O pinion
THE VIEW FROM HERE
A Letter From the Editor
BY LIZ SPIKOL
WHEN I FIRST met Joshua
Runyan in a Starbucks four
years ago — black coffee for
him; cappuccino for me — I
thought I was going to talk
with him about the death of the
Jewish press in Philadelphia.

I was a staff writer at
Philadelphia magazine then
and Josh was the new editor-in-
chief of the Jewish Exponent. As
a native Philadelphia journal-
ist with strong feelings about
hometown pride, I had grave
concerns about the ability of
a Maryland-based editor to
effectively cover the local com-
munity. I prepared a number
of tough questions meant to
demonstrate that an outsider
could never truly understand
the city or do it justice.

But as has so often happened
in my 20-plus years in journal-
ism, things turned out quite
differently than I expected.

First of all, I learned that
Josh was a Philly native, and
the editorial staffers he’d hired
were local. He agreed with me
about Philadelphia’s singular-
ity and the importance of local,
on-the-ground reporting.

He also believed in the
importance of the Jewish press
and wanted nothing more than
to see Jewish community news-
papers flourish and grow. We
both shared precisely the same
concerns about the sustainabil-
ity of Jewish newspapers and
the future of media overall.

It was a reassuring conversa-
tion in terms of the Exponent,
which I saw was in good hands.

So when Josh and I spoke
again some months later — after
he’d done the sensible thing
and moved to Philadelphia
for good — about my coming
onboard to work for him, I
already knew we shared the
same core values when it came
to editing: balance, integrity,
accuracy. I also suspected that
I would feel at home working
for a Jewish newspaper, and I
was right.

In addition to enjoying cov-
ering the Jewish community
as a reporter, there were unex-
pected benefits. I never had
to explain any of the Yiddish
words I used; everyone was
warm as matzah ball soup and
evinced incredible concern if
I complained of the slightest
pain; and the managing editor
always had a supply of tissues,
plastic silverware and ibupro-
fen in his desk.

After my first week at 2100
Arch St., I called my mother and
said the words she wanted badly
to hear: “It’s a totally haimishe
place. I’m going to be fine.”
Since then, I have occupied
a number of different roles
for our parent company, from
Exponent staff writer to editor-
in-chief of the Baltimore Jewish
Times and the Jewish News
of Greater Phoenix. I’ve also
helped manage Washington
Jewish Week and the Pittsburgh
Jewish Chronicle.

After many years in the
so-called secular press, I’ve been
blown away by how engaged,
excited and connected readers
of Jewish newspapers are —
especially in Philadelphia.

As other publications across
the country struggle to main-
tain a Letters to the Editor sec-
tion, the Exponent has a steady
flow of reader feedback, both
online and via regular mail. We
get lots of phone calls, too, from
people who want to talk about
particular articles we’ve run.

As a nostalgia junkie, some
of my favorite calls come from
readers who are excited to see
a familiar name in a story —
maybe it’s a second-grade best
friend they lost touch with or a
son who recognizes his veteran
father’s World War II buddy.

Sometimes we can even make
reunions happen.

And when I ran the Mazel
Tovs section — which features
bar and bat mitzvahs, births,
weddings and engagements — I
regularly had long talks with
people whose families had been
reading the paper for years and
felt the Exponent announce-
ment of a child’s simcha repre-
sented the culmination of their
Jewish Philadelphia upbringing.

Quite often, when I’ve called
a source for an interview, they’ve
said, “The Jewish Exponent?
My grandma will be so proud!”
Even celebrities get a kick out of
appearing in these pages.

All of this makes the
Exponent a true community
newspaper. Even in a densely
saturated media environment
with so many disparate options,
its existence remains vital to its
readership, which means that
those of us tasked with shep-
herding it through its next phase
have a serious responsibility.

So it is with great care and
deliberation that I take the
reins of the Exponent from
Josh’s able hands, as he moves
See Spikol, Page 16
In Memory of the Victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
BY MARCIA BRONSTEIN
MY GRANDMOTHER Rose
worked in a sweatshop when she
arrived in the U.S. as a 15-year-
old. She even had the needle
marks on her nails to prove it.

It was there that the sewing
machine sewed through her fin-
gers many times. She was appre-
ciative of the work, though, as it
was that job that allowed her to
stay in America and send money
home to her family in Russia.

Rose, then known as Ruchel
Rabinowitz, left Minsk with a
caravan of others who were
walking out of Russia through
its frozen heartland, head-
ing to brighter futures. She
had a ticket for a crossing to
14 MARCH 7, 2019
American on the Cunard Line,
purchased for her on Jan. 27,
1923, by her sister Anna in
Brooklyn, New York.

Rose made it to Riga, Latvia,
on March 21, 1923, where $108
awaited her, money that her sis-
ter had sent through the Hebrew
Sheltering and Immigrant Aid
Society of America (HIAS).

According to the paperwork in
family files, the payment would
be made “when the payee pres-
ents himself” at the European
HIAS office.

On April 12, 1923, Anna
mailed a letter from Brooklyn
to the American Consul in Riga
on my grandmother’s behalf.

Dear Sir: Please read this
plea from an anxious young
woman and may you be inclined
to act favorably in her behalf.

My sister, Ruchel Rabinowitz,
whose present address is c/o HIAS
Riga, has been waiting over three
months away from her home and
among strangers, for her visa and
passport to the U.S. Soon her stay
in Riga will become illegal and she
will be penniless because of her
forced detention. Doubtless, you
are doing all within your power
to aid people who are placed in
such unfortunate positions, nev-
ertheless, I shall pray every night
until this letter reaches your own
hands and that you will do some-
thing to soften the misery of one
sister in Riga and the other here.

The necessary papers for
obtaining the visa have been
JEWISH EXPONENT
in your office for three months
and your favorable action in
this case will earn for you the
undying gratitude of two sisters.

Please kind sir, help us.

My grandmother did finally
arrive at Ellis Island on July 4,
1923, on a ship that had set sail
from England. She was reunited
with her sister in New York and
they both held piecework jobs in a
sweatshop, while attending night
school, learning English, going
to dances with young men and
enjoying life in the new world —
where they didn’t have to worry
about Cossacks, pogroms or being
recruited into the Russian Army.

Rose sent money to her parents
every month and believed in the
American dream.

She was like so many of the
young women who worked in
sweatshops in the U.S. in the
early 20th century. In March,
the month of the anniversary of
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
fire, we think about those who
died on March 25, 1911, in the
garment factory located in the
Asch Building in Washington
Square in New York City.

Many of the workers, like
my grandmother, had recently
arrived from Europe and held
piecework jobs in the factory.

And they were trapped — they
had no opportunity to escape
from the flames as the build-
ing collapsed. The doors were
See Bronstein, Page 16
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