NJP (Nice Jewish Person) Jason Rubenfire!

Each month, The Well highlights an amazing (and eligible!) individual.

This month, we have a conversation with NJP Jason Rubenfire!

TW: How did you decide to make your adult life in Metro Detroit?

JR: The truth is, when returning from graduate school in Buffalo, NY, I wasn't really sure where I would end up, though I knew I wanted to continue in the writing sphere. However, after having a less-than-stellar time there and not having a supportive community of family and friends present, it was a joy and a relief to come back home to familiar family and friends, and I have since made a great deal of many new friends thanks primarily to Jewish organizations like The Well, as well as my Birthright Israel trip, which was itself a Detroit Community trip. It's great to feel at home here in a way I haven't in a lot of other places in my adult life.

TW: We'll go more in-depth in a minute, but writing has always been a big part of your life. You have both a BA and MA in English, and have worked mostly in writing, editing, or content management since graduating. How did your passion and talent for writing come about? What do you love about it?

JR: It's funny, I had a lifelong passion for reading (I enjoyed going to Borders as a child more than Toys R' Us!) but I wasn't too much of a writer as a young man. I actually wanted be an artist and draw growing up, but my attempts at that in childhood led me firmly to believe some people aren't born with the ability to do so too well! When I was in college, I found that the classes I was most interested in taking were about literature and film (which ended up being my two majors) and I found that creative spark from drawing pivoted naturally to writing, both creatively and professionally. When I'm writing, I love the act of creation and especially of getting my thoughts down on paper; it doesn't happen often for me, but when you really latch onto a thought and the words start pouring out, it's a really great feeling.

TW: At one point, you were a Dictionaries Intern for Oxford University Press. What exactly did that job entail? Did you get to help pick the word of the year?

JR: I get asked about word of the year a lot when my internship comes up! Sadly, I did not get to pick word of the year! As a side note, I know a lot of people complain that the word of the year is often too "slang-heavy" or kitschy (I believe selfie won one year), but it's meant to highlight new words that played a big part in discussions that year, and these days that's often online-related slang. It's not meant to be the best word of the year! Anyhow, while I was the Dictionaries Intern, I worked in their NYC office near the Empire State Building and I had pretty eclectic responsibilities. I blogged frequently for them (now only accessible through my website portfolio!), created new databases for Oxford Dictionaries, did research on competing grammar and linguistics-related websites, and finally I helped rearrange and/or file content for oxforddictionaries.com and oed.com. It was a fantastic experience that was incredibly enriching for my writing and editing skills, and I remain grateful for it to this day.

TW: As a copywriter for Ford and Lincoln's ad agency GTB, you, among other things, currently manage most of Ford Credit and Lincoln Automotive Financial Services' digital content. That's a big enough job, but you also write the aria-labels for nearly all Ford or Ford Credit webpages. Can you tell us a bit about what aria-labels are, why they're important, and how you became a Subject Matter Expert in web accessibility?

JR: So aria-labels are essentially meant to help the vision-impaired understand the design and construction of a website by describing components such as tabs, videos, carousels, and other online elements that may go beyond just being simply text and images. The aria-label serves as a description of these components that a screen reader is able to read to the visually impaired so they may better understand how to navigate a webpage. This is in addition to "alt text," which would usually describe an image (it's what you see when you hover over a photo online). It's rather ironic that I write these for Ford and Lincoln as they make cars; almost anyone who would need these aria labels and alt text is visually impaired and thus likely unable to drive! However, it's vital that a large multinational corporation like Ford follow web accessibility guidelines, and thus it's necessary for them to be created for each website. To be honest, I didn't have a great deal of knowledge on web accessibility before joining Ford's ad agency GTB, and had to figure out (and help the company figure out) the entire system along the way. Aria-labels have usually been written by more technically-knowledgeable coders (sometimes poorly or inaccurately), so what I've done there has been rather unusual in the world of web accessibility.

TW: After a long day at work, what's your favorite way to destress and unwind?

JR: I like to watch a lot of random Youtube videos these days (though it's become a bit of an addiction). Perhaps as a layover from my academic days, I watch a lot of academic-ish video essays on movies, television, and philosophy, and perhaps because of my film/TV background, I'm also a fan of reaction videos where people record themselves reacting to to shows and movies for viewers to see. It's relaxing to just sit back and sometimes zone out a bit while watching and listening to familiar voices. Additionally, I also enjoy reading comic books to destress and unwind, though that's one way of unwinding I'll indulge in just about anywhere, anytime.

TW: If you could travel to any fictional place, where would you go and why?

JR: I had to really think about this one! I think I'd go to the titular town of my favorite TV show, David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks. I'd risk a great deal of danger in lot of my favorite fictional locales, but Twin Peaks features both kind citizens and classic Americana while still hosting an thrilling dark and mysterious underbelly (to say the least). It would mix the right amount of friendliness and safety while still maintaining enough intrigue to stave off boredom!

TW: Your family has been involved in the Metro Detroit Jewish community for many years (and many are familiar with the famous Shelly Rubenfire cookies). Why has it been important for you to stay connected over the years?

JR: The Metro Detroit Jewish community is something inseparable from my upbringing and my present-day adult life as well. Like I mentioned back in question 1, I have made many friends in BBYO that remain some of my best to this day, many in the Detroit Community Birthright Trip I went on, and others still in The Well or NEXTGen Detroit. So beyond the common goals of staying connected to one's heritage and one's roots, it's been a prime source of friendship and socialization for me all my life, and one that I value greatly. Not to mention, my siblings and my parents having taken on many different major positions within various local Jewish organizations, such as my mother's work in Woman's Philanthropy, my father's tenure as President of the JCC, or my little brother's work running the 2019 Maccabi Games. In many ways, the local Jewish community feels almost inseparable from my family. Many Jewish community gatherings feel like spending time with family, and vice versa, and that's a beautiful thing.

TW: What's your favorite Jewish holiday and why?

JR: I'm going to have to pick Hanukkah, and not just because of the presents! I have many cherished Hanukkah memories from my childhood of celebrating and exchanging gifts with family both immediate and extended. We've even continued the tradition into adulthood with my amazing parents sending me and my brother our gifts and having us open gifts over video chat, which given the current pandemic now seems very ahead of its time!

TW: Who would you invite to your dream Shabbat dinner? (modern and historical figures allowed!)

JR: The first person that comes to mind is acclaimed Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (who is technically Jewish!), who is not only one of my favorite writers but also has served as something of a personal idol and role model for me as well (and he has a fantastic Twitter and blog!). I think I'd also invite my favorite director the aforementioned surrealist David Lynch, just to see what sort of strangeness would ensue. Going in a different direction, I'd also invite Rachel Bloom, creator and lead actress of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, an incredibly humorous musical television show in which Rachel also incorporates a great deal of her own Jewish heritage and upbringing (where else would you hear a song called "Remember that We Suffered" set at a Bar Mitzvah or a rap battle that makes use of Hebrew and Yiddish words!). Finally, I'd invite my favorite comedian John Mulaney. He isn't Jewish, but his wife is and I've personally seen him do a tight ten-minute set on Birthright, so I'm pretty sure he qualifies.

TW: Would you rather win an Olympic Medal (for what sport?), an Academy Award (in what category?), or Nobel Prize (in what)?

JR: As a writer, I think I'd have to choose the Nobel Prize in Literature! Bob Dylan won a few years back for his amazing song-writing skills, so they're clearly open to more non-traditional literature!

TW: Best movie ever made, hands down?

JR: This is a real toughie! My favorite movie would be David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, a surrealist masterpiece that features a young actress moving to L.A., though beyond that it becomes quite difficult to describe (as with most of his work). A close runner-up would be Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, an unyielding and extremely ambitious account of the Vietnam War and loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Neither film is for the faint of heart and Apocalypse Now especially is very violent, but they are both groundbreaking cinematic and storytelling achievements in two very different ways. And if you're not into films, Coppola also makes a delicious Chardonnay!

TW: If you could add an 11th Commandment, what would it be?

JR: Thou shalt not consider the Oxford Comma optional. Ford has guidelines to not use it in our content and it breaks my heart every time I have to get rid of it.

TW: How about a fun fact?

JR: My absolute favorite fun fact is that I'm the subject of a New York Times correction! The explanation is a bit long winded, but 5 years ago, I commented on Facebook on a New York Times article about Beyonce staying out of the public eye after her first child was born. I wryly defended her right to stay out of the limelight and take care of her child, and apparently it was popular enough for the New York Times to feature in a follow-up Readers Respond article with my name attached! Unfortunately, they apparently don't edit these Reader's Respond columns very well, and so my name was attached to one poor woman's comment about her alcoholism destroying her marriage in another follow up article to a news story about a different woman's struggle with alcoholism. One e-mail to the New York Times clarifying my male non-alcoholic status later and I'm now and forever named the subject of a New York Times correction, still viewable online.

TW: Finish the sentence: When I go to The Well...

JR: When I go to The Well, I know I'm in for fun Jewish-oriented programming with some familiar faces!