Etonchik launches in AJN
For the first time, this week The Australian Jewish News is delighted to bring you Etonchik, the result of a new collaboration with Eton, Australia’s newspaper for the ex-pat Israeli community.
FOR the very first time, this week The Australian Jewish News is delighted to bring you Etonchik, the result of a new collaboration with Eton, Australia’s newspaper for the ex-pat Israeli community.
Etonchik (meaning, ‘little newspaper’) is a section of The AJN which will include interviews, current affairs, music and book reviews, trends, recipes and opinions – written entirely in Hebrew. It will be published within The AJN on a bi-monthly basis.
“The collaboration between The AJN and Eton is groundbreaking for both our newspapers”, said Rod Kenning, general manager of The AJN’s parent company, Polaris Media.
“It is incredibly important that The AJN is the newspaper of record for all sections of Australia’s Jewish community. Working with Eton allows us to better serve Israelis living in Australia.”
Eton’s co-editor and co-manager, Ravit Glance, echoed those sentiments, labelling the collaboration “the logical way forward”.
“After more than 12 years of publishing Eton, we now have the need to extend our family … A concise version of Eton in The AJN, a pillar of the community, is a big step in the process of bridging the two communities”, Glance said.
The historic separation between the Israeli community and the broader Jewish community has previously been explored by Hallely Kimchi, co-editor and co-manager of Eton, and coordinator of Habayit – the home of Hebrew and Israeli culture.
In 2006, she contributed a chapter to the book, New Under the Sun: Jewish Australians on Religion, Politics & Culture, where she wrote of the evolution of the Israeli community in Australia, and her personal experience of immigrating to Melbourne in 1996. At that time, Kimchi assessed that “the Israeli community has not been able to connect or merge with the Jewish community here”, due to “basic and fundamental differences in mentality as well as in language and culture”.
Kimchi added that “Israelis here, first and foremost, seek to connect with other Israelis before opening themselves to Australian society and culture which seem so strange and distant.”
Eleven years have since passed, and Israelis have increasingly integrated. Now represented across mainstream Jewish organisations, the birth of Etonchik is an organic extension of this progress. This is positive forward momentum in the direction of “one unique heterogeneous community with solid common ground”, Glance said.
Kimchi reflected: “It is beautiful to see the collaboration … and the acceptance of each other. Etonchik will continue the legacy of Eton, to grow … to continue to bring the communities closer, and keep the Hebrew language alive.”
REBECCA DAVIS
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