To quote our longtime reporter, Greer Fay Cashman, “The Jerusalem Post is a revolving door.” Staffers come and go, but many end up returning.
Marion Fischel is one such person. Over her career, she has had a wide range of jobs at the Post, and while she has excelled wherever she went, her path always brought her back to the paper.
Sometimes, there’s no place like home, and for Fischel, being back at the Post is being home.
Today, she works as one of our copy editors and is in charge of the Post’s book reviews. However, her years of experience have left her one of our most reliable staffers, and it isn’t uncommon for her to take over temporarily as head of the Magazine, our op-eds department, or helm a holiday supplement.
In Jerusalem sat down with Fischel to discuss her career and how her journey keeps bringing her back.
What brought you to Israel?
Reading about the Holocaust, which I was obsessed with, Leon Uris’s Exodus, which I read when I was 12, and an Israeli booth I visited at an international fair in London, where I got some booklets about kibbutzim, all contributed.
After that fair, I stood on the train platform to go to visit the Dachau concentration camp, which I had read much about. But when the train came into the station, I just couldn’t get on it.
I kept reading about the Holocaust as well as books about the Mossad. James Michener’s The Source was also a big influence. I read Golda Meir’s autobiography when I was 22, and that summer, I began to keep kosher and decided to go to a kibbutz.
I spent the first night at the Bnei Darom youth hostel, and the next day, I went to the kibbutz office. By the afternoon, I was on my way to Kibbutz Ein Shemer to attend ulpan and work.
I had to do two night shifts in the chicken coop to earn an extra day off to visit Jerusalem. You had to grab three chickens in each hand – that’s six legs in each hand. I have no idea how I was able to do that!
I spent another few months in Israel, studying Torah in Jerusalem. Once I began studying Torah, my conclusion, as a literary criticism aficionado and die-hard fan of the Bard, was, “This is better than Shakespeare!”
Circumstances drew me away, and I didn’t manage to make aliyah until March 26, 1996. But by the end of 1999, I was already working at the Post.
What got you into journalism and eventually the ‘Post’?
My very first taste of the magic of journalism was Art Buchwald’s satirical column in the Herald Tribune. As a teenager and beyond, my dream was to have a story published in The New Yorker.
Inspiration? Hemingway, in that he symbolizes the art of the succinct and the desire to understand. As a child, I enveloped myself in Dickens, Katherine Mansfield, Chekhov, Ibsen, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene… The list is endless.
Ruth Beloff, then-editor of The Jerusalem Post advertising supplements, got me into journalism. (Today, she is the proofreader for the Magazine, In Jerusalem, and the International editions, and the copy editor of The Jerusalem Report.) She suggested I apply to work at the Post.
I had co-founded, co-edited, and written for a school paper and published a couple of articles since, but it was by starting at the Post that I got my foot into the world of journalism.
I was 40, and after a couple of years teaching English in Israel, I had just started a degree in theater at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The legendary Sam Orbaum gave me an editing test. I started in the editing pool and soon became the consumer columnist and, eventually, a freelance writer. Over the next few years, my work kept changing. I always said yes to everything I was asked to do and, eventually, edited and wrote for all parts of the Post.
I picked up what I could from some very good journalists and editors. I substituted as editor for In Jerusalem, Metro [a former country-wide weekend supplement], and the International edition. In between, I was the Billboard editor for a year, substituted for the arts section, did the first women’s Magazine supplement, and worked several other jobs at various times.
In 2005, I created a section on the then-new website, which was a directory for Anglos, with stories and Q&As with experts, among more fun stuff.
I left for Spain in 2006, where I worked for Radio Sefarad – The Jewish Federation Radio. Then, I opened a kosher bar in Madrid, where I worked from 2007 to 2011.
I returned to Israel and the Post in 2011 and started as a copy editor, and soon became, once more, the substitute for the Arts and International editors. Later, I came back specifically as the substitute Magazine editor for a few months, followed by op-eds and book reviews in 2014; and in 2017, I was the In Jerusalem and Metro editor, filling in for the editor on maternity leave.
Tell us a bit about the varied work you do at the ‘Post.’
I was hired again in 2023 by [then-managing editor] David Brinn, and I started at the day copy editing desk, again, where I still work, but soon began to substitute for the Magazine, In Jerusalem, and op-ed editors when they were away, and recently other sections. Now, I am learning how to work with the website.
What I do today at the Post is based on what I trained to do during my other incarnations at the paper. Officially, I am the literary editor, meaning I’m in charge of book reviews, which is a secret thrill for me, considering how much I have loved books since I was child. I have also written some articles, notably on Moses Montefiore.
I love working at the Post – I always have. Being back is being home. The best thing about it is the continued opportunity to learn and grow. I also see it as an honor to contribute in some small way to the Zionist enterprise through what was once known as The Palestine Post when it was founded in 1932 by Gershom Agron – born in present-day Ukraine.
What’s something about journalism that many people don’t know?
You can’t buy as many shoes as Sarah Jessica Parker [a reference to the TV series Sex and the City].
What’s one of your favorite anecdotes from your career?
Maybe escaping from the [old Jerusalem Post] building to give somebody something or to get something with Katya, the IT expert at the time, when the press workers went on strike [the printing press was in the building in those days].
We were locked inside along with others, and our front door was chained, but we managed to creep out of a window in the basement. I am not sure what we did. I think we came back into the building through the front door.
A year before I started working in the Post’s editorial department, I worked in the subscriptions department. It was a night job (in addition to my day job at a patent attorney’s office), giving a month’s free trial subscription to The Jerusalem Post over the phone. One evening at an event, we put up a stand and attempted to interest passers-by in subscribing for free for a month, and I approached a woman who turned out to be the Post’s very own Greer Fay Cashman!
Also, The Jerusalem Post was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Medal, acknowledging the continuous coverage the Post had provided about him over the years, after an in-depth article I wrote about him was published. A contingent came from Sweden, and tea had been laid out for them in a conference room. It was a great honor.
What advice do you have for aspiring journalists?
If you keep going, you will get to the deeper story.
Write down the correct spelling of every single name.
Make sure you can provide high-resolution photos.
Give more for your buck.