Letters to the editor re "Charged" front page

Here's a selection of 'Letters to the editor' in last week's AJN by readers who are obviously as upset as we are.

Last week’s cover

IS there no other news to print on the front page of the newspaper (AJN 19/06)?Do we have to display so openly events that bring us nothing but shame and disgrace?A large number of our community, myself included, are greatly disgusted both with the Adelaide rabbi’s actions and with the current display of that ugly event on the first page of The AJN.Many of the Elsternwick newsagents – not exactly friends of ours – pointed out this page with their great pleasure to their customers.A smaller article inside the newspaper would have been more than sufficient.

HELEN LEPERERE
Elsternwick, Vic

Not page one worthy

WHAT is your aim in showing us a full front page of newspaper devoted to a photograph of a disgraced rabbi (AJN 19/06)? How does this help us as a community? Certainly it is newsworthy, but it should be in small print inside the paper. Surely there are more important items for the front page, hopefully more than one item of interest, from our vibrant community at home and overseas. Your decision reeks of self-centred sensationalism, and I would have hoped your ethics and aims were higher than that that your priorities in evaluating the portrayal of different items would have thought of encouraging collective pride and highlighting opportunities for improvement, never forgetting the impact of the newspaper on our non-Jewish neighbours, friends and foes. The AJN has been a great newspaper for a long time, and I expect it to go forward, not backward, and reflect good journalism with balance and sensitivity.

ELIZABETH LEVY
Bellevue Hill, NSW

Preferring The Age

SHOULD The Jewish News be better referred to as “the Anti-Jewish News”? The front page gleefully shouts “Charged” about Rabbi Engel of Adelaide, surely a serial killer, or so one might think. Then a full-page article on brit milah, a mitzvah held dear by the majority of Jews, which is headlined: “Mitzvah or mutilation?” I believe we (Jews) would be better treated by even, dare I say, The Age?

ELLA BLESOFSKY
St Kilda East, Vic

Sensationalism

WE were absolutely disgusted by the sensationalism your paper indulged in by splashing Adelaide Rabbi Yossi Engel’s photo and caption across the front page of this week’s AJN (19/06). Surely more fuel for anti-Semitism. Surely your editors realise that the paper is seen by all and sundry in the numerous newsagencies that stock it. It is not a paper that relies purely on subscription and home delivery.

FRANKIE AND RAYMOND GARFIELD
North Bondi, NSW