Australian Kosher News or Australian Treif News?

The Australian Jewish News is again sermonising on Kashrut matters. The shameless promoter of Treif establishments and products to the Jewish community depicts itself as a friend and supporter of Kosher consumers. How righteous and frum of them!

Last week issue treated us to no less than a full poster front page, a news report and an editorial. Yes, the very same front page where for a few dollars any non-Kosher food purveyor may ply its wares! (Obviously the AJN couldn’t find a treif establishment prepared to pay last week.)

We doubt that most Jewish News readers ever read the editorials, but those who did were treated to some astonishing hypocrisy and two-facedness.
“The AJN isn’t afraid to discuss the fraught topic of Kashrut!”

Of course not. Rather it is the fraught topic of Jews marketing treif products to fellow Jews that they’re afraid to discuss. Like how they aid and abet in the destruction of the fabric of Judaism for the sake of a few dollars. Come on. Let’s see some fearless dialogue on this matter.

What a nerve. A newspaper that has no qualms with a advertising chazir-treif restaurants, Chametz on Pesach and Chilul Shabbat events, giving us opinions on Kashrut!
Their chutzpah was best described by a prominent Melbourne rabbi when he observed in his Yom Tov sermon: “The Jewish News offering advice on Kashrut matters is akin to the Islamic Weekly counselling our community about the merging of the UIA and the JNF appeals”.

And the claim about the paper’s support for Kosher catering through their Kosher Living, Wedding and Bar Mitzvah supplements!
Really? And all along we mug readers were under the impression that it was simply another money-making enterprise for the AJN – like its car and property supplements or the pages about Glenhuntly and Glenferrie Roads. Silly us. Of course the AJN is out there to support Kosher caterers.

(Still, what’s the betting that given half a chance to make a few bucks, the AJN would just as quickly publish a “Treif supplement”?)

We have plenty more to say about this, but enough for now.

"Burying bad news is no answer"

AJN Editorial (July 31, 2009)

Burying bad news is no answer

NEWS that rabbis were among 44 individuals arrested in the United States on charges of political corruption, money-laundering and even trafficking in human organs triggered some reflection at The AJN on how to cover the story. Closer to home, the imminent committal hearing in Adelaide of Rabbi Yossi Engel, facing charges over a school-funding application, focuses attention on our role as a newspaper for the Jewish community.
When Rabbi Engel was charged last month, our front cover drew criticism from those who believe the role of a Jewish newspaper is to run public relations for the community to the wider Australian community and beyond. They believe we should turn a blind eye to Jewish figures, and rabbis in particular, who are facing court, or who have been convicted, even while mainstream newspapers freely report these events. We disagree. SNIP
Yet to ask Jewish newspapers to censor themselves is no remedy. It might keep negative news away from the newsagent shelves, but what we would lose in the process is far greater. It is akin to expecting Jewish figures to be given a free pass. Burying bad news does our community no favours. It would create an unhealthy culture, encouraging some to do as they wish, free of public scrutiny. It is not how newspapers in a democracy should conduct themselves.

We, like many others who follow happenings in the Jewish media, have been wondering when the Jewish News' website - and in particluar its soon to be departed/deported editor Ashley Browne on his blog - will give us the full details of his sudden untimely demise. But until the time of writing, there has not been a single word about this on either location.

Does this mean that sometimes "burying bad news" IS the answer?

The answer is obviously "Yes". When the bad news is about AJN staff, publishers or their families - the Jewish News certainly believes in burying it.

Kron promotes AJN hypocrisy

Kron, like his employer should be ashamed of himself. Not even a hint on how the AJN buries its head in the sand when m/billionaire (non-frum) mates and family of the newspaper's owners and publishers are in the news for crooked deals involving millions of dollars and costing many Australians big dollars - out of their pockets.

In the AJN's eyes only rabbis and religious Jews must obey the laws of the land - but those who violate the Torah's commandments are free to flout the laws of the country.

Read the AJN's recent hypocritical editorial - and judge for yourself.

AJN hypocrisy

Charming to see the AJN commenting that the Age's irrelevant mention of the Leifer affair.

This is from the same newspaper that beat up the original story into a appalling and lurid sensation. And long after the rest of the Australian media stopped mentioning it, the AJN continued to rehash it week after week – ad nauseum.

Pity that there isn’t a Walkley Award for hypocrisy – the Jewish News would be the front runner.