With our last CNJ class (and my last undergrad class) behind me, I have a lot to reflect on. Four years of college, four classes with Chris Delboni and four Millennium Development Goal stories.

This last story was tough. I was nervous for a few days that our video wouldn’t work out, but fortunately, our sources opened up their gracious arms and let us in for a second visit. Great people at the Temple Beth Shmuel Montessori school. 

Our video showed how the students (ages 2-6) family, friends and the congregation celebrated the 61st Independence of Israel. 89-year-old Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz and the students sing happy birthday to Israel and its truly precious.

The print story, just like the video, had some bumps and bruises along the way. I was over confident that our story would only take a few drafts, but in fact it took about 6, and is still in the works. In the end, it is a much better story than where it started, and really tells the story of a great idea made a reality.

Summer’s almost here, but there’s still more stories to be written and JOBS to be offered.

My reporting skills have skyrocketed and my innate curiosity level has jumped as well; all things that lead to being a successful journalist. 

Also, I can use Final Cut Pro. Well, maybe I’m not an expert, but I certainly feel comfortable enough to edit and produce videos for the web. I give all the credit in the world to our professor and my mentor Chris Delboni with a helping hand from Millennium Beat’s web editor Dena Giannini. 

Tonight, Olivia and I are going back to the Temple Beth Shmuel Montessori school to film our new media component for our final story. The pressure is building to get the story done because our current draft of our print story is far from par. Once we get this footage tonight of children singing and dancing in front of family and friends for Israeli Independence day, it’ll all be in the hands of Final Cut to get this story done. 

Besides for two finals, this is it. College is over. Wow.

The entire class, especially Dena Giannini our web editor, has pulled together throughout the semester and it has all culminated to this! It feels good to have worked hard and now have that hard work displayed so beautifully for anyone (literally) to view. 

But it would be a lie to say there weren’t some bumps along the way, and I am certainly not expecting it to be smooth sailing until then. It just never is in journalism. 

Maybe that’s what this business is really about, maybe that’s what any business is really about: being able to hurdle the challenges along the way, and if you fall, well, get your ass back up.

I might be getting philosophical because I am graduating in about a month and the world that lies ahead seems dark and dismal, but I think I have gotten my point across and I think I will probably end up surviving.

Olivia and I have been working extremely hard on our Goal8 story, which we knew was going to be difficult to do, but nevertheless we battled on with endless calls to the Israeli Embassy in New York, the Consulate General of Israel in Miami and left many voicemail’s sans response. 

Beyond the Consulate and Embassy’s ridiculous hours of operations, our main “colorful” source in our story was Ruth Behar. She gave us some wonderful information and gave us ideas for some awesome sources. Had we received any response, success would have flowed like wine in ancient Rome.  

This is a story that needed time to develop. Time is so precious in journalism… lesson learned.

The video/slideshow we’re working on as our new media component is an entirely different issue.  The photo’s Ruth gave us from Cuba were awesome and the one’s I used from my past Israel trips were just as useful. 

With over 40 minutes of Ruth on videotape, I had trouble grooming that down to 40 seconds. It was easy getting rid of the stuff not regarding Israel, but I’m still having trouble choosing the right clip.

Maybe I just need some guidance.

Choosing to tell a story relating to this goal could not have been a heftier task. First of all, I’ve never written anything political and didn’t really know how to deal with officials. Olivia initially got rejected from the Israeli Embassy in D.C. and then I got denied by the Consulate General of Israel‘s office yesterday. Through hours of automated voices telling me to dial 1 for English, 3 for the office of media relations, and 8 for a free pen, I found myself lost at sea. I left Ariel Roman-Harris a couple of messages, but to no avail. What surprised me most was that there was no human operator to speak to; dialing zero just restarted the automated messages telling me what to press for a free pen. I admit, I did get frustrated.

Fortunately though, Ruth Behar gave Olivia and I an excellent interview and helped us gain a true direction for our story. There were many angles we could have tackled it from, but Jewbans who immigrate to Israel either for religious reasons or simply an exit strategy from Cuba have to go through a lot before they are greeted with open arms in their true homeland.

An extraordinary woman with great drive and passion for what she does.  Soon enough, our class website www.millenniumbeat.com will be up and running. Our print story chronicled her struggles through poverty after deciding to leave Castro-ridden Cuba.

A year before she left, she lived in the same building as Castro, how many people can say that? She said it was terrifying getting into the elevator every morning and passing by Castro’s heavily armed force of body guards. I can’t even imagine.

Olivia and I are currently brainstorming ideas for our next few MDG stories. I really would like to focus on Goal 8-Developing a global partnership for development. Israel and Cuba have had awkward relations since Castro’s takeover of the government.

Jubans are in an awkward position because most of them love Cuba and Israel with all their heart. Castro has not, nor will he recognize Israel as a nation, but Cuban-Jews are caught up on both sides. I am really interested in searching for personal reflection on the effects of this constant struggle.

Henry talks about Theola Labbe who volunteered to go to Iraq without even having foreign correspondence experience or war correspondence experience. A brave and daring move  to say the least. She spent some time after the gathering the information she thought was newsworthy. The people have a right to know what was really going on.

Next he goes on to talk about the Society of Professional Journalists, which I am the University of Miami chapter treasurer. The four simple ethical categories that journalists must abide by are:

Seek Truth and Report It

Minimize Harm

Act Independently

Be Accountable

These four rules are golden in the field of journalism. In Sam Terilli’s journalism ethics class, we watched Jon Stewart mock CNBC’s economic analysis and then discussed their attempt to consider that “news”. 

The media almost isn’t credible at this point. Who knows what to believe? One day Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s hit show “Mad Money”, says to buy Bear Stearns and seven weeks later, it goes bankrupt. 

Media is a powerful marketing tool, maybe the most powerful. We need to find a way to tweak the norm and create a trustworthy watchdog for the people, by the people.

A “Jewban” update: We decided we’re always going to put the word “Jewban” in quotations. I think it’s a good idea. When we started this assignment 5 or 6 weeks back, I wasn’t even sure if that word was acceptable, which it is. I spoke to a man outside of Temple Moses, where Olivia and I went Friday morning for Shabbat services, and I asked him what he thought of the place and he replied, “It’s full of…’Jewwwbans’”, lowering his voice when he said the word. I let him know that it wasn’t derogatory and he seemed delighted to have learned something new that day.

So we’re on the prowl for our next story and we have some ideas floating around. A man by the name of Oscar Boruchin is the president of Mike’s Cigars located in Bay Harbor, Miami. He came to Miami in 1961 and began driving taxi’s. Real original, but it paid the bills. One day when he was making a run to the airport, the man in the backseat paid him in quality Cuban cigars because he did not have the cash. Oscar immediately went down to Miami Beach, sold his cigars to a small vendor and profited about 20 percent. 

From then on he continued to go from airport to beach, buying up cigars from the Cuban’s getting off the plane looking to make a quick buck, and reselling them at a higher price. 

In 1985, after putting in years and years in the cigar business, Mike Mersel, then owner and president of Mike’s Cigars, turned the business over to Oscar. The rest is history. Currently, the company, which used to be a small local storefront in Miami Beach, now sells 20-30 million cigars a year. WOW

Well, the video’s done uploading, so I’m going to try and crack the next mystery that FCP throws at me.

Her knowledge of the Jewban population is uncanny. On Saturday, Olivia and I plan on going to the Cuban Hebrew Congregation, a traditional synygogue on Miami Beach near Lincoln Road. She explained that out of the three Cuban Jewish synagogues, Temple Moses, Temple Menorah, and the Hebrew Congregation, this one is struggling the most and has an average weekly attendance of about 50 people on Saturday afternoons. She told us that Rabbi Abromowitz, who built the temple from the ground up, would most likely make us stand up and introduce ourselves as University of Miami students doing a project on Cuban Jews. “He’s really outgoing,” she said.

Professor Behar told us that she would be willing to help us find sources for our Millenium stories and refered us to several people. Mike’s Cigars is located on calle ocho and current owner, Oscar Boruchin was handed the business by the previous owner. Before that he came to Miami from Cuba with nothing but the clothes on his back. It sounds as though he will have some stories to tell. Another source she suggested was a 25 year old girl who came to Miami just over one year ago. This story will be unique because this girl is one of the most recent Jewban immigrants.

Through personal reflection, Ruth Behar discussed how being a Cuban Jew bridges the gap between communities. She can be entirely comfortable speaking Spanish to a waiter at a Cuban restaurant or conversing with Jews in a local synagogue, “we’re like cultural brokers,” she said.

At the conclusion of our meeting, professor Behar made it clear that she has little time on her hands, but is willing and able to help us out. This is the start to a very helpful relationship.