Students create Jewish newspaper

Two IU seniors have founded IU's first student-run publication that focuses completely on Jewish events.\nThe newspaper, named the Bloomington Jewish Student, will be published every week and will feature articles and editorials about issues of concern to the local Jewish community.\nDrew Kaplan and Josh Hamerman founded the newspaper and serve as its co-editors.\nKaplan said he thought the paper was needed because there is not enough publicity for Jewish events at IU.\n"A lot of students don't know what's going on," he said. "We just thought it would be a good idea to provide a forum for all the Jewish events on campus in one place."\nThe BJS will be distributed throughout campus at locations such as the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center and the IU Jewish Studies Department office.\nThe newspaper, which began this year, has already published three issues, with a fourth expected this week. Kaplan said he and Hamerman write and design most of the paper, with a few contributions from the Hillel Center. They design the BJS on Adobe Pagemaker and the Hillel Center prints the paper. The first issue was only one page long, front and back, but the last two issues have been two pages.\nAndy Gitelson, program director at the Hillel Center, said he thinks the BJS could really provide a service to the Jewish community,\n"Newspapers such as the IDS and the Bloomington Herald-Times are good, but they have a lot to cover, so a lot of Jewish events go overlooked," he said. "But with a specialized newspaper like this, students see it and it grabs their attention. They know where to look for information on Jewish events."\nKaplan said it is still early but hopes to add more pages and some financial support.\n"Hopefully, we'll be able to find some advertisers and expand our content," he said. "We are looking to do more."\nAlthough he said there may be some editorials and other articles in the paper, Kaplan said the BJS will focus primarily on Jewish events.\n"There are plenty of sources for students to find out what's going on in the world," he said. "But there aren't a lot of forums to find out about Jewish events."\nAnyone interested in writing for the paper can call Kaplan at 219-4759 or e-mail bloomingtonjewishstudent@ yahoo.com.\n-- Contact Campus editor Adam Aasen at aaasen@indiana.edu.