Letter from the Editor
A time to look back, and to look forward
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our heritage and ancestral wisdom, and in our shared diaspora experi- ences,” she writes. “Jews are discov- ering alternate modes of engaging with Jewish identity and finding com- munity, formats that resonate and create meaning in their lives in new ways — or, sometimes, in ancient ways made new again.” Her piece describes one such path, one such form of engagement. There are many others, and they are a cause for joy and for hope. As we all continue to take stock and to reflect on the future, may we each find this kind of connection and renewal, in whatever form we most need it. L’shanah tovah, HAMUTAL DOTAN EDITOR IN CHIEF SCRIBE QUARTERLY
T IS BUILT INTO our expe- rience of autumn that this is a time for looking back— we take stock, ask forgive- ness, complete a cycle of the Torah. It is simultaneously a time for looking forward: like
schoolkids clutching crisp notebooks for the year ahead, we make plans, hope for fresh starts, begin a new cycle. It is a period of reckoning. This has been even more true than usual in recent years. The Jewish world is under enormous pressure, and in a time of enormous change. Many Jews, perhaps more than they often do, are reckoning with their Jewishness: with their un- derstanding of what it means to be Jewish, with their place in the Jew- ish community, with the obligations and risks that come with being Jew- ish. It is a reckoning that encompass- es politics, generational change, the institutions that have traditionally structured community, and the digi- tal technologies that continue to alter the very structure of society. This process can be difficult; these are hard questions. But it also, as ex- plored so beautifully by Miriam An- zovin in the essay that anchors this issue, creates opportunities. “There are new forms of Jewish community emerging right now—vibrant, com- pelling, full of heart, deeply rooted in
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