Publisher?s Page

 

Nan Fink

remember from my days as a and
a teacher how each encounter with a client or a
student was all part of a creative process. The
point for me was to be as helpful as I could be every
step of the way. I was concerned that my clients and
students end up in a state of greater health or knowledge;
but for that to happen I had to make the process itself
as creative as I could. Sometimes this work was frus-
trating because I seldom ended up with tangible results.
But it was also rewarding because I was creatively
mobilized throughout the process.
Publishing a magazine, on the other hand, involves
a very different kind of creativity. Unlike the work I
previously did, something concrete is produced from
all our labor. The balance of articles in the magazine
and the way the published product looks are tangible
expressions of our creativity. And as the magazine stim-
ulates people to think, feel, and talk about important
issues, it becomes a creative force in the larger world.
However, much of the work involved in creating a
magazine does not feel very creative?unless the defini-
tion is extended to include things such as doing mailings
and ?guring out how to cut telephone costs. A huge
number of tasks must be done, and many of them are
repetitious and frustrating. As with any other project
where the goal is to produce a tangible result, it is easy
to lose the sense of connection between all the details
that must be attended to and the larger creative vision.
Some times are worse than others. Occasionally the
cosmic forces seem to go awry, and we become bogged
down in equipment bugs and unforeseeable mishaps. The
worst moments are when, despite our best intentions,
we end up having problems that we can?t seem to set
straight with a person or an organization. The result is
that our creative energy is drained, and we feel frustrated.
A case in point is what has happened with us and
the Jewish Committee on the Middle East (JCOME),
an organization that calls for Israel to negotiate with
the PLO and for there to be a drastic cutback in US.
economic aid to Israel. Our relationship with this or-
ganization started last year when one of its representa-
tives called to reserve space for an advertisement in
Tz'kkun. We accepted the reservation and told JCOME
to send us its ad.
When the ad arrived, however, it didn?t take us long
to decide that we didn?t want to print it. It contained a
statement of principles, but that wasn?t the

6 TIKKUN VOL. 4, N0. 4

problem. Although we didn?t agree with parts of the
statement, it was not racist, sexist, or offensive (the
criteria we use for judging the acceptability of ads).

However, at the center of the ad was a large cartoon
that we did find offensive. In this cartoon a swaggering,
Nazi-like Israeli soldier is standing on a large pile of
Palestinian bodies saying, ?I?m willing to talk peace,
but there aren?t any Palestinians to talk peace with.?
Anyone who reads Tz'kkun is aware that our editorial
position about Israel is considerably to the left of the
established Jewish world; yet this cartoon was beyond
the pale of what we want in the magazine.

Like other magazines, we have an advertising policy
that is clearly stated on our rate card: we reserve the right
to reject or cancel advertising. When we told JCOME
that we wouldn?t run the ad with the cartoon, its repre-
sentative had a ?Forget cutting out the cartoon,? he
said. ?Run the explanation in the
ad as to why you won?t run the cartoon.? We said
?Sorry,? and the ad did not run.

Since that time JCOME has caused quite a ruckus
about this matter. It recently placed an ad in several
publications accusing us, along with two other maga-
zines, of being ?the only publications to refuse to publish
our JCOME statement of principles as a paid ad.?
What rubbish! Remember, we rejected only the cartoon.
We?ve received some letters from our readers asking us
what is going on.

In late May I received a very peculiar letter from
the chairperson of JCOME, saying, ?Unless we can
quickly ?nd a way to get past this matter among our-
selves, we will soon be publishing a full and detailed
record of exactly what has happened between JCOME
and Tz'kkun. . . This sounded like the kind of ?black-
mail? that kids threaten each other with: If I don?t get
my way, I?ll do something to hurt you. I answered by
once again saying that we would be happy to print the
ad, but without the cartoon.

I am confounded by this kind of trouble. Why is
JCOME spending its time and energy attacking us?
Surely the members of the organization don?t want to
see their money going into ads against Tz'kkzm when
there is so much work to be done to bring peace in the
Middle East. Although we don?t agree on some things,
we share a common concern about the plight of the
Palestinians. Why squabble among ourselves? It only
drains our creative energy and bogs us down. El