Tablet Magazine’s Jewish Focus Pulls Staff to Pittsburgh on a Mission

The Pittsburgh project was the first time the Tablet had dispatched a team for a breaking news event. (The editorial team did travel to Poland together once to cover the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, but that trip had been planned well in advance.) Ms. Newhouse said the site augmented its servers to handle any additional traffic.

It also was the editorial team’s first time staying together in one house. “We’ve gotten to know each other really, really well,” Ms. Butnick said dryly.

Readers’ response to the Pittsburgh project has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Like, a Jew in Cleveland does feel connected to whatever’s going on here,” Ms. Butnick said. “They don’t know how to be, they may not know anybody here personally, but they feel attached and concerned. We’re a conduit for them.”

During a brief lull on Tuesday, Ms. Newhouse gathered with the Tablet staff members Yair Rosenberg, Jacob Siegel, Armin Rosen and Ms. Butnick at the kosher vegetarian Milky Way restaurant in Squirrel Hill. It would be one of their last meetings before many in the group returned to New York, and it was a time to reflect on what the experience of covering the shooting and its aftermath had been like. Ms. Butnick remarked on how impressed she had been with the kindness that people had shown them.

“We did a podcast, and we’re sticking our recorder in the faces of individuals at the vigil and saying, ‘Tell us about this community,’ and then at the end of interviews people were asking us, ‘Do you have a place to stay?’” she said.

Asked to describe her impression of Pittsburgh, a city to which she had no previous connection, Ms. Newhouse paused for a moment.

“The reception we’ve gotten here has been a lot like the reception you get at a shiva house,” she said. “That is to say that people are incredibly grateful you’re there but wish you were there for a different reason.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/business/media/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-tablet-jewish.html?partner=rss&emc=rss