A letter from a non- Jewish journalist in New Hampshire. It should give us all some food for thought:

You must read my words very carefully and do what I tell you to do.

But, first, I am going to tell you what I am going to do. I spoke, last night, with a doctor who has family in Israel. While I was covering another story in my conversation with him, of course I led the conversation to Israel and learned about his family. How many Jews in the United States have relatives or close friends in Israel? I would guess many many.

Just now, as I was taking a shower, I thought...Hmmm...When we had relatives in the Gulf War, we wrote about the waiting families.

How is this different?...It is the same, I concluded. Sooo, I am going to try and get together a bunch of Jews with relatives in Israel and let them tell their stories of fear. That is important, because it personalizes a story for readers. When they know someone involved, it becomes their own story.

When one little paper does such a thing, another notices, and I will pray that it will give "journalistic" ideas to other journalists. We shall see.

Now, let's see if we can help this along...If you in Israel can get the word to your home newspapers in the USA, in the same way I am going to do my story.

This is what I want you to do, and take this very seriously. If I know anything, it's community journalism. The United States is not made up of New York Times's. It is made up of hundreds, maybe thousands of community newspapers...dailies and weeklies. They strike to the heart of the people. They are personal. And they are well-read.

Those of you who came from the United States...who made aliyah....should write to the local paper in the city or town from which you came. They LOVE to be able to personalize international stories. Write to the editors, most especially on e- mail. Give them your telephone numbers and tell them they can call you whenever there is breaking news in Israel. You can give them your perspective, even if it is just one of fear. Newspapers love that...I promise.

An example:
To the editor:
My wife and I lived in Jonesville, on Maple Way, until five years ago when we moved to Israel. We had come here to start a new life for ourselves and our five children, in the homeland of our people. Today, we are living in fear. My wife, Sarah, was held up for three hours yesterday on the way back from Jerusalem. The Arabs were stoning cars, etc etc etc. Our little girl, Rebecca, 6,was waiting at daycare for her mother. She was terrified, and hysterically crying by the time Sarah arrived.

Etc. Tell your stories. Do you hear me?

They will be printed...one by one, story by little story, in every little newspaper across America.Those of us here in the USA will come to know how many of us know people in Israel. You must encourage your fellow Israelis to do this. It can be done, e-mail by e-mail. I promise you it will make a difference. I KNOW it will, if you do it.

The average person is not glued to the NY Times or the Washington Post. They are reading a major paper, yes, but when it comes to learing about the personal side of life, they turn to their local newspaper. You need to be on those pages.

In addition, Israelis whose families and friends live in the United States need to encourage those relatives to call their local papers and to tell them how terrified they are...to encourage those papers to send reporters to write their stories...If a small group can get together to tell the stories of their relatives in Israel, all the better.

Newspapers are about names, names, names....The more people know someone in the paper, the more people read.This is the essence of community journalism, which is the bread and butter of journalism in America.

If they have a relative in Shilo, for instance, and something terrible happens there and they are not sure their relative is safe....tell them ahead of time...if that happens ...to CALL THEIR LOCAL PAPER WHILE IT IS BREAKING NEWS....OR CALL THEIR LOCAL TELEVISION STATION....Cry on TV, do you understand? Let the world see the reality of all this horror....

Now...simplified:

1. Americans, former Americans: Write letters to the editors of your local papers in the USA. Do not be political. Be personal. Tell your human story. The readers can draw their own conclusions. Do not say that the Arabs are evil in their behaviour. It is a mistake to do it that way. SHOW that the Arabs are out of line by simply telling your own story. It is much stronger when the reader comes to their own conclusion. Then, they own their feelings. Do not write editorials, in other words, simply tell your stories. Editors always tell reporters not to insult their readers by drawing conclusions for them. Simply tell the story and give the reader credit for some intelligence.

2. Those with relatives in the United States. Encourage them to call their local papers.

3. Those of you who have lost someone already in this violence....Immediately write to your local newspapers in the United States and tell them your story. Especially if it is breaking news. Or better, call them or give them your phone number.

4. Make sure you have the e-mail address of the United States newspaper in your home town so that you can fire off an e-mail at a moment's notice. I believe this may be all the more important in areas that are not heavily populated by Jews. For instance, everyone in New York knows they know someone in Israel. Everyone in Portsmouth, New Hampshire does not know that. But I suspect they have at least a second hand connection. You can be the ones to let us all know how personal this is, even to us here in the United States.

Write Write Write...