Newsletter
Oct
3
2022
Dear friend,
As readers and supporters of Jewish Currents, we celebrate this festival season in many different ways. Some of us are observant, some secular, some atheist, some believers, and some not Jewish at all. But for many of us, this is a time of gathering and reflection.
To mark these holidays, a generous supporter has offered to match all donations to Jewish Currents through the end of the week. These gifts will help support programming that will bring readers like you together to learn with one another through reading groups, speaker series, and events around the country. But that can only happen with your support.
Through these weeks, I am reminded of why I came to Jewish Currents. To many, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur appear less obviously political than the likes of Pesach or Purim. But Rosh Hashanah only became the Jewish New Year in exile, when the rabbis embraced the Babylonian calendar; and the authorship of the most powerful and perplexing of prayers uttered on Yom Kippur, the unetaneh tokef, is often attributed to a rabbi who wrote it after enduring torture in the crusades.
In other words, these holidays are products of diaspora. They ask us to consider our collective responsibility for a world in which too many endure violence and suffering because they are outsiders—the wrong nationality, the wrong color, or speakers of the wrong language. I joined Jewish Currents because I believe it is essential that we have a publication that exposes the injustices for which we are collectively responsible while celebrating the vitality of Jewish life.
At Jewish Currents we are committed not only to publishing a magazine that honors those commitments, but in building a community that stands for them. In the coming year, we’re excited to invest in that community with new programming, and we’re grateful that a generous supporter has offered to match all contributions made this week.
May your coming year be filled with joy,
Peter Beinart
