The New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan on Friday criticized a stringer for the paper after an interview subject complained he was subject to “a Jewish litmus test.”
She summed up the complaint from David McCleary, a Ph.D candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. McCleary was interviewed about the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), a grassroots movement that is sharply critical of Israel:
Mr. McCleary, who is Jewish, said that the reporter, Ronnie Cohen, asked him “insulting and demeaning questions,” including whether he “looked Jewish,” after telling him that his name didn’t sound Jewish and asking if he had been bar mitzvahed.
McCleary, a supporter of the movement, also complained that no Jewish proponents of BDS were quoted in the published piece.
Sullivan wrote that the questions from Cohen were “unprofessional and unacceptable.” She added that NYT national editor Alison Mitchell also spoke to Cohen about the questions.
“If she indeed pursued that line of questioning, it was inappropriate,” Mitchell said.
Not to excuse it, but McCleary isn’t a name that typically pops up in a lot when playing Jewish Geography.
I read the article, and I, as well as many commenters, was troubled by it’s failure to acknowledge that there are many Jews on campus for the BDS movement. What’s disturbing about this revelation is that it shows that lack of other voices might have been willful.
I had a college friend whose very Irish Catholic name (dad) didn’t match his Jewish faith (mom).
My sister is Jewish married to my Irish Catholic brother-in-law. All her kids have been raised in both faiths to some greater and lesser degrees, and will chose for themselves according to my sister, which religion if any they choose to follow later in life. Its really not that uncommon.
As a Jew (by birth) with a very non-Jewish sounding name (Scandinavian in origin), I’ve often experienced the same thing when speaking on matters related to Israel and Jewishness.
In fact, a NYT reporter asked me similar questions in 1988 when I was a member of the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee and I introduced a platform plank calling for negotiations for a two state agreement. (At the time it was considered radical and soundly defeated - funny how something that once both parties viewed as anathema became mainstream foreign policy in a relatively short period of time. I’d also introduced a similar plank in 1984 as a Jesse Jackson member of the Platform Committee and Mondale’s foreign policy maven - Madeline Albright - and the Platform Chair - Geraldine Ferraro - and all the operatives from the other campaigns went into overdrive to make sure the debate was short and the motion immediately rejected.)
After the Platform meeting in 1988 - when I had identified myself as Jewish in my remarks - the NYT reporter quizzed me with questions like “You say you’re Jewish? That doesn’t sound like a Jewish name?” “How Jewish are you? Do you go to synagogue?” I believe the throwaway line in the story that ran about the meeting described me as a “self-identified secular Jew.”
25+ years later, I guess some things don’t change.