From the Editor

Nadine Epstein

Our February issue wrestles with a range of questions, including one most of us have been struggling with since childhood—“What happens after we die?” When I was 13 this question dominated my intellectual and spiritual life along with, “Why do we die?” and, “If God exists, why would he or she let us die?”

I tried but couldn’t find any adults who wanted to discuss these concerns with a young girl. Eventually these unanswered questions were grounds for rebellion, at least in my mind. At Hebrew School, my behavior became, shall we say, less than tolerable. I managed to get myself thrown out by the school principal, only to be reinstated by the rabbi. “I like your spirit,” he told me in his office when I was expecting an admonition about disrespecting teachers. Thrilled, I peppered him with my questions. But he only smiled kindly, winked and sent me back to class.

Twenty years later I ran into him, long after he had retired, and I reminded him of our talk. Of course, by this time I had become accustomed to living with questions, fully or partially unanswered. But I’d always been curious why the rabbi had chosen not to respond to my queries. “It wouldn’t have been right for me to discuss these kinds of questions with a child,” he explained, adding, “I was struggling with these same questions myself.”

Last Rosh Hashanah, I returned to my childhood congregation, my 13-year-old son in tow. The time, the place and most of the people had changed. Gone was the old building, with its massive front steps, replaced by an airy sanctuary in a nearby suburb. A 30-something rabbi stood on the bima leading the service before a full house.

So there we were, my parents, other family members, my son and I. After an hour of sitting, standing, praying and listening, I noticed that my son was starting to fidget. Unlike me at his age, he knew he didn’t have to completely repress his restlessness, so I wasn’t surprised when he started flashing me “Mom, I’m going stir-crazy” and “can you help me get out of here” looks.

As if he had seen this exchange, the rabbi looked up and announced, “The service for teenagers is now beginning in the small sanctuary.”

That was it. My parents and everyone else made way for us as we slipped out. We found ourselves in a small room with 20 or so teenagers who sat in chatty groupings of two or three. A bright-eyed teacher, full of energy, stood at the front of the room and invited me to stay. She started the “service” by asking each of us to define who we were in one word. She addressed me first: “I am a questioner,” I answered. “Great,” she said. “That’s a powerful Jewish trait.” My son was next. “I’m a thinker,” he announced, and we went around the room, meeting a musician, an artist, a dancer and so on.

I don’t recall the entire discussion, for that’s what this was, but it covered questions of life and death and God from the Jewish perspective, all, in my opinion, highly appropriate subjects to discuss with teenagers, who are of course thinking about them in addition to other adolescent concerns. My son was fully engaged, and I found myself wishing there had been such a service when I was growing up.

“Mom,” he later complained good naturedly. “I was going to say that I was a questioner, but when you said it first, I had to come up with something else so I said thinker.” I laughed. Life had come full circle.

That powerful Jewish trait of questioning is one we at Moment honor. This issue is not only full of questions, but it offers a range of answers, or should I say, our best shot at answers. Our “Ask the Rabbi” section question is “What does Judaism say about life after death?” “The Battle of the Chairs” explores how endowed university chairs have become another way that the conflicts of the Middle East play out on American campuses. “Was Nixon Really an Anti-Semite?” looks back at the Jewish-related sentiments and policies of our 37th president. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers insight into what it’s like to be a woman and a Jew on the U.S. Supreme Court. Jerusalem Post reporter Arieh O’Sullivan recounts how he risked his life by traveling to a West Bank village in order to rescue “General Lee,” his beloved jeep.

Finally, we are proud to publish New Orleans writer Andrew Fox’s “Raoul Wallenberg in Orbit,” a winner of the Karma Foundation-Moment Magazine Short Fiction Contest. Fox’s story adroitly blends history and science fiction with the search for a Jewish soul mate in the Deep South. And there’s plenty more—book reviews, our 2005 Publish-a-Kid contest winners as well as new sections on theater, Jewish language and film. Don’t miss the interview with Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who explains why it’s important to be a Jew even as we embrace religious diversity. Then test your knowledge of famous Jews with a brainteaser on page 103. And so, welcome to Moment, February 2006.