Beginnings

Yes, this is a thicker issue than usual. And therein lies a happy tale. Some months back, we were approached by the editors of a new and as yet unborn journal of Jewish literary work and asked...

...Published separately, themes and ideas that connect the authors might go unnoticed...
...For all that Israelis may believe that the world looks at Israel through a distorted window, hundreds of thousands of them made clear that the issue this time around was not the window through which others looked, bult the mirror in which Israelis see themselves...
...This month's an exception...
...And elegant furniture it is, from what we've seen so far...
...And at a time when there's not often cause for celebration, the persistence of the dream merits our attention, our support...
...More in sadness than in anger, many of us—I was one—had written dirge-like essays about the dismal developments that had made Israel "normal" in ways we had hoped it might avoid...
...Moreover, a good magazine is not only a vehicle for the presentation of good writing...
...An obtuse prime minister was forced by a combination of public pressure—the mass rally in Tel Aviv on the Saturday night following the week of attempted stonewalling—and pressure by members of his own Cabinet to do the right thing...
...Four times a year, moment will swell from its usual 64 pages to 80 pages...
...published together, those themes and ideas would become clear...
...So we were delighted at the opportunity to lend a hand to Forthcoming...
...Some months back, we were approached by the editors of a new and as yet unborn journal of Jewish literary work and asked whether we could help them launch their enterprise...
...By the time this issue reaches you, the judicial inquiry into that tragedy will be well under way...
...Here at moment, we've long felt that one of the unattended problems of our time is the conscious nurturing of a cultural nexus that would help American Jews better to understand the developing interests of Israeli culture, and that would help Israeli Jews better to understand the preoccupations of American Jewish writers...
...That's the stuff of the dream...
...Prime Minister Begin's initial response to the event added to the pain...
...For years now, it has been fashionable to lament the "death of the dream"—Israel's loss of the prophetic innocence that had informed its founders...
...However much American observers engaged in such lamentation, its most eloquent and repeated expression was by Israelis themselves...
...its existence helps stimulate authors to think—and write—about things they might otherwise neglect...
...Our last issue was on its way out the door when the massacres at Sabra and Shatila took place...
...Forthcoming is, as its subtitle asserts, an independent literary supplement, moment provides the house, but it's Forthcoming's editors who choose the furniture...
...Now, it appears, the obituaries were premature...
...The organizing premise from which they were proceeding was that if the work of Jewish writers around the world were taken as a whole, both readers and writers would benefit...
...Of the 80, 32 will be allocated to Forthcoming...
...The event itself was, of course, enormously distressing...
...We think this is a valuable bonus to moment readers, and we hope that those new subscribers who have been attracted to moment because of Forthcoming will find merit in moment's pages, as well...
...There is not the space here to explore the details or the lessons of what happened, but one thing, it seems to m?, deserves to be underscored...
...By way of a warm welcome, Forthcoming gets 40 pages...
...And here it is...
...On which happy note, may we continue to have cause for thanksgiving...

Vol. 7 • November 1982 • No. 10


 
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