"I love writing, and I also love that it’s not part of my job, which means I can write only when I feel like I have something to say"

Photo: Cindy Scarr

Mishpacha associate editor and web coordinator Cindy Scarr is a mother and grandmother as well as an avid athlete who truly lives Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw’s famous maxim, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” This spirit characterizes the many and varied roles Cindy has held in Mishpacha’s ever-evolving editorial operations.

My ideal work environment

At my desk in the office or at a coffee shop. I like to work at home, but it’s a lot more distracting.

Deadlines make me

Get it done. Faigy Hutner used to tell me, “It’s for whenever,” and I’d say, “To me, whenever means never.”

The work accomplishment I’m proudest of

Keeping the voice of the writer, even through a heavy edit. I love being told that the writer couldn’t even tell what I took out or changed.

The best piece of advice I got

Know your target audience. The changes/edits/way I write anything depends on who’s reading it.

1

How did you join Mishpacha?

Back in 2006, I had just completed an intensive two-year translation course at Bet Berl College in Kfar Saba. Now I needed a job. I had done some proofreading/copyediting before, but as it was still the age of those dreaded (to me) proofreaders’ marks, which I could remember just about as well as I could remember algebraic functions in school (hint: not), it didn’t look like proofreading was in the cards. (Wikipedia’s explanation might explain why I had so much trouble with them: “Marks come in two varieties, abbreviations and abstract symbols. These are usually handwritten on the paper containing the text. Symbols are interleaved in the text, while abbreviations may be placed in a margin with an arrow pointing to the problematic text…”)

Cut to a week before Pesach, when a friend who was a proofreader at Targum called me.

“Mishpacha is looking for a proofreader for one day before Pesach. And if they like your work, there might be future employment.”

Off I went and spent the day reading layouts and writing recommended changes between the lines or in the margins with a very fine-tip red pen. When I left, I was told they’d show my work to the senior editor.

“If she likes it, we’ll be in touch.”

One week, two, three…. Nada. Okay, not where my future lies. And then a call: Would I be interested in eight hours a week of proofreading?

“Yes.”

“Great. Come in tomorrow to start.”

2

What does your role entail?

These days I read all the final layouts for Family First, translate and edit ads, and upload content for the website — but in my career here, I think I’ve done almost every job there is to do at Mishpacha. I started off proofreading, and because I had just finished that translation course (which included editing), and it had been hammered into my head that “translators don’t guess,” my first week on the job, I got the phone number of one of our senior writers, called him up, introduced myself, and said, “I think you’re using the word ‘reckoned’ wrong here.” To his credit, he agreed with me, we found an alternative, and the other proofreader, cringing at her desk, began breathing again.

Since I never quite understood the difference between proofreading and copyediting, I just did both, from the beginning (“I fix whatever’s wrong”), but over the years, our roles and boundaries have become more defined.

One day, I pointed out to the Jr. editor that the pictures never matched the articles. “Would you like to find the pictures for us?” she said. Yes! Graphics explained what size and resolution to look for, and I had a new job description.

Once, when the Jr. editor went on maternity leave, I took over for three months. I loved writing the editor’s letter, added divrei Torah, and signed it Simmy (which is my name), as no one thought a Mishpacha Jr. editor named Cindy would go over well.

A few years in (around 2007-08), then-editor Faigel Safran casually mentioned launching a monthly William Safire-type language column in the main magazine, and I literally begged her to let me write it. She said, “Okay, write three sample columns, and I’ll let you know.” That was the beginning of Cache of the Day, written under the pseudonym Sima Freidel Steinbaum (my name is Sima Freidel and Steinbaum was my mother’s maiden name) a column that combined Hebrew/English/Greek etymology with my take on whatever caught my eye and active imagination.

Since then, I’ve written general interest features for the main magazine, essays and theme-section pieces for Family First, and older readers will remember (I hope) the weekly Ever Wonder and Junior Times for Jr., as well as many Jr. features,  and I’m hoping to one day get my fiction in Calligraphy and a serial in Family First.

3

What is the best thing about working at Mishpacha?

The people I work with are the best! Sounds trite, but they are. The personal (personnel?) aspect of working in the office is a pleasure. Plus, about two years ago, Mishpacha moved to Kanfei Nesharim Street, a seven-minute walk from my house. Naturally, though, this happened when I had finally just about decided to relocate to Ramat Beit Shemesh… which put the move on hold.

4

What is the most challenging part of working at Mishpacha?

The website, especially at first. About ten years ago, Nomee Shaingarten started describing to me what they wanted to do, in quite abstract terms. I was getting totally overwhelmed and announced, “Timeout!” I got up, got a notebook, and illustrated the whole concept for myself. I’m very visual, and I’ve created a system over the years that works for me (and seemingly only for me).

Uploading days are still hardest for me — hours of repetition and ADHD are not good travel companions — but those are the days when I just get up and down more (even run some stairs) and listen to loud music while I work, and at this point, I have a fixed routine and it’s chilled, which I very much appreciate.

5

What does your weekly work schedule look like?

I’ll start with Thursday, because it’s kind of the beginning of my work week. On Thursdays I read as many Family First layouts as possible, marking any typos, going back and forth to the editors’ room to debate fine points (I win some and lose some), and then the proofreaders input those changes. Sunday, Family First closes for print, so I do the last layouts then, paying extra special attention to the cover. Mistakes on the cover… never a good look.

Monday, I start working on the website. That means graphics closes the text and photos for me as soon as they come in, and then I put on my webmaster hat and start creating all the posts on our WordPress website, scheduled to go live on Tuesday night at 21:00, Israel time. It’s much more technical than creative (and I’m still not sure, years later, why me?!) but I do feel a real responsibility to make sure it’s clean and error-free and on time. A website is very public, for better or worse.

On Monday, I also copyedit ads and translate ads. The toughest ones are the short play on words in Hebrew that don’t work at all in English. For example, an ad for a phone company had a photo of a sheep saying, “Maaaah chadash?” to use the sheep sound plus some catchy Hebrew for a phone call. The picture was going to be the same, but “Whaaaat’s new?” doesn’t sound like a sheep. I changed it to “Call me baaaack!” And sometimes I hear, “This company needs a new slogan, can you do it in five minutes?” (Um… do you know how many months Madison Avenue takes for a new slogan?)

On Tuesday, I upload all the main magazine posts that graphics closed for me on Tuesday morning, decide what will appear on the website homepage and in what order, and at 9 p.m., when we go live, I switch all the contents of the home page. (And in this corner… Cindy the Techie!)

Wednesday, I’m off! (Except during Yom Tov season, of course.)

6

Of all the hats you’ve worn — writer, copyeditor, proofreader, translator, webmaster — which is your preferred mode, and why?

I love writing, and I also love that it’s not part of my job, which means I can write only when I feel like I have something to say, and not because I have to, to buy chicken for Shabbos that week.

I also love copyediting. I used to be a photographer on the women’s side of weddings, and I especially enjoyed doing the kallah chair and badeken photos, finding the angles that made the kallah look her most stunning. So many of the kallahs told me afterward that they hadn’t even noticed that I was there!

Copyediting is the same thing; I’m entrusted with someone’s writing — which is very personal. I feel I have the gift of being able to “hear” the author’s voice in my head and finding the “angles” to polish that voice to shine as bright as possible. Copyediting means I have to keep the author’s voice intact and my voice in the background; you don’t ever want to polish so hard that the voice shatters. (I know I’m mixing metaphors. Good thing it wasn’t on the job application.)

7

What tips and tricks do you have for creating memorable cover text and titles?

I absolutely adore alliteration. Really. Also, using phrases and idioms and expressions in ways they’re not usually used, or switching around an expression. For example, we once ran a feature on how Borsalinos are made (they’re felt, which comes from rabbits) and I titled it “Pulling a Hat out of a Rabbit.” Some of my main cover blurbs I really liked were “The Hot Dog Days of Summer” (about grilling); “Knock Out Negativity” (alliteration, even without the same letter); “The Juggle Struggle” (rhyming).

When I was doing the cover text for Family First, I’d first brainstorm by myself, then send Bassi my ideas. We’d kick them around, debate passionately, but the final call was hers. Just to give you an idea of how the process worked from start to finish, for the main cover text for Issue 496, about citywide health initiatives to join in combatting obesity, I sent her these choices: Weight vs. Mass / Weapons of Mass Reduction /Large-Scale Success Stories / On the Grand Scale of Things / Weights and Measures / Extreme Weights Need Extreme Measures / Mass Action Suits / Slim City / Slimmer by the Dozens / United in Loss / The Weight of the Masses. (She chose Weapons of Mass Reduction).

8

How have the errors in the text you proofread changed over the past 18 years?

Lots of the new errors that pop up are often current “frumspeak.” I remember when “in middle of” started appearing (probably about five years ago) in just about everything I was copyediting. At first, I just kept fixing them (adding “the” before “middle” for those of you who can’t figure out what the problem is) and finally realized they weren’t typos, but a new yeshivish creation.

Pablo Picasso said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” I love poetic license and don’t believe that anything can only be described one way. That said, there’s a fine line between poetic license and mangling the English language beyond recognition (while waving the poetic license card). My job is to keep the first and rewrite the second. I’ll be in the middle of doing just that if you visit me in the office.

9

How do you keep your skills and language up to date and constantly improving?

Read, read, read. Books, ad copy, cereal boxes, billboards… Everything. I’m also a huge fan of Internet research (I’m a self-titled Google Queen) and look up scores of things for every issue (especially the zillions of brand names I’ve never heard of, for every one of Ariella Schiller’s stories). And I listen, listen, listen to everything around me, people talking, podcasts, and news broadcasts on every subject.

10

Did anything in your previous experience prepare you for your role at Mishpacha?

The translation course gave me so many of the tools I use on the job every day: Translation, editing, writing, Internet research. Also, as I mentioned, I read, a lot. I know a little bit about so many things, and that comes in very handy for spotting typos or the wrong preposition or a word I think is misspelled, even in a foreign language (and for playing Trivial Pursuit).

11

How has technology affected your work?

How hasn’t it? My mom a”h once told me that her definition of being well educated wasn’t knowing all the answers but knowing how to find all the answers. It’s also about knowing how to phrase the question. In the world of the Internet, I have the answer to any question I can think up (and I have many). This makes fact-checking easy. I’m starting to use AI for fact-checking as well, with great trepidation and suspicion, but it’s a new horizon, and I need to get with the program.

Then there’s the website. Someone came in once while I was uploading, and said, “Wow, you know how to use WordPress?” I hadn’t even known that was the name of the program, but I’m impressed with myself that I overcame some serious tech anxiety to learn how to do something so far out of my comfort zone.

12

You used to write a lot for the children’s magazine — how did you get into that child-friendly mode?

Any subject in the world can be fascinating or boring depending on whether it interests the author or not. I’m interested in everything, and I think that enthusiasm was felt by my readers. To write news pieces for kids, I focused on what I thought a kid would find interesting and what follow-up questions they would ask about the story. For example, I once wrote about a treaty signed underwater, and addressed issues from how they breathed to what kind of pen works underwater and on what kind of writing surface.

The great American writer E.B. White said, “Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.”

And while we’re on the subject, here’s my absolute pet peeve about writing for children: Using an exclamation mark at the end of every sentence does not make writing more exciting or transform it into children’s literature.

13

Which of Mishpacha’s former columns do you miss most?

Mine, actually, Cache of the Day — in it, I covered anything from rage-free packaging (yes, you read that right, it’s a real thing), to excess baggage fees, to Nike ads, to a very large man riding a very small bike I spotted from the bus on my way to work, to a hot-dog eating contest… and everything in between. It ran every month for seven years. Guesses about who was writing it ran from “a rebbetzin in Kiryat Belz because the English is always good” to “a very frum, hippie baal teshuvah in the Old City” to “it’s probably a man using a female name because it’s so lomdish.”

Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer, and abruptly stopped writing my column as I had no idea what my cancer journey was going to be like (thank G-d, we’re now ten years post) and I couldn’t imagine keeping a commitment to a monthly column that often took me most of the month to write. I do have all the hard copies of the column; thanks for reminding me that I’d like to put them all into a manuscript for my family.

The wonderful writer and Mishpacha proofreader Sorah Rosenblatt a”h was my writing muse. I sent her Cache of the Day every month for her feedback, and she was always encouraging, telling me that although she had no idea exactly how I could possibly tie such seemingly unconnected thoughts together, she had faith that somehow I would. She had a great sense of humor, a very kavodig, classy, and refined style, and knew how to push me in the most perfectly gentle but insistent and believing way. (She also pushed me to work on my novel… yeah, yeah, I’m still working on it, but it is getting close.)

14

Which former colleague do you miss most?

Former Family First editor Bassi Gruen. We worked together for many years, wrote the Family First cover text together for many years, and I submitted a lot of essays to her while she was editor.

Bassi and I have very different communication styles and it took a while to iron out miscommunications. I once wrote an essay and one of her comments about a section was, “I’d take this out.” Okay, I thought, that’s what she’d do, but I’m leaving it in. She was very surprised and somewhat miffed when I left it in. I was surprised by her surprise. I asked, “Was that a suggestion or an order?” It was an order, I discovered, but couched in such gentle language that I missed it completely. I made sure to clarify in future writing.

We laughed, we clashed, and she always challenged me.

15

Can you tell us about some interesting, wacky, or crazy research you did?

Back when I was copyediting all of Jr., an article had this line: “My favorite book was something called Spic, Span, and Spur, about a set of Norwegian triplets.”

To my finely tuned ear for languages, Spic, Span, and Spur sounded decidedly unNorwegian (I studied Swedish once upon a time). Google turned up nothing. I then tracked down the email address of Norsk Barnebokinstitutt (The Norwegian Children’s Book Institute), and sent them this email:

Dear NBI,

I am an editor for Mishpacha Magazine (mishpacha.com) and have come across the following reference: “My favorite book was something called Spic, Span, and Spur, about a set of Norwegian triplets.” Do you have any idea what book this would be? A Google search turned up nothing.

The next day, I received a reply from Anne Kristin Lande, Research Librarian, National Library of Norway:

Dear Cindy Scarr,

Your question about the triplets was forwarded to me here at the National Library of Norway. I think it must be the books about “Snipp, Snapp, Snurr” you are looking for. The writer/illustrator is Swedish and her name is Maj Lindman.

Phew! I thanked Anne Kristin Lande, and the correctly named Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr made their first and only appearance (to date) in the pages of Mishpacha.

16

What is something you’ve written that has stayed with you?

I’ve written multiple pieces about my mother a”h. What a gift to write about her — being able to share her with the world is its own form of consolation.

The last feature I wrote (“Long Shot,” about football coach Chaim Cohen) was such a gift. Coach Cohen is so inspiring, plus his journey mirrored mine in so many ways. For example, when he told me that he once showed up at yeshivah with a 104° fever and the rav asked him why he was there, he responded, “If I had a football game today, I’d be there. I think I should work equally hard in ruchniyus.”

I couldn’t believe it. I told him, “I used to do the same thing, with softball! If I didn’t feel like going to class at Neve, I’d give myself the ‘softball test’ — if I felt well enough to play ball, I would force myself to go to class.”

Writing pieces I’m sure will spiritually inspire others feels kadosh. I felt the same way when I (the resident Mishpacha sports aficionado) wrote a feature about basketball player Tamir Goodman a few years ago.

I find that writing about something or someone that really hits chords in my own life is both so familiar and satisfying to give over to others, and so gut-wrenching on a personal level when I feel I’m falling short.

17

Is there an article you’d love to write but never will?

The story of my life! Just way too personal, though the older I get, I find myself sharing more and more with more and more people, which is incredibly freeing. But I have published personal essays in Family First, and every time I publish something under my name, I find it both frightening and freeing. I love that the magazine gives a space and place for Am Yisrael to share their stories and voices. There’s something special about anyone who has the courage to put their name to the non-vanilla. And everyone has a story. I encourage the courage (while pushing myself as well). Write, write, write.

18

What’s the most heartwarming feedback you’ve gotten?

A couple of instances come to mind.

1) Shoshana Friedman once asked me to translate a main feature. I trained in a very tough translation program and was thrilled when she told me, “If I didn’t know this was a translation, I would never know it was a translation.”

2) In 2009, one of our photographers tragically lost his wife when she gave birth to their first child. I don’t remember who, but someone asked me to write the short condolence note to him from the magazine.

Afterward, Yisroel Besser sent this email to Shoshana Friedman: Never, in the years that Mishpacha has been a staple in my home, have I read anything as moving, elegant, and classy as the note from the magazine to __________. In a few short lines, the writer captured the pain, the joy, the struggle, and made us all feel along with ________. For real, that was superb, who gets the credit?

19

What is your favorite time of year at Mishpacha?

I know I’m not supposed to like Yom Tov season, but I do. I thrive on 11th-hour deadlines and late nights. Though it totally helps that: a) I don’t have little kids at home; and b) I already mentioned that the office is a seven-minute walk from my house. Definitely a plus when I finish uploading the website at midnight.

20

Any funny or memorable bloopers you remember flagging as a copyeditor?

Of course. But if I tell you now, that’s like I never saved the magazine from them going to print.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1051)