The plane carrying 33 Reform Rabbis to Israel, where they
were planning to hold a mixed-gender prayer service at the
Kosel Ma'aravi, was still over the Atlantic Ocean on
motzei Shabbos the week before last, when Rabbi
Avrohom Biderman picked up the phone from Yerushalayim.
Rabbi Biderman, managing editor at ArtScroll/Mesorah, has
been an active volunteer in the reinvigorated Am Echad effort
announced several weeks ago, helping place the broad-based
Orthodox organization's attention-getting advertisements in a
number of general and Jewish newspapers and carefully
monitoring the Israeli press.
On the other end of the line was Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudath
Israel of America's director of public affairs, who has been
appointed to oversee the broadened and intensified Am Echad
project, which aims at enhancing Jewish Orthodoxy's image and
ensuring that the Orthodox perspective is fairly represented
in both the public arena and the press.
It was 4:00 A.M. in Israel, and Ha'aretz's early
edition had just reported the Reform clergy's plans, the
first such public account.
According to Rabbi Shafran, Rabbi Biderman's timely sharing
of the information he had culled enabled Am Echad to
formulate a clear and carefully-crafted statement about the
impending "Kosel confrontation" and to make certain
that the press had it in hand even before the Reform
activists touched down in Israel.
"Reb Avrohom's quick action," he said, "was crucial, and
resulted in a bit of balance in, among other press reports,
the page-3 New York Times article that subsequently
appeared about the prayer-group's appearance at the
Kosel."
That news report quoted from Am Echad's statement, including
the group's assertion that "it is unfortunate and, sadly, all
too telling that some members of the Reform clergy seem
determined to create confrontation not only in the Jewish
State's courts and legislature but at what Jewish tradition
considers the holiest spot in the world."
Am Echad was also quoted as asking the visitors "to turn
their energies to constructive, not destructive, ends, to
confront the plagues of assimilation and intermarriage that
are raging in their own American communities, and [to] allow
Israel's Jews to preserve their own relationship with Jewish
religious law and tradition."
Providing Perspective to the Press
"The press is coming to realize that the Orthodox world not
only has a perspective," says Mr. Abraham Biderman --
chairman of the Am Echad campaign, among his other communal
responsibilities, and a cousin of the previously mentioned
Rabbi Biderman -- "but that its perspective is reasoned and
often compelling."
Toward that end, explains Mr. Biderman, Am Echad has been
compiling and updating press lists for periodicals and
electronic media both in the United States and in Israel, and
has already established contacts with a number of influential
reporters.
A related element of the new effort, notes Rabbi Shmuel
Bloom, Agudath Israel's executive vice president and a major
impetus of the renewed Am Echad effort, is the in-process
establishment of a network of volunteer askonim in
dozens of cities across North America, who will monitor their
local presses, both Jewish and general, and share pertinent
information with Am Echad's national office.
They and other local volunteers in each city, he explains,
will be enlisted by Am Echad to respond to certain stories
with calls to reporters and letters to editors.
Rabbi Shafran recounted one example of what he expects to
become a typical scenario.
"An out-of-state reader, a respected rabbi, faxed us a
particularly atrocious article from his local general-
interest paper about the latest altercation at the Kosel. It
portrayed a local Reform rabbi who participated in the prayer-
group as `shocked' at the outrage he encountered. `The last
thing Rabbi Fuchs expected,' the piece began, `was...'"
By the end of the day, says Rabbi Shafran, the Am Echad
constituent had been assisted in writing a letter to the
editor of the paper -- a missive that noted that, far from
being surprised at the reaction they caused, the Reform
rabbis had every reason to know precisely what would ensue,
and had, quite the contrary, carefully planned their service
to evoke an angry response, as evidenced by their prior
notification of the press.
Am Echad also composed and sent its own letter to the editor
of the paper and went on to contact the reporter who had
written the article, to apprise him of the misleading and
unbalanced nature of the piece. As it happened, the reporter
was planning a follow-up article upon the rabbi's return, the
pledged to contact Am Echad at that point, to include its
perspective in the new piece.
That very day, the Am Echad coordinator continued, he
received a copy of an editorial strongly critical of the
Knesset's recent vote aimed at ensuring the Orthodox
composition of Israeli cities' religious councils. The
editorial had appeared in a Pittsburgh newspaper but had been
reprinted from the San Francisco Examiner. Within an
hour, an opinion piece -- prepared by Am Echad in the wake of
the Knesset vote -- had been sent to both papers, along with
a request for its publication in the interest of balance.
Advancing Awareness Through Ads
The past week also saw the most recent of Am Echad's eye-and-
mind-catching advertisements. Appearing in The New York
Times and a number of Jewish weeklies, the latest
offering, designed by the advertising firm Mozeson and
Malinowski, addressed the spate of recent ads placed by
groups like the New Israel Fund and the Association of Reform
Zionists of America.
The Am Echad ad sported the provocative headline "If you
didn't have this for breakfast, the State of Israel doesn't
consider you a Jew" -- above a large photograph of a bagel
and cream cheese.
"Clearly a half-baked notion," the ad text explains. "Yet
it's no less a distortion than what some American Reform and
Conservative leaders have put forth in recent ads and public
statements."
The ad goes on to explain that, despite what those leaders
assert, "all Orthodox Jews . . . believe that Jews are Jews
regardless of their affiliation," and that "far from
undermining Jewish unity, Israel's Orthodox parties are
trying to maintain it" by keeping the "single standard for
conversion" that has "kept the Jewish people one nation for
over 3000 years."
The ad, which has received a "tremendous and overwhelmingly
positive" response, according to Mr. Biderman, goes on to
assert that "American Jewish leaders should be focusing their
energies, talents and resources on strengthening Jewish
identity and ensuring Jewish continuity in America." Toward
that end, it invites readers to call the Am Echad hotline for
a list of Jewish schools and adult education programs across
the U.S.
Meeting of Minds
Last week also witnessed the first telephone conference of a
special Am Echad advisory board, consisting of close to a
dozen Orthodox writers, thinkers and activists across the
United States and in Eretz Yisroel. The members hope to hold
regular weekly meetings by phone in addition to maintaining
ongoing contact as situations require, to share information,
voice opinions and discuss strategies for effectively
furthering Am Echad's goals.
Among those eventual goals are: the commissioning of "human
interest" articles portraying positive activities, programs
and goings-on in Orthodox communities; the establishment of a
publication syndicate aimed at helping place those articles,
as well as op-ed pieces promoting Orthodox perspectives, in
both general readership and Jewish papers; the formation of a
speakers bureau to service non-Orthodox audiences; and the
creation of a periodical designed to present Orthodox
perspectives to non-Orthodox readers, to be aimed in
particular at Jewish communal leaders.
"Carefully developing all the pro-active facets of the plan
will clearly take some time," says Rabbi Shafran, "especially
when events requiring immediate attention never seem to
abate. But, boruch Hashem, the Jewish public has
already begun to enthusiastically respond, both financially
and personally.
"Am Echad's hasbara initiative is unquestionably in
high gear."
