Regarding your reporting on the Shomrim, and subsequent responses, it is clear that Orthodox Jews were uniformly offended by your article while secular Jews took pleasure in reading negative stories about the chasidic community. This does not surprise me — we are no longer one people but two parties: The Orthodox are the Republicans, and the secular Jews are the Democrats.
The Jewish Week could be CNN, leaning only slightly toward the secular but instead has chosen to become MSNBC. As such, The Jewish Week looks for positive stories about the secular (including the intermarried) while filling its pages with as many negative stories as you can find on the Orthodox.
The problem with your article about the Shomrim is that it was both inaccurate and poorly timed. But like MSNBC, which felt the need to run negative stories on the day that Ronald Reagan died, you chose to pick on the Shomrim while the chasidic community sat shiva. You will have to answer to your maker for that one.
The answer is that The Jewish Week should stop pretending that it represents the views and interests of the entire Jewish community and start labeling itself as what you are: a newspaper representing the liberal and secular strands of Judaism. The MSNBC of Jewish newspapers.
Edison, N.J.
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