Jodi Rudoren
To be the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times is one of the toughest jobs in American journalism. All sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain perpetually convinced that whoever holds the position is sympathetic to their opponents, and are eager to prove it.
Ethan Bronner passed the highly charged post on to Jodi Rudoren in April of this year. Rudoren, 41, had covered presidential campaigns and the Midwest for the Times. Within five seconds of her appointment, the previously low-profile Times staffer was being pilloried online from the left and right.
The attacks haven’t stopped. In a plaintive post on Twitter in September, seven months into her tenure, Rudoren begged the Web hordes to treat a colleague joining Twitter with some respect.
“Please be nicer to her than [you] are to me!” She wrote.
As for Rudoren’s work, she’s been praised for being quick to pick up on the significance of the Palestinian hunger strikers protesting the Israeli government’s practice of administrative detention, which allows for indefinite imprisonment without trial.
She’s also been criticized for the same story by some on the right, who saw it as romanticizing the Palestinian activists.
Later, she was variously praised and condemned for her warm profile of settler leader Dani Dayan, whom she portrayed as a cosmopolitan centrist. Critics on the left complained that the story played down the occupation.
All in the first seven months. Nonetheless, the bylines are still coming. Rudoren, so far, has not been cowed.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
