The Chronology of a Theft:
1. Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, "director" of the Rabbinical Alliance of America (Igud HaRabbonim) and weekly Jewish Press columnist publishes a column on 8-22-07 that is almost in its entirety plagiarized from the Catskill Institute website.
2. Jewish Press editor Jason Maoz is contacted on 8-23-07 both by email and voicemail. He does not respond questions about this theft and about the general policies of the Jewish Press regarding plagiarism.
3. The Jewish Press removes Rabbi Tannenbaum's 8-22-07 column from its website on the morning of 8-27-07. It remains down through the early morning today, 8-29-07.
4. Jason Maoz does not respond to emails sent and phone messages left on 8-27-07 asking for clarification.
5. On 8-29-07 Rabbi Tannenbaum's column is reposted with the following clarification:
(Note: The following article was written by Dorothy Shapiro for the Catskills Institute website. Some very slight modifications have been made for this column. We thank Mrs. Shapiro for her research and her suggestions about what to include in a follow-up column.
Here it is in PDF:
Download jewish_press_my_machberes_change_822_posted_83007.pdf
6. Rabbi Tannenbaum and the Jewish Press admit no intentional wrongdoing.
7. Rabbi Tannenbaum remains a Jewish Press columnist.
I think this incident amply illustrates why the Jewish Press should never be taken as serious journalism. It is also another example of Rabbi Tannenbaum's theft problems, his honesty problems and his ethics problems.
For all of you who were critical of other plagiarisms when they originated from the left (i.e., the NY Times and Jayson Blair or, more parochially, from a left wing Orthodox Jewish blogger), why are you silent now?
UPDATE – The following note appears on Rabbi Tannenbaum's 8-29-07 column:
Editor’s Note: In last week’s column, Rabbi Tannenbaum, as he acknowledges this week, utilized an article that originally appeared on the Catskills Institute website. He regrets his error in not crediting that article to its author, Dorothy Shapiro.
More on this and the Jewish Press response to Rabbi Tannenbaum's plagiarism here.