Spending five days at Brandeis University was everything and nothing like my college experience. I woke up tired. I puttered to the dining hall, not entirely human until I got that cup of coffee. My dorm room got messy within 10 hours.
But I also never felt tempted to skip a class. I took notes. A lot of notes. I analyzed what I learned throughout the day, not just before a final exam.
From 8:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., I soaked up as much information as I could about Judaism, journalism and the many ways they intersect, as one of 17 lucky participants in a summer fellowship for Jewish news reporters and editors.
The Gralla Fellowship (named for its funder, philanthropist Milton Gralla) brings together Jewish journalists during odd years, and religion reporters from daily newspapers during even years. It is gem of a resource that includes lectures and field trips — to a mikvah, a quasi-ancient synagogue in Boston, Paul Revere’s house (did you know his best friend was Jewish?).
Participants learned from each other, too. We stayed up late playing cards, swapping front-line stories and teaching the over-35 participants about the time-wasting joys of Facebook and MySpace.
The experience showed me that Jewish journalism is dynamic in ways I never before considered.
Before I moved here, I lived and breathed my work at daily newspapers. So throughout the past year I’ve thought a lot about what I can’t do because I’m writing for a Jewish press. I now see opportunities for storytelling because I am writing for a Jewish press.
Confession: I took this job at j. because I wanted to live in San Francisco. I knew the change would be personally enriching, but professionally? Well, I doubted that. After nearly eight years writing for dailies, I had been conditioned to buy into their elitism. The general attitude is: Dailies are superior, and to write for something different means you’re not a serious journalist.
Though none of my colleagues ever criticized my choice, I knew deep down they wondered why I would take a “step back.” I asked myself the same question. I wondered if I had made a mistake, leaving a profession and a rhythm that had dictated all of my major life choices since graduating from college. Would I regret it? Would I continue to grow as a writer? And if I wanted to go back to dailies, would I be accepted for my writerly shift?
I now know that I didn’t take a step back. I took a step in a different direction; one that I finally see has a lot to teach me.
I also see that there is great work happening in the Jewish journalism world. Like daily reporters, we also want and do tell unique, powerful stories that have real meaning to those who read them. I was suddenly proud to be a part of this fellowship.
This notion of professional camaraderie brings me to my second point, which is this: Jewish journalists support each other in a way daily news reporters generally don’t. I speak not of inside a newsroom — at every daily newspaper I’ve ever worked, I always felt my colleagues were teammates who would support me.
What I’m referring to is the world beyond any one newsroom. With a few exceptions, I have always felt a quiet competition among daily reporters. At journalism conferences, I usually feel like I have to prove myself and that everyone else is trying to do the same. It’s exhausting.
And yet at the Gralla seminar, I never felt like I needed to demonstrate my talent and ambition. I felt accepted. The fellows treated one another with respect, listened to each other with great interest. Several people even praised my question-asking skills, which is like telling a contestant on “American Idol” she can really sing.
I don’t yet know how I’ll use the nuts and bolts of what I learned. I do have an arsenal of story ideas.
And more important, I have a new perspective.
And for that, especially that, I am grateful. I certainly didn’t feel like that the first time I went to college.
Stacey Palevsky lives in San Francisco and is a staff writer at j. She can be reached