WINNIPEG — Freelance journalist and CJN contributor Rhonda Spivak, left, said that she is excited about assuming her new position as editor of Winnipeg’s Jewish Post and News.
“I am looking forward to creating a more dynamic product that will
engage readers and help sustain the vibrancy of our community,” she
said.
Spivak is replacing Matt Bellan, longtime editor and co-owner of the biweekly newspaper, who retired in early December and is selling his share to his brother and partner, Bernie.
The paper had been a weekly until about a year ago, but the brothers decided to print every second week as a result of declining advertising sales.
Bellan said that the paper is doing much better financially and that advertising has picked up over the last year.
He added that he feels relieved to be free of the responsibility of editing the paper after 27 years on the job.
The Post was founded in 1925, and Matt – he had been working there as editor since 1981-– Bernie and a third partner, who has been out of the picture for quite some time, bought it in 1984.
In 1987, the partners bought out the Western Jewish News, a longtime competitor of the Post, and merged the two papers into the Jewish Post and News.
Matt Bellan said that when he began working as editor, the Jewish Post was a 12-page publication that served largely as a community bulletin board promoting upcoming events.
“I am proud that I have been able to enlarge the paper and provide more serious news reporting of community issues,” he said.
He also takes pride in going to bat for the underdog, particularly a blind social worker who was let go from her employment by a local Jewish social service agency, and an Israeli man involved in a child custody case who was banned from several Jewish institutions because, Bellan believes, his former in-laws are prominent members of the community.
He also points out that he was the first editor of a Jewish newspaper in North America to openly proclaim that he is gay.
As sole owner, Bernie Bellan, who is also the paper’s business manager, said that he is looking to change the focus of the paper by placing more emphasis on local coverage and trying to appeal to a broader segment of the community.
“We are fortunate to have Rhonda as our new editor. She brings with her strong writing and analytical skills and understands the Israeli scene as well or better than any other Canadian Jewish journalist,” he said.
Spivak is a native Winnipegger whose connections with Israel go back to 1986 when she attended the Rothberg School for Overseas students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A lawyer by training, she is also a member of the Israeli Bar, having articled at the Jerusalem office of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
She speaks Hebrew fluently and visits Israel often, where she and her family – she is married to Stephen Corne and they have two children, Leah, 10, and Dov, 9 – have a second home in Netanya.
After staying at home to raise her two children, Spivak began writing as a freelance journalist about two years ago. “I always had a flare for writing,” she said.
Her articles have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz (the English edition), the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Jewish Independent, the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and the Minneapolis American Jewish World, as well as the Jewish Post and News and The CJN.
Her articles have also been distributed widely in the Jewish world by news services on the web, including Israel News, Israel Jewish News, Israpundit, JHeadlines, and Jewish World.
In 2007, Spivak was nominated by the Vancouver Jewish Independent for an award among Jewish journalists in North America, for her coverage of the case of Sam Golubchuk and issues surrounding decisions to terminate his life.