Hidabroot Writers Share: The Most Significant Dilemma I've Experienced in My Role

How much to expose audiences to shocking stories, and what to do when an interviewee regrets and requests to shelve the article? As the new site launches, Hidabroot writers reveal the behind-the-scenes dilemmas:

Hadas Apik

This happened more than once: As a magazine writer, I often interview fascinating people with interesting life stories. They are usually happy to share them with the readers to strengthen and convey messages, and sometimes we talk for hours to hear the full story in the most detailed way. Several times, after a long conversation, after I had already written and edited the article, I received a message from the interviewee who decided to retract, fearing and preferring not to publish the article. It’s hard to say a dilemma arises in such situations, since, for me, it’s clear that if an interviewee doesn't want to expose their life story, I won’t publish it, even if I invested many hours in it. My dilemma is usually how to respond and what to say to the interviewee. Often, I feel like admonishing, explaining how many precious hours I devoted, and asking why they didn't think twice before agreeing to be interviewed. I admit the experience is not easy, but as a writer for a Jewish site, I understand my responsibility and strive to apply it, *Baruch Hashem*.

Itzik Yitzhaki

The constant dilemma – whether to publish a moving moment associated with social media stars. Publishing a singer or a tattooed person on a Jewish site doesn’t always pass. On the other hand – drawing the distant closer. This borderline moves like a pendulum. The Halacha doesn’t change, but the line blurs as efforts are made to bring the distant closer. Today it goes here – tomorrow in an entirely different place. One must know where to set the boundaries.

Naama Green

My dilemma in my role is which news to bring to the audience’s attention. If a 5-year-old passed away in Ashdod, a 7-year-old boy was killed – should I report it? Or focus on less shocking updates? This dilemma followed me for a very long time until we received the following directive from Rabbi Zamir Cohen, who said: "There are too many sad news stories on the site. The people of Israel are sad enough. There needs to be a respite from this entirely for a while, and then return to balance, reporting only what carries reinforcing messages or serves a purpose for the sick."

Moran Kores

Dilemmas are opportunities to evolve and broaden our perspectives. There are many dilemmas, but I think in many articles, my dilemma is when and how far I can ask the interviewees questions so that I don't invade too much into their personal lives, yet they discuss topics they don’t always talk about. That thin line – when to delve deeper. Personally, I love depths, but the dilemma is always feeling how far it is appropriate for me to delve into the personal sanctuary of my interviewee.

Rabbi Zamir Cohen's instruction is my guiding light. While other sites have shocking articles and dramatic headlines like "Tragedy," "Shocking," and more, at Hidabroot, we carefully filter information and strive not to bring any unnecessary news that only adds more sorrow and concern.

Avner Shaki

Writing for such a large, influential site requires great responsibility, so there are often things you're very undecided about. One thing I often deliberate is the desire to write positively and restrainedly versus the desire to write excitingly and dramatically. My general aspiration is to write positively and restrainedly, but people are drawn more to exciting and, often, negative things, so more dramatic writing could bring wider exposure. Finding a balance between positive writing and attention-grabbing writing isn’t simple but it’s important to continually invest in it.

Shira Dabush (Cohen)

In truth, there are many dilemmas because, as you already understand – Hidabroot is not "just another" site. Behind every article stands great sensitivity and a sincere desire to do as much good and as little harm as possible.

One of the toughest dilemmas, in my view, is whether to publish or not to publish a good item likely to achieve high ratings because of purely Halachic/moral considerations. For instance, we often encounter uplifting statements online by some celeb or their "one-time" spiritual awakening – and the question is whether it is right or wrong to publish it and give it a platform on a site that speaks entirely of spiritual growth (in the hope that the growth covers everything, of course, and not just partially).

Because this dilemma is so alive and kicking for us writers, and accompanies pretty much every article we encounter on the web about this or that celeb, I found myself writing an opinion piece about it a few years ago: Response to those who ask "Why am I not published like the celeb? I also put on tefillin"

On one hand, the desire to achieve high ratings is strong in every writer, including me. I live and breathe social networks, following celebs who do or say even the smallest things related to Judaism.

Yet I can say that many times I found myself saying about a powerful article, knowing it would become even more powerful if only published on Hidabroot – "No. There's no chance my name will be attached to such an article." Many times, items fall because I know the article might lead the reader to search for that celeb, exposing them to content I'd rather they not be exposed to – like a lack of modesty.

Another dilemma is not just "what to publish," but also "how."

As someone who has tried many areas of writing over the years, and on many subjects, it’s clear that within the "how" go considerations of sensitivity (for example, I won’t publish humor collections on a day when there was a terror attack and the whole of Israel is in mourning). I won’t publish videos with even a hint of any animal abuse, and if I get notified about such (mistakes happen in the rush of work), the video – good/funny/interesting as it may be – will be shelved. And here’s something "hot," just from recent days: I won’t publish roll-ups that don't have mehadrin certification, for fear that those who strictly adhere to it will be offended (instead, I published a home-made roll-up recipe).

There are many dilemmas while working, but it doesn’t end there. Behind the scenes, too, there are many dilemmas.

For example, whether initially engaging in a certain subject, whether initially going in-depth regarding politics, right-left, religious-secular, and more.

This question is constantly before my eyes – will this article do good? Will it speak favorably? Strengthen Israel as a people – or will it disastrously fuel more and more the fire of hatred and division? However, as a "headline hunter" entrusted with bringing interesting and piquant items to the site, sometimes I have no choice but to go there, if only to strengthen the right side, or in other words, "Hashem's right hand does valiantly."

I'm on a site that sets out to bring closer and strengthen the foundations of Judaism, and this is exactly the mission of each and every one of us, sometimes even at the expense of publishing items accompanied by dilemmas. The dilemma is a tool that guides us but it won’t always tip the scales in favor of shelving the item (and that’s a good thing).

Gabi Schneider

It's hard to pinpoint one significant dilemma because working in a communications outlet like Hidabroot is filled with dilemmas. While we want to present the audiences with good, interesting, diverse stories, our "bug" as communicators won’t come at the expense of boundaries we’ll never cross – regarding the article topics, their style, and more. The dilemma doesn’t even usually arise as for us, the boundary is clear and drawn. The hesitation is in "gray" cases where there are arguments for and against covering a topic, arguments both ways.

Galit Levy

Switching to work from the organization's offices rather than from home. It sounds simple. In the first few months, I insisted on working from home. I was a freelancer working from home for nearly 17 years. It seemed illogical to me to be a working mom outside the home. I was gripped by anxiety at the thought of coming home from work after picking up the kids from school, and I never understood how mothers manage.

To my delight, Hidabroot accepted my request, and to my greater delight, I slowly realized that for me, at this stage of my life - working at Hidabroot's headquarters is best: the connection with my colleagues deepened, the quantity and quality of the articles improved tremendously, working hours increased alongside the salary, and simply not looking at untreated household chores already clears so much headspace for writing and action at Hidabroot.

Debi Reichman

This isn’t exactly a dilemma but a challenge I didn’t anticipate. There was an instance where I edited and published a personal story of a woman who experienced fertility challenges. We wanted to encourage more women to write their stories and publish them, to encourage couples still in the process, and my email was listed at the end of the article for story submissions. For some reason, confusion arose among some audience members, who thought the published story was my personal story. For a while, my email box received almost daily emails from women or couples hoping to receive advice from me in this field. It was very unfortunate for me to respond to them empty-handed since, *Baruch Hashem*, my knowledge on fertility is limited to editing that story... Nevertheless, I tried to respond to each inquiry with sensitivity and warmth, and although I couldn’t practically help them, I prayed for each of the people who reached out, for them to soon have enduring fruit.

Tamar Schneider

In all sites and newspapers, magazine articles are not shown to interviewees before publication, as they usually request changes requiring precious work time. I had a brief debate about this at first, but I quickly decided. Even if there is just a small mistake – the interviewee shows this article to so many people, it's sometimes their face in front of others, and it isn't appropriate for me to publish inaccurate things about them, which might harm them and their good reputation. So yes, it takes extra time (on my own, as payment is per article word, not hours), and sometimes mental strength. Some interviewees ask only for small changes, and some change more. Some take it further and rewrite many lines themselves, at a low writing level, with high confidence in what they've written. Still – it's all worth it to produce a respectful and accurate article for everyone. In this context, I recall an interviewee who told a life story, part of which involved a complicated relationship with their parents. After editing the article, we felt that the content might harm them. So, we removed parts and more parts from the story until it was free of any mention of them. It took me three times longer to edit this article, but it was worth it. I heard a former journalist once say they left journalism because people are "killed" there. We seek the opposite.

Shuli Shmueli

The constant thought I have is how to present Judaism in an attractive and interesting enough way. After all, interesting news from Israel and the world is naturally the most intriguing and captivating. My challenge is to find how to create interest in purely Jewish items, and strengthening in mitzvah observance. This is where the idea to create a podcast series on women’s modesty emerged, and the plan to make "Ask Your Sister" strengthening videos. In general, behind every article and item lies the consideration of which aspect of serving Hashem might interest, and how to present it in a way that attracts, interests, and strengthens.

By the way, if you have ideas for me, feel free to leave comments. I'd be very happy to receive suggestions from our audience.