Of Course This Will Be Censored …

Hi, it’s the editors of the JewishMusicReport.com. We just wanted to take a brief moment and clarify a position we have made clear before on this website many times.

Recently we got the same comment submitted multiple times, which the writer assumed (correctly) would not be published. While we understand the comment is not meant directly for JMR (as we don’t produce shows or CDs) we also don’t feel i’ts our place to publish the comment. This particular comment discussed the release, or in most cases non release, of concerts over the last 30 years that were never produced for retail sale. The writer assumed the concerts are “out there” yet not released to stores.

It’s great that the people (or person) who wrote this comment are passionate and looking for more of their favorite Jewish music, but these are questions that should not be written in a manner which attacks the organization, artist or producer. In addition, additional comments either written as part of the above or in separate context, criticizing artists for producing shows or albums that are not in line with the commenter’s personal standard of Yiddishkeit, will not be published.

We encourage debate and discussion of all kinds but we reserve the right to not publish comments that we feel are Loshon Hora. That doesn’t mean that we love every song, every album.  It just means that if we don’t like something, we keep our opinions to ourselves.

What is or isn’t considered Loshon Hora? That’s between you and your Rabbi, but we choose to be more strict in our definition, because at the end of the day we promote Jewish Music since it’s 1) Something we love and enjoy and 2) it’s meant to inspire and lift up. We don’t want it on our heads that someone was hurt by a comment left on our website.

Of course if you feel we are not publishing something that should be published, that is what is great about the internet: it’s a big free vast land. There are many places for you to publicly comment on other platforms. Just not ours.

One last thing, we always try to contact the commenter if we choose not to publish their comment. Either to offer a chance to reword it, or to explain why we can’t go forward with it. If you try to be smart and leave a fake email then we can’t contact you to explain. (Not to mention the obvious implication that anonymous commenting leaves.)

So go ahead, comment away.  We love your comments!  But be aware that our purpose is to support Jewish music and any comments that we feel go counter to that goal will, indeed, be censored.