Founded in 1967, Shalom is the monthly magazine of the Jewish community of Rome. With a circulation of around 20,000, it reaches not only the Roman readership but is believed to be read in each of the 21 different Jewish communities scattered across Italy. Shalom’s 32 colour pages, published in Italian, cover social, cultural and religious issues.

In 2005, the magazine’s cover pages focussed on a number of topics inspired by tradition, including the history of the Libyan Jewry and forced conversions and baptisms suffered by the Jews.

Other subjects were prompted by recent events, such as the 2004 tsunami in the Far East or the Spring 2005 Italian referendum on assisted fertility. On these two occasions, the magazine, looked at how Jewish culture approaches and reacts to natural disasters and on Judaism’s contribution “Between science and conscience”.

Shalom is financed by the Jewish community, whose board appoints the editor-in-chief, as well as through advertising. Eighty percent of the copies are sent to subscribers, while the other 20 percent are made available to bookstores all over the country.

EJP paid a visit to Shalom’s small but efficient editorial office – one editor and one employee coordinate the work of some 15 freelance and contributing editors - and spoke to Balfour Zapler, the 75-year-old chief editor, whose extraordinary energy and long experience as a journalist could hardly fit a novel.

Born in Italy, at the age of 15 Zapler obtained his high-school diploma from the “Liceo Reali” of Haifa. He then studied journalism at UCLA (Los Angeles) and political science in Italy. An Israeli citizen, during his career Zapler founded and directed a number of dailies and magazines all over the world, from “Nuevas Paginas Hebraicas” in Caracas, through to the “Brazil Herald” in Rio the Janeiro. Zapler also joined the Latin Press Board of Associated Press and taught journalism at the Catholic University “Andres Bello” of Caracas. A pioneer of tv journalism, he also worked for the launching of Brazil’s first commercial tv “Ultra” in Sao Paulo in the 60s.

In 1969, he was awarded with the “Intellectual of the year” Brazilian prize. Author of three books, including a history of Jews in the USSR, Zapler is not only a man of letters open to dialogue between cultures. He in fact also served in all the Arab-Israeli wars and was appointed Head of the IDF spokesperson office for the relation with foreign press.

EJP: Who are the Shalom readers?

Most of our readers belong to the Italian Jewish community. However, many subscribers are not Jewish and I also heard the Shalom is read and followed in the Vatican, too. This said, our responsibility is to let both Jews and non-Jews understand what Judaism is and how the Italian community belongs to and interacts with this country. By doing this, we of course try to keep our distances from the Italian national politics.

EJP: How do you carry out this mission?

First of all, I am pleased to enjoy the support of Italy’s biggest and most ancient Jewish community. About my task as editor-in-chief, I thought that Shalom needed to not only cover traditional issues such religion, anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism, but also to follow recent events in Italy and abroad. The magazine has varied columns such as Letter from New York or A chat with the psychologist: as our readership is varied, we try to cover many issues at the same time. Indeed, we are glad to be fed by a great number of contributing editors, among which you can find rabbis, scientists and many journalists.

EJP: What are Shalom’s plans for the future?

Shalom contains a special insert on the current events that are relevant to the Jewish Community of Rome. Because of our widespread distribution all over Italy, we would like to do the same for the other communities too.