3,000 watch online panel with editors of Jewish News, Jerusalem Post and The Forward

More than 3,000 people across four international time zones marked the seventh night of Chanukah by tuning in to a special online event held by three leading Jewish media groups — Israel’s Jerusalem Post, America’s The Forward, and Britain’s Jewish News.

Zvika Klein, interim editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post — who had only been in his role for a day — joined fellow editors Jodi Rudoren of The Forward and  Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer for a round-table discussion about the challenges and highs of covering the Israel-Hamas war. Their experiences ranged from up close and all too personal, as in the case of the Post, to trying to report from outside Israel and engage their readers with stories relating to the American and British communities.

All three editors, despite their differing approaches, were agreed on one thing — a new closeness is emerging between Israel and the diaspora. Zvika Klein said he felt “a greater understanding” on the part of Israelis. “Finally they are getting it,” he said, noting that Israeli TV programmes which had highlighted instances of international antisemitism had shocked the state.

Watch the event here

He also noted that even secular Israelis were “becoming more Jewish”, while Richard Ferrer said that “the last few months have blurred the distinctions between the diaspora and Israel”, observing that Jews around the world had been profoundly affected by the events of 7 October and the war

Each of the editors, given that it was Chanukah, was asked if there was any “light in the darkness” that they could take from the war.

Ferrer was optimistic that agreements secured under the banner of the Abraham Accords would continue, and even expand, while Klein said there were seismic changes within strictly-Orthodox communities which might otherwise have taken years to effect.

Rudoren, who spent 11 days in Israel reporting for The Forward, pointed to a rise in readership of Jewish media as well as an upsurge in volunteering from diaspora communities and within Israel itself.

The editors’ discussion, moderated by Jewish News news editor Justin Cohen, was bookended by two interviews conducted by the Israeli actress and journalist Neta Riskin, speaking from Germany.

The event opened with an interview with Israel’s international press spokesman Eylon Levy, who was plainly on the same page as the editors when he spoke of “Jewish mutual responsibility” which he believed had emerged since the outbreak of the war, with both Israeli and diaspora communities supporting each other.