Ari writes: The frum Jews I hang with loathe The Journal. They want to know and they are correct in this: who the hell does Eshman speak for when he puts two men on the cover? Why does the paper run men seeking men ads? Money, certainlky. But do they run ads for escort services? Is it a Jewish paper just because they run stories about actrresses who have questionable conversions? While the paper claims to be Jewish, it does everything in it spower toi undermine Judaism.
I tell them that they do not have to read the paper, they counter, properly, that it send the larger message, to Jewish children, to the outside world, that we are just hunky-dory with things that are obviously a chilul-Ha-shem.
If someone like Rob Eshman or Amy Klein spills a great deal of ink over say, homosexual marriage, how seriously should the Jewish community take it? And then comes the central question: who does Rob or Amy speak for. If they speak for themselves, do we as readers not have the right of full disclosure about their private lives? In other words, if Rob hammers away at the moral and social necessity of homosexual marriage, I think we have a right to know if he's doing this because he's well, swinging for the other team?
We all know the dirty little secret of the conservative and reform movements: that over fifty-percent of their female rabbis are gay. Or is it because Editor Eshman is just a hack for the Democrats and in the great tradition of Pravda, expounds the part line. Or is it because he's ignorant of Torah, or because he knows Torah, but rejects it? This all sounds small, but it's what journalists do all day long. Why does no one demand an accounting from the writers? Journalists think nothing of exposing others, it's time for them to be exposed. If Amy Klein seems to be angry at frum Jews, well, how come? Was she treated badly by a beautiful Yeshiva boy and now she's bitter and having her revenge? And if the Journal gives space to Arab propaganda writers, one must ask, does Rob Eshman also get space in the American Arab newspapers? It's up to you, Levi, to straighten out this awful mess.
