From the Editor

At the root of faith is a question or many questions perhaps, about the nature of the universe and the meaning of life. It seems all too often, however, that when many people come to think about the role of faith and religion in their lives today they have replaced not only the theological framework of religious identity, but their cultural and historical elements as well, with a vague combination of post-enlightenment humanistic ideas that tell them virtually nothing about who they are or where they have come from. This is a shame, especially from a Jewish perspective. For a religion which has proved so adaptable over the years, in part by encouraging its adherents to discuss and at times argue about the central tenets of that religion, the end of discussion, of debate, would seem a kind of death sentence. More than the specter of intermarriage or the influence of “secular” education on the next generation of would-be Jewish intellectuals, the possibility of the end of this two-thousand year conversation is what truly threatens the future of Jewish thought and identity.

After a century in which many individual’s great-grandparents or grandparents fled Europe and somehow had to make a new life in America, which often meant engaging in a certain degree of assimilation, many people find themselves without even the most basic knowledge of Jewish history and thought. I would argue that some of this assimilation was necessary, even healthy, for a people who had so often been forced to live at the margins of society in other nations, or at the very least, to maintain some separation. In other ways, it was not healthy, and there was a very difficult process of matriculation with the end result being a schism in American Jewry that led to the situation today, in which we have various forms of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism.

It is not that we have so many different movements within Judaism that is in any way unhealthy, in fact, I think it is a good thing. What is unhealthy, though, is that the vast majority of people who subscribe to these different modes of being Jewish often seem to have a very difficult time engaging in meaningful and productive dialogue with one another. Partly it is a problem of language, by which I mean a problem of knowledge and worldview. Many Reform Jews face issues that Orthodox Jews do not have to deal with, simply because by the nature of their orthodox nature of their faith they do not ever find themselves in certain situations. And Many Orthodox Jews face other problems that Reform Jews do not. But there are more places where challenges and interests intersect, even if we do not realize it or think about it very much.

So we have identified a need for this conversation, for creating a space for this on-going dialogue, but the question remains as to how we can encourage this dialogue, and how we can bring the best Jewish thinkers to the table to tackle the problems which all of us face in trying to understand what it means to be a Jew in the modern world. It is my hope that this publication will become such a place, where individuals who are interested in exploring communal and individual Jewish identity can have a forum to share their ideas and questions about issues not only of Jewish religious thought in the modern age, but questions of Jewish spirituality and culture, of history. In the essays, articles, book reviews, stories and poems you will find in this on-line publication, you will have a chance to hear from some of the most interesting and dynamic Jewish thinkers of our time as they wrestle with these issues and you’ll have a chance to share your thoughts as well.

-Daniel E. Levenson
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Daniel E. Levenson is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the New Vilna Review. He holds an ALM in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. Mr. Levenson was an active leader in the Jewish graduate student community at Harvard and is presently a member of the GesherCity Boston Leadership Cabinet. His most recent collection of poetry,"Are These My Lions?" explores his experience living in Jerusalem in 2006 during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. His personal website is: www.literarycomments.com

Staff

Daniel E. Levenson, Editor-in-Chief

Alexander Edelman, Fiction Editor

Dr. Cheryl Goldstein, Associate Editor

Board of Advisors

Mishael Zion, 26, is a Jewish Educator from Jerusalem. Studying and teaching at the Shalom Hartman Institute and at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Mishael searches for ways in which Judaism and Halakha can become a toolbox for building a meaningful Jewish identity. He is co-author of HaLaila HaZeh: An Israeli Haggadah (Hebrew, 2004) and A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices (English, 2007), and the proud father of Zohar.

Rabbi Henry A. Zoob is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth David of Westwood, having served the congregation for thirty-six years. He is the Founding President of the Rashi School, the Boston Area Reform Jewish Day School. He served on the Social Planning and Allocations Committee of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) of Boston for a six year period and was a founding board member of the Gann Academy. He helped initiate the Beit Din (Rabbinical Court) of the Boston Area Reform Rabbis and served as the first Rosh (Head) of the Beit Din from 1998 to 2001. He is a past President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis and past Chairman of the Boston Area Reform Rabbis. He has served on the Board of Mayyim Hayyim, the Boston Area Mikveh and Educational Center for six years. Rabbi Zoob is married to Barbara Shure Zoob of Cincinnati who is on the staff at the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly in Brighton, MA. Their son Sam is currently studying for his MBA at Babson.

Rabbi Avi Poupko is a former Harvard University Campus Rabbi and adviser to the Orthodox minyan at Harvard University Hillel. He presently lives in Jerusalem.

Paul Sassieni is a Jewish community activist who is involved with grass roots and mainstream organizations in the Boston area. He is a founder member and former President of the Boston Israel Action Committee which is a grassroots Israel advocacy organization. He is a Board member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and a member of that organization's Israel Action Center Advisory Board. Originally from the UK, Paul was active as a teenager in the B'nai Brith Youth Organization, and a member of the National Executive of the Union of Jewish Students where he was National Soviet Jewry officer in the early 1980's. A banker by profession, Paul recently took time out of his career to work full time in the Jewish community as Executive Vice President of Harvard Hillel. He is a member of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah, a modern Orthodox congregation in Newton, MA. His children attend Gann Academy in Waltham, MA and Maimonides School in Brookline, MA.

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