Mishpatim: Journalism and Judaism

By Jordan Press , delivered Feb. 2, 2008

I would like to thank Rabbi Elkin for giving me a chance to speak to you today. When he first asked me to talk about my job as a journalist in the context of my Judaism, I was honoured. I am even more honoured standing in front of all of you today.

The Torah reading last week – if I can put it into journalese – is the biggest story in the history of the Jewish people. Headlines would have screamed, “Israelites receive Torah,” or “Simcha of all Simchas at Sinai.” The event is so big Moses reports to the people what God said because Hashem’s voice is too powerful for them to bear.

Then we come to Mishpatim, one of the longest portions of the year, which contains more than 50 mitzvot that delve into the nitty-gritty of Jewish life: property damage, murder, helping the poor, returning lost objects. It is the details that, as a reporter, I would gloss over. Details don’t make headlines.

But it is the details that are important. As Rabbi Shraga Simmons writes on the website aish.com, “Jewish spirituality comes through grappling with the mundane world in a way that uplifts and elevates. Doing is more important than feeling.” As he says, the question is not how do you feel about it, but instead it is what do you do about it.

In the previous parasha we read one of the commandments is to not bear false witness. I see this not as merely lying but as the role of Jews to bear witness to the truth. We are to bear witness for others, to tell them the truth about events. We do that so others can’t say, “I wasn’t there, and therefore I couldn’t know.” Martin Ben-Moreh, at a conference of young Jewish journalists, said this about the role of Journalism: “Every event in history happens twice: as it appears to the few people who attend it, and as it is written about and recorded in history.” 

The act of documenting events and telling stories has a long history in Judaism, as does asking questions which, of course, is how all good Jews answer questions.

One of the oldest known Jewish journalists is Josephus. Although he kept very good track of events during the Roman occupation of Israel, Josephus was also labelled a traitor to those around him. As William Hopper writes in his book The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions, Josephus “wandered around as a freelance writer, poking his nose into just about everything and sending the information off to Rome in quarterly reports.” In battles, “Josephus would wander around them (not taking any sides) and talk to Roman and Jew alike. He was the only person allowed to cross the battlefields.” At Masada, “When the Romans finally got through the barricades, all they found were corpses and the solitary figure of Josephus wandering around, taking notes.”

I would be remiss if I did not mention another Jewish journalist at this point, the late Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded in an act of terrorism because he was a reporter and a Jew. Among the last thoughts to flow from his mouth were the words, “I am Jewish.” He was a reporter who sought details and facts to tell the real story. “His religion I would say is almost truth,” his wife, Marianne said in a 2002 interview.

French author Bernard-Henri Levy said in an interview for a recent CNN piece that Pearl was killed because of what he knew and the facts he carried with him. The stone marker on his grave in Los Angeles reads, Daniel Pearl, “Lost his life in the pursuit of truth.”

The truth is in the facts, even if some wish to hide the facts they don’t like. Just this week a German courtroom found Ernst Zundel guilty of spreading untruths about the Holocaust. His five-year sentence begins just over five years after Daniel Pearl’s life ended.

Facts are essential to good journalism. Facts are what tell the story.

“Hearsay evidence is not permitted,” writes Rabbi David Rose, a senior rabbi for Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, Maryland. As well, we are not permitted to rob others of the truth. “Meaning that we must speak clearly, we must express ourselves in ways that are understood by others. That we must be truthful in all that we say and all that we do.” It is not always easy to tell the truth. It can be ugly, disturbing, but freeing. Everyday as a reporter the truth sets me free, and bearing witness helps deal with the hard truths I come across.

Rabbi Asher Meir, also known online as the Jewish Ethicist, writes “a witness is expected to provide only facts, and to be completely impartial.

“Jewish law is particularly strict on this point,” he continues. “People have a right to expect editorial content of publications to be objective...”

The Torah, late in the parasha, in chapter 23 verse 1, says, “Do not accept a false report, do not extend your hand with the wicked to be a venal witness.” The verse “Lo Ti’sah” tells Jews it is “forbidden to believe unverified gossip about another person.” Extended to the craft of journalism: It is forbidden to write gossip – the facts are all a good story needs.

Steven Oppenheimer might have the foremost paper on Jewish ethics as it relates to Journalism. His paper, published just less than six years ago in the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, said a newspaper should be a forum for debate, but “Debate, however, should not be confused with controversy (machloket), which we are commanded to avoid.”

“The journalist should not be politically motivated but should strive for the truth,” he writes. I agree.

He goes on to touch on an interesting tenet of journalism. The saying goes the role of journalism is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted. This is not to say the role of the reporter is to attack those in power, but merely to act as a balance. As Oppenheimer writes, “It is incumbent upon the community to appoint representatives from within its midst to examine the behavior of those who serve the public lest the weak and the vulnerable in the community suffer the consequences.”

This is the definition I see of journalism. As Jews we look to heal the world – tikun olam. I hope my words can heal the world a little bit more every day.

I do agree with Oppenheimer when he says, “The motivation in writing a story should be to pursue the truth and to assist those in need of help. The intention should never be to harm anyone.” Before writing a story, “The reporter must carefully review his motives and intentions since peoples’ lives and reputations are at stake,” he says. As Rabbi Israel Salanter said, it is easy to write, but far more difficult to erase.

It is this balance I go through on a daily basis as a journalist and also as a Jew. A journalist is what I am. A Jew is who I am. The two are equal yet distinctive parts of me. The truth is what both sides need, for professional, personal, and spiritual nourishment.

As Noam Chomsky put it, “It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.” It is the truth to which a journalist and Jews have the utmost responsibility, to seek it, bear witness to its details and to tell it for others, and, even more importantly, for own freedom.