There has been a lot of turnover at the liberal Zionist magazine Zeek, and earlier this week, following the trail of Richard Silverstein‘s reporting, I suggested that Zeek is inhospitable to dissidents. Well, now one of the Zeek-leavers, Moshe Yaroni, purports to say why he left Zeek. My decision… totally amicable. But oblique: I have no idea why he left. Though he says it wasn’t a political tiff–it wasn’t about the Forward, which helps to market Zeek, fronting for Christian Zionist John Hagee.
Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, Zeek’s editor, says, "Yaroni’s leaving had nothing to do with Hagee. We will also be publishing a note about Zeek’s coverage priorities on our website, hopefully by tomorrow."
When editors say it wasn’t political, I raise an eyebrow. Silverstein reports that Kaiser experienced a lot of political pressure from the Christian Zionists’ Jewish flak, and that after Kaiser protected her journalist, Rachel Tabachnik, the flak went to the publisher of the Forward, Sam Norich, who caved. And Yaroni’s post suggests real political differences:
I also have nothing to add to the issues [Richard] Silverstein raises regarding Rachel Tabachnik [who covered Christian Zionism] and her departure from Zeek. Both sides in that argument have presented their views and will, I’m sure, continue to do so. As I was not privy to any of the internal discussions involved there between Rachel and Jo Ellen Kaiser at Zeek, I have nothing to offer on either side. I can only say that I hope these things do not escalate as, at the end of the day, we all have the same ultimate goals and we only help the conservative forces in our community when we fight among ourselves.
As Silverstein mentioned, Zeek editor Joel Schalit departed Zeek last week. Joel was the person who brought me into Zeek and has been working closely with me as my editor for years, long before we both came to Zeek. I expect that Joel and I will continue to pursue mutual projects.
