismayed. Skeptical that it could (or would) be done in a way that would add something to the community, and dismayed by the fact that it represented a schism in the larger Jewish community. I don't blame the publishers for chasing the advertising dollars of the frum community, but if this is all we're going to get, I don't see the need. If I sound harsh it's because I really would like to see this be successful, and I do think the Orthodox community could use a publication that provides an honest look from a knowledgable yet detached point of view, to offer perspective, along with content that resonates with the communal interest. If we can't keep the greater Jewish community together, we can at least aim towards informing and uniting the Orthodox community, which is on the verge of breaking apart as well. Hopefully, the BJN can evolve into this; after all, this is only the first edition. We shall see.

Update: It was pointed out to me by one of my loyal readers that the regular Jewish Times contains pretty much all the articles recycled into the BJN; in which case, it's pretty clear what is going on: facing declining interest in the Jewish Times in the Orthodox demographic (attributed to various different causes, such as non-kosher restaurant reviews, under-dressed women in ads, and general non-Orthodox content), the JT has decided to re-purpose the Orthodox-friendly bits of content into a new publication, rebranded with ads from the community. Totally a business move.