A reflection on good times past....
In general, we in the PR business deal with the softer side of life and of news. Even the categories have a soft, non-confrontational sound to them…business to business, consumer, lifestyle, healthcare, and so on.We’re hired to help sell products from cosmetics and jewelry to software and underwear…and management philosophies responsible for thousands to celebrities responsible only to themselves. And then, every once in a rare while, we’re asked to assist in doing something for the greater good…something that allows us to utilize our talents and experience for simply the betterment of others without an economic judgment call.
In perusing a recent Sunday NY Times, I was stopped by an article that took me on a memory jag of just such a circumstance. The piece by Clifford Levy, Explorer: Israel With a Russian Accent (and Pork) Israel city on the south coast of the Mediterranean inhabited by a large number of Russian émigré. He explains that the vast majority of these Russian expatriates migrated from the former Soviet Union over the last couple of decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and where they have settled, gives Israel a distinctive Russian cultural flavor.
The piece reminded me of a call I received now some seventeen years ago from the then chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Marty Stein, asking if my firm would be interested in “spreading the word through the U.S. media of the plight of Jews in Moscow and throughout the Central Asian republics (once a part of the Soviet Union) desperately trying to migrate to Israel.” It seems that the UJA, an enormous philanthropic organization, needed to raise additional monies to provide the on-ground assistance and the flights to help the thousands still living in these isolated Jewish colonies to escape the continuing religious and economic persecution.The problem in raising these needed funds was in greatly raising awareness in the U.S. that in spite of the fall of the communist state, the persecution and the desire to find sanctuary in Israel still very much existed.The UJA needed to get the U.S. “secular media” to pay attention and start covering the story…but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Thus, the call.
I was honored, not only because of the nobility of the cause but in the fact that my firm, distinctly small and non-Jewish in ownership but noted for our national media successes, would be asked to carry out such an important task.Over the next two years, we devoted ourselves to their cause but utilized our PR skills and news instincts to find the stories that would resonate with U.S. media.I sent teams (including myself) to Russia and Central Asia, we interviewed officials and peasants, we traveled on stealth overnight flights from Uzbekistan crowded with Jewish emigrants and their families lugging their allowable two duffle bags of life’s belongings…and we spent time in Israel following the freshly arrived Diaspora as they slowly and sometimes with great difficulty assimilated into modern Israeli life. And we chronicled all into real stories, not press releases, for the U.S. media…NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, USA Today, NY Times, and all the major dailies carried the tales of their plight and their successes. And importantly, contributions began flowing again.
The piece reminded me of a call I received now some seventeen years ago from the then chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Marty Stein, asking if my firm would be interested in “spreading the word through the U.S. media of the plight of Jews in Moscow and throughout the Central Asian republics (once a part of the Soviet Union) desperately trying to migrate to Israel.” It seems that the UJA, an enormous philanthropic organization, needed to raise additional monies to provide the on-ground assistance and the flights to help the thousands still living in these isolated Jewish colonies to escape the continuing religious and economic persecution.The problem in raising these needed funds was in greatly raising awareness in the U.S. that in spite of the fall of the communist state, the persecution and the desire to find sanctuary in Israel still very much existed.The UJA needed to get the U.S. “secular media” to pay attention and start covering the story…but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Thus, the call.
I was honored, not only because of the nobility of the cause but in the fact that my firm, distinctly small and non-Jewish in ownership but noted for our national media successes, would be asked to carry out such an important task.Over the next two years, we devoted ourselves to their cause but utilized our PR skills and news instincts to find the stories that would resonate with U.S. media.I sent teams (including myself) to Russia and Central Asia, we interviewed officials and peasants, we traveled on stealth overnight flights from Uzbekistan crowded with Jewish emigrants and their families lugging their allowable two duffle bags of life’s belongings…and we spent time in Israel following the freshly arrived Diaspora as they slowly and sometimes with great difficulty assimilated into modern Israeli life. And we chronicled all into real stories, not press releases, for the U.S. media…NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, USA Today, NY Times, and all the major dailies carried the tales of their plight and their successes. And importantly, contributions began flowing again.
So now fifteen years later, It’s great to read that many of these brave folks that we shared an incredible experience with are doing well and have made homes for themselves in that little sliver of land called Israel. It’s also great to remember and reflect on the power that PR can have beyond buzzwords, endless press releases, internal bickering, sales metrics, and indeed greed…when actually used for the greater good.
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