When the documentary-filmmaker helping produce our virtual gala first asked me to sum up the Forward’s 2020 in a single word, I said “intense.” It certainly has been the most intense of intense news years, plus the pandemic’s intensity for all of us personally and professionally is unparalleled. 

I turned the one-word challenge on my colleagues. “Busy,” said Ari Feldman, the reporter who wrote our very first article about coronavirus, broke numerous stories about how it was playing out in Orthodox communities, and was himself struck by a mid-level case of Covid this spring. “Amplified” was how our Opinion editor, Batya Ungar-Sargon put it. “Our mission has taken on a sort of amplified importance.” P.J. Grisar, who covers culture, said simply: “unpredictable.”

Rob Eshman, who joined us as National Editor at the end of March after years running the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles, chose “tsunami,” and of course he was not talking about the weather. “It is a constant 40-foot wave of news coming at us,” Rob noted, “and us having to make sense of it and us having to talk about what it means for our community. I’ve been in Jewish journalism 30 years -- there’s never been a time like this.”

As we talked, I reconsidered my own answer. Sure it was intense, but so were many earlier chapters of my career, like covering the 2004 presidential campaign, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and in the Gaza Strip for The New York Times. 

What differentiated this intense year leading the Forward from my other journalistic endeavors was better described as “meaningful.” It is deeply meaningful to be reviving an institution with such a storied legacy for the digital moment. It is so meaningful to lead provocative “Zoomversations” with Jewish thought leaders on things that matter. 

It is profoundly meaningful to engage directly with readers who share my values and are part of my community. And it is meaningful to be mentoring young journalists like Ari and P.J., nurturing their growth and learning from them, too, every day. 

If what we’re making is meaningful to you, please join the Forward family by becoming a subscriber. As a reader-supported nonprofit, our excellence and independence depends on it. 

Thank you,

Jodi Rudoren
Editor in Chief
The Forward