Beginnings

This is (phew!) the 75th issue of moment. (Having written that sentence, I feel like taking a very long nap.) One of the advantages (it may be the only one) of doing a magazine such as this...

...Rose Chernin, you will recall, was a Communist Party organizer, and our correspondent is annoyed with us for describing her as "a visionary" and, more generally, for giving space to a perspective so radically at odds with Judaism...
...Just a few minutes ago, we received a very thoughtful letter from a reader who complains about our having printed, in our last issue, Kim Chernin's memoir of her mother, Rose Chernin...
...Well, we've got an article this month on Jews and their appetite for Chinese food...
...Enough alliteration—actually, too much— for one month...
...The book had its origins in an article Bill did in these pages some three years back, and it's a pleasure to welcome it and to extend its author, our friend, yasher koach...
...I hope our readers won't conclude that we're urging egg rolls on them, moment seeks to describe, explain and sometimes analyze the Jewish experience, in all its variety...
...From Chassidic comic books to Christian Zionists, from old Jews at prayer in the South Bronx to young Jews at musicianing in Israel, from Sholom Aleichem to Barney Frank, from exIsraelis by choice to new Jews by choice, from baseball to Chinese food to Noah's ark—and he had the nerve to call us a "fossil...
...Of which the most recent is his new book, The Great American Man Shortage, soon to be shown at your favorite bookstore...
...Since the issue covers so much ground, I think I'd best enter a modest editorial disclaimer right up front...
...It would, we think, be both cumbersome and inappropriate were we to preface each exposition of this part or that with an editorial statement asserting our own judgment: "The Editors of moment advise you not to eat Chinese food," or "We think Rose Chernin could have put her time to better use...
...It's almost Shavuot, so I conclude with my annual complaint that this Jewish festival is unduly neglected, for its sake and for ours...
...Getting the Law was not a trivial thing, after all...
...It's a bit different when an article seeks to make an argument, rather than merely to recall, or to describe...
...Bill Novak, once upon a time Executive Editor of this magazine, has long since gone on to large and good (I will not say bigger, and surely not better) things...
...Often, there's an implicit metaphor to the mix...
...I can't think of a recent issue that better reflects the staggering diversity of Jewish life than the one you're holding in your hands...
...A good one to all...
...Our readers are a discerning lot (we know that because they are our readers), and they will come to such conclusions as they will...
...And it's kind of nice, if you're not yet into it, to be able to discover a new and worthy holiday...
...One of the advantages (it may be the only one) of doing a magazine such as this with a staff as small (read: tiny) as ours is that each issue is, essentially, hand-crafted...
...Myself, I prefer basketball to baseball, I'm not big on comic books, I don't salivate for Chinese food, and, as to Rose Chernin—how I wish those of us with more plausible and palatable prescriptions for social reform had her passion and her panache...
...I rather doubt that our readers would all agree regarding those parts of that experience that are an embarrassment and those parts that are a source of pride...
...We try for a particular "feel," based sometimes on the weight of one major article, sometimes on the particular mix of a diverse array...
...And now for that nap...
...that is, the mix itself says something about our view of contemporary Jewish life...
...Now for the good news...
...The "he," for those of you who are guilty of being too young to remember, was one Arnold Toynbee, a distinguished British historian who wasn't too fond of the Jews, mostly because they didn't fit very well into his otherwise elegant theories about the rise and fall of great civilizations...

Vol. 8 • May 1983 • No. 5


 
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