By Rick Kardonne
Tribune Correspondent
Hard-hitting questions on the Toronto Star’s policy regarding Israel dominated the question and answer session after a speech by Star publisher Michael Goldbloom, who addressed the B’nai Brith Covenant Breakfast at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Congregation on Sunday.
Toronto Star Publisher Michael Goldbloom was the guest speaker at the Covenant Breakfast.
Sponsored by eight Greater Toronto Area B’nai Brith lodges – Don Mills, Dr.W. Fildeman, La Fraternite, Leonard Mayzel Ontario, R.W. Yorkdale Circle, Thornhill, Toronto Freedom and Upper Canada – this event drew almost 200 people, who weren’t shy about challenging Goldbloom, the son of Quebec cabinet minister Dr. Victor Goldbloom, during a Q&A session following his remarks.
B’nai Brith Executive Vice President Frank Dimant introduced him, pointing out that Goldbloom was publisher of the Gazette of Montreal before assuming his post at The Star two years ago.
Among the VIPs in attendance were Deputy Toronto Mayor Mike Feldman B’nai Brith President Gerry Weinstein and Globe and Mail Editor-in-Chief Edward Greenspon.
Goldbloom, who recently returned from Egypt, Israel and Jordan, devoted most of his remarks to Joseph Atkinson, who purchased The Star in the late 1890s and who, in Goldbloom’s words, was “a tireless champion of the poor.”
In the early 1900s, when most of Toronto’s Jews were poor immigrants living in the crowded St.John’s Ward just west of downtown, The Star was their champion. “In 1902 and 1912, The Star ran editorials advocating that the Jews should get fair play. In 1930, The Star praised the ‘second occupation of Palestine by the Jews,’ praising Palestine as ‘a heart beat of dispossessed Jews,’” Goldbloom said. “And in the 1930s, The Star’s Berlin correspondent, Pierre Van Passen, was one of the very few foreign reporters who described Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. Hitler banned The Star from Germany. All of this took place while Joe Atkinson was the owner, who lived by his own guiding principles.”
But after Israeli independence in 1948 and especially after the Six Day War, The Star’s Atkinson tradition of sympathy for the perceived underdog shifted from Israel to the Palestinian Arabs. A succession of reporters, especially after Beland Honderich succeeded Joe Atkinson as The Star’s publisher and owner, wrote numerous articles contrasting “the poor dispossessed Palestinians” to the victorious Israeli military, without mentioning the fact that Israel won the Six Day War as a result of Arab designs of exterminating the Jewish state.
One of the most recent of these pro-Palestinian writers is Haroon Siddiqui, the object of at least a dozen questions from the audience, who complained of his perceived anti-Israel bias. Siddiqui, a former editorial page editor, now writes a twice-per-week opinion column in which criticism of Israel has been a staple. Another reporter whose name was mentioned as being hostile to Israel was Antonia Zerbisias.
In response to objections from the floor to Siddiqui, Goldbloom replied, “We have fundamental disagreements but I will defend his right to express his critical point of view. Haroon is an exceptional journalist who has been admitted to the Order of Canada. I advocate freedom of speech.”
Other recent articles such as perceived “human face” portrayals of Arab suicide-homicide bombers evoked the same form of response by Goldbloom.
However, when asked about the all-important use of words, such as describing terrorists as freedom fighters and militants, Goldbloom did admit: “A terrorist should be called a terrorist,” a statement for which he received a round of applause.
Turning to more local issues, a question was raised to why The Star, which is characterized as a liberal newspaper, does not support the full-funding of all faith-based schools by Ontario, a privilege extended to only the Roman Catholic schools.
Goldbloom admitted that “I am not as informed on this issue, but I am perplexed by this issue in Ontario. Quebec does fund all faith-based schools. But The Star does feel that fair funding would diminish the public school system.” But Goldbloom promised that “I will welcome a multi-faith group advocating full faith-based funding to visit the editorial board of The Star.”
He denied that the reason for a recent decline in readership of The Star was caused by a loss of Jewish subscribers. “This is not so,” replied Goldbloom. “There has been a general decline of newspaper readership due to the internet” and the fact that younger readers are getting their news there.
When asked about widespread negative sentiments in the Toronto Jewish community towards The Star, he answered: “I can’t see why there would be such an attitude. The Star still has a significant Jewish readership.”
He had high praise for Mitch Potter, The Star’s current Middle East correspondent.
Goldbloom concluded his main address and the question period by declaring that “good newspapers are by nature controversial.” He admitted that “the job of covering Toronto is becoming more complex, as Toronto is now the most multicultural city in the world.” Thus, “I will provide different perspectives.”
In his remarks thanking Goldbloom for speaking, Barry Lebow, president of Toronto Freedom Lodge, mentioned that (in the 1930s) the now-defunct Toronto Telegram was antisemitic, until the Bassetts bought it, and then it became one of the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel dailies in the world, and the Jewish community of Toronto embraced it. While he does not believe that such a turnaround is happening at The Star, Lebow was cautiously optimistic that since Michael Goldbloom became the publisher, there have been some positive changes.
“The editorials are more balanced, as is news coverage of Israel,” Lebow said. “Regular columnist Rosie diManno is favourable to Israel. The Star has not become perfect, but it’s better than it was before Michael Goldbloom.”
Index | Letters to the Editor | Main Page | Op Ed | Photos
Send Letters To The Editor:
editor@jewishtribune.ca
This site hosted by:
vex.net
