Jewish Paper in San Diego Tackles Difficult Subject : Media: Reaction of readers has been mixed to decision to publish announcement of lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony.

EL CAJON —  When Carol and Garry Rosenberg, editor and publisher of the San Diego Jewish Times, opened their mail in June and found the wedding photo announcing the union of two lesbians, both wearing full white-wedding-dress regalia, it took but a minute of thought to decide to run the item.

“They are part of our Jewish community and, as such, were entitled to have news about their commitment ceremony published,” Garry Rosenberg said.

But the appearance of the notice in the Jewish Times’ Talk of the Town column, amid the notices and ads for weddings, bar mitzvahs and engagements, prompted some readers to ask: What’s a nice Jewish paper doing covering something as non-traditional as a lesbian commitment ceremony?

The paper carried an additional story on page 3, with the headline: Lesbian Couple Welcomed at Dor Hadash. It detailed how Sharon Silverstein, a Jewish woman, and Annette Friskopp, a Christian, met as graduate students at Harvard Business School, where they became friends and lovers. It explained Judaism’s view of homosexuality and interviewed the Dor Hadash rabbi.

The fallout from the paper’s coverage was quick and often stinging. The Jewish Times’ mail has quadrupled. Some readers canceled their subscriptions, others thanked the paper for opening the door to discussion.

The letters criticized everything from the rabbi for blessing an interfaith ceremony to the traditional white wedding gowns the women wore.

Garry Rosenberg’s attitude about what gets reported--and what doesn’t--is a marked departure from what once was considered the standard fare of the Jewish press: sermons from local rabbis, wedding and birth announcements, news about bar mitzvahs.

The San Diego Jewish Times, an independently owned newspaper, has not shied away from taking stands on issues concerning the Jewish community. As such it reflects--perhaps at the extreme--a change in similar newspapers nationwide.

“This isn’t your father’s Jewish press any more,” says Craig Degginger, vice president of the American Jewish Press Assn. and editor of the Seattle Jewish Transcript, “and the San Diego paper’s story is a good example of that.”

The 17,000-circulation biweekly San Diego Jewish Times, produced with a handful of hired help in small, cluttered offices in El Cajon by this husband-and-wife team, is no stranger to controversy.

In 1990 they wrote about how the kitchen in a local Hebrew home for the aged wasn’t keeping strictly kosher, although residents were told it was. The paper interviewed 23 former or current employees of the home and printed stories that also accused the facility of discriminating in its hiring practices and failing to pay overtime when it should.

“We got lots of letters on that one too,” Garry Rosenberg said.

Another time, the paper exposed a plan to shut down the East County Jewish Community Center on 54th Street. Once the stories appeared in the Jewish Times, as well as in other local papers, users of the center came forward to protest the planned closing. The center remained open.

“Yep, heard from a lot of people then too.”

Readers were also critical when the paper carried stories about anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism to local synagogues.

“Some people think that just because we are a Jewish newspaper, we shouldn’t write anything that reflects poorly on the Jewish community. In the case of the vandalism, some people felt that the publicity would only encourage more (vandalism),” Garry Rosenberg said.

Some of the wrath also spilled over to the Jewish Times, which has had its office firebombed twice.

“Not because we carried those stories,” Garry Rosenberg is quick to add, “but because we are a Jewish publication.”

So to the Rosenbergs, looking at the pile of letters and phone messages they received following their coverage of the lesbian commitment ceremony, the hoopla that surrounded this story really isn’t such a big deal.

“My only real concern was that Sharon and Annette were prepared for the reaction,” Carol Rosenberg said.

Silverstein and Friskopp moved to San Diego about 18 months ago. Silverstein, who said Judaism is a very important part of her life, joined Congregation Dor Hadash, a Reconstructionist synagogue. (Reconstructionism is a 20th-Century movement in Judaism that advocates adjustments to suit modern times.) When the women were planning their commitment ceremony, they asked Dor Hadash Rabbi Ron Herstik to call them to the Torah. The rabbi declined because Friskopp isn’t Jewish, but instead agreed to conduct a service to bless the couple. Herstik did not officiate over the commitment ceremony, which was performed in a local hotel by an out-of-state rabbi and a minister.

Silverstein said she was pleased with the coverage the Jewish Times provided. She had contacted three local gay and/or lesbian newspapers, only to be told they don’t run commitment-ceremony notices.

One offered to run a free classified ad, she said “But their classifieds is where they run all these pictures of naked men with ‘dial 1-900-HUNK’ phone numbers. I didn’t think it was appropriate for our notice to go there.”

Silverstein was glad the Jewish Times printed many of the letters it received, although she was surprised by the venomous tone of some of them.

One reader wrote angrily he was “nauseated” by the coverage. “I don’t want my family (and especially the children) to be exposed to that kind of stuff,” the writer said.

“Such an aberration of life does not belong in a family newspaper, particularly a Jewish newspaper. . . .”

Another suggested the rabbi had received his credentials from a matchbook cover.

A second wave of letters, responding to the first batch published, was more supportive.

”. . . Your great courage in printing gay/lesbian issues is to be commended.”

The San Diego Jewish Times reflects an acceptance of alternative lifestyles that has recently been sanctioned by Judaism’s Reform movement. In 1990, the Reform movement began welcoming homosexuals to its rabbinate ranks, as well as into its synagogues as members, and its rabbinical leaders passed an array of resolutions calling for the end of discrimination against gays and lesbians in civil law and congregational affairs. The Orthodox branch of Judaism remains unequivocal in its disapproval of homosexual liaisons, while the Conservative branch has been wrestling for several years over whether to admit homosexuals into its rabbinate. Gays are generally accepted as members of Conservative congregations.

Because it is independently owned, the San Diego Jewish Times can be bold in its approach, said Mark Pelavin, Washington representative of the American Jewish Congress. “They only have to answer to the general marketplace.”

Many Jewish newspapers are owned by local Jewish Federations, umbrella organizations largely responsible for the fund-raising efforts within the Jewish community. Those newspapers are traditionally more conservative in deciding what gets covered.

“An editor of a federation-owned paper answers to a board of directors, as well as the general marketplace,” Pelavin said.

The role of the American Jewish press has been long debated.

Gary Rosenblatt, editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, one of the country’s largest and most well-respected Jewish weeklies, wrote in a column: “The editor of a Jewish newspaper is caught between two conflicting goals: The journalist’s professional duty to probe and explain, and the Jewish leader’s goal to care for one’s fellow Jews. . . .”

A prime example of this conflict occurred a few years ago. The Washington Jewish Week wrote about a confidential Congressional memo that indicated Israel had supplied Ethiopia’s Marxist government with military advice and hardware, in part to secure the emigration of Ethiopian Jews. The report was picked up by the New York Times, prompting some Jews to say it wasn’t the place of an American Jewish newspaper to publicize stories that were damaging to Israel’s image.

Mark Joffe, editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a wire service based in New York that serves the English language Jewish media, noted several recent cases of Jewish newspapers tackling controversial issues.

The Seattle Jewish Transcript ran a lengthy first-person account of a local cantor who admitted his homosexuality to his congregation. The same paper covered the story of a local rabbi who pleaded guilty to money laundering.

The Atlanta Jewish Times ran a story on a lawsuit filed against the Georgia attorney general’s office by a female lawyer. The attorney general’s office had offered the woman a job, contingent upon her graduation from Emory Law School, but then later rescinded the offer when he learned she was engaged to another woman.

According to Atlanta Jewish Times’ managing editor Fran Rothbard, that paper wasn’t sent notice of the lawyer’s commitment ceremony. If she had, would she have run it?

“That’s a good question. I don’t know.”

But San Diego’s Garry Rosenberg is far less ambiguous.

Would he do it all over again, run the commitment ceremony notice, knowing the reaction?

“Absolutely.”