Response to the Times

How and why I declined a New York Times interview

In October–when we were grappling with the (un)believable fact that Israel’s genocide in Gaza had gone on for TWO YEARS–a reporter for the New York Times reached out to me for an interview. Below is a redacted version of what the reporter emailed me and a somewhat edited but still very lengthy version of how I responded.

I am sharing this in case it can support principled decision-making for anyone navigating these narrative waters.

Dear Ora,

My name is XXX and I am a reporter for the New York Times.

I am now working on a story with a colleague in which we are talking to Jewish New Yorkers about how they have been impacted and changed (if at all) by Oct. 7 and the two-year war in Gaza. We are asking people if the past two years have changed their connection to Judaism, their feelings about Israel and their comfort in New York.

We know that there is a wide diversity of perspectives in the Jewish community and we are seeking to share as many of them as possible.

I appreciate your help as I try to report a nuanced story at such an important moment.

XXX

Hello XXX,

First of all, thank you for crowdsourcing information and reaching out to someone beyond your immediate circle or those who are already most platformed.

As the daughter of a rabbi, born in Jerusalem, holding a master’s degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and over a decade spent as the Youth Education Director at a progressive synagogue, I have a lot to say about how I became alienated from my tradition because of the hideous deployment of our heritage, histories, identities, places of worship, and even holidays in the service of extermination and conquest. Since Oct 7, 2023, I have become even more painfully severed from my extended family and so-called community. (Although thankfully, my immediate family is dedicated to working for Palestinian safety and sovereignty).

However, I must decline this invitation to speak with respect to the boycott of the New York Times.

While I do not claim that boycotting mainstream media is always strategic, I do believe in refusing collaboration with the NYT—especially when my inclusion would serve a piece singularly focused on Jewish voices while persistently manufacturing consent for Israel’s U.S.-backed war on Palestinians, and I will not legitimize its narrative.

I’m curious about your approach to this piece. Why do you think this is an important piece for the Times to report on? Is there a similar counterpart focusing on the experience of Palestinian and Lebanese New Yorkers living through Israel’s war on their peoples?

What framing are you pursuing – who else are you talking to?

Are you taking the usual Times approach of over-representing socially and politically conservative Jews who support Israel unconditionally and including one “alternative” voice? Or are you actually taking a fresh approach and pursuing voices and stories rarely, if ever, reported in the Times?

How are you referring to Palestinians and their experience?

What language are you using to speak of what’s happened since Oct 7 – conflict? genocide? war?

Boycott or not, I refuse to center discussions on Israel’s settler society fears or mainstream American white Jewish distorted perspectives on safety and comfort, especially while an active genocide of Palestinians – not Jews – is taking place with U.S. support. These concerns are often simply unadulterated criminalization of Palestinians and those who stand up to Zionist threats. It is irresponsible for news outlets to put them on the same playing field as those experiencing actual structural violence daily; Palestinians and all Arabs in the U.S, all immigrants here, all Indigenous people, Black people, the people of Puerto Rico...the list goes on and on which is why it is so frustrating when Jewish “comfort” – as you put it– receives so much attention.

But while we’re on the topic of Jewish safety/comfort…our history clearly teaches us that our safety is undeniably bound to the safety of the most vulnerable, refugees, our fellow minority groups, anyone othered, our teachers, our caregivers, our artists, workers, rebels, and the original peoples of the places we live. We make ourselves safe by joining together to solve the problems we face. The Zionist strategy, however, has always been to align Jews with Empire, to seek supposed strength as defined by the very same white supremacist, colonialist logics that were the root of the persecution and genocide that Jews themselves historically faced in Europe.

I am offering you the most robust and genuine response I can, and I also want to acknowledge that it might feel harsh. The frustration, critique, and wariness I’m expressing here are accumulative and institutional, not personal, obviously given that we don’t know each other.

The Times has demonstrated itself to be untrustworthy to Palestinians, all those impacted by corporate and state violence, and those who stand with them.

We hope one day reporters like you can help change that!

Take care,

Ora