Letter from the Editor
On Living in Two Worlds at Once...
I
Lantsman — the subject of a feature-length profile by John Lorinc — it means realizing that a great many hopes and dreams, and also some significant animosity, will always be vested in her simply because she is Jewish. (As she told Lorinc during one of their conversa- tions, she gets more email about being Jewish than on any other subject, by a wide margin.) For Scribe Quarterly contributing editor Phoebe Maltz Bovy, who reviews a new anthology of old short stories, it includes seeing echoes of our present in-betweenness in the past. There is, of course, no one answer to this question. Each of us answers it in our own way—and often in different ways at differ- ent points in our lives. This issue of Scribe Quarterly is but one instal- ment in the ancient, ongoing discussion. We’re very glad to be having it with you. HAMUTAL DOTAN EDITOR IN CHIEF SCRIBE QUARTERLY
T IS A QUESTION as ancient as Judaism itself: How do we fit into and engage with the wider world around us? For a people whose
religion includes both laws meant to separate us from our gentile friends and neighbours, and edicts about respecting and engaging with civic life, this has always been a complicated matter. It can seem even more so now, at a time when many Jews — and many non-Jews — are paying more atten- tion to Jewish identity than they have in a long while. This is a question of navigating a post–October 7 world, one that is more fraught, more divisive, and in many ways more painful — but it isn’t only a question of this. It is wide-ranging, and encompasses everything from culture to politics to the role of technology. As Olympian Adam Edelman puts it: every people, every community, has a way of seeing and understanding itself— an inherited sense of how to be. These models and self- conceptions are worth examining: often they inspire, give a sense of purpose and continuity. But they can also be confining. For Edelman, who is Modern Orthodox and a world-class athlete, reckoning with overlapping worlds means busting through cultural conventions about Jews and sports. For rising political star Melissa
P.S. We always appreciate hearing from readers. Write to us at: letters@scribequarterly.ca
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