From the Editor

WE ALL HOLD multitudes, right? Or so a hard time reconciling the ideas struggling for dominance in my own head. And you? I imagine you may be also be weighing competing ideas and beliefs and desires.

I feel huge relief that the living hostages are returned from their torment in Gaza. Now that we’ve seen images of the returnees embraced by those who love them it feels possible for those of us waiting and protesting and petitioning from the sidelines to exhale. And I still want to believe that the tenuous ceasefire will hold, and that it can, under judicious leadership, morph into empathic, lasting peace despite the bullying of the governments vying for influence and power in the region.

But alongside gratitude that the 20 remaining living hostages were able to stay alive long enough to be released from their shackles, I can’t shake loose the horror of October 7 and its aftermath. In the real world, horror and hope seem locked in struggle. And I’m still trying to make more space for hope, no easy task.

Competing voices and declarations resonate in the heads of many of you too, I know.

So why, with all the cacophony bouncing around between our ears, do I believe that nonetheless it’s important from time to time to hear opinions and choices that diverge from those we ourselves hold?

Because…from the beginning, Lilith has held that there’s value in setting forth a “smorgasbord” of ideas, to quote from that very first editorial. This magazine has always sought to bring readers like you an array of different ideas, all under the rubric (or on the tablecloth) reading “Jewish and feminist.”

There has not been a litmus test for what Lilith defines as feminist. At every point in Lilith’s history, feminism at minimum has included an unwavering commitment to women’s rights, bodily autonomy and reproductive freedoms. All these rights and freedoms subsume a firm commitment for all Jewish girls and women to participate fully in Jewish life, ritual, liturgy and leadership.

As for definitions of Jewishness, those who choose to identify as Jews have been in the Lilith tent with us, and under the fronds of the communal sukkah, with a base understanding of—and unwavering commitment to–Jewish physical, historical, spiritual survival. The elasticity of the tent walls means that many expressions of Jewish and female identity fit inside.

But now, in the troubled, turbulent and very uneasy time in which we’re living as Jews and as women, it feels very necessary to explain again why Lilith puts forth differing voices, voices expressing views that might be at odds with ones you yourself hold. Lilith does this out of a belief that it’s important to hear those opinions even if it’s to counter them with your own. Lilith salons, the informal groups that meet for lively conversations around each new issue of the magazine, invite participants with the suggestion that these gatherings include “women like and unlike ourselves.”

I’m reminding myself about the importance of this variety because there are viewpoints expressed by some Jewish feminists which diverge from my own, although I recognize that there may be many Jews who hold them. Differences of opinion in the Jewish community (sometimes even schisms) over politics, over Israel, are nothing new; they stretch back over almost two centuries. Some would say millennia. Our differences notwithstanding, Jewish people are still a people and the State of Israel still exists. We’re not going to be aligned on all issues.

For example, in this issue, “Appalachian Homecoming” profiles several young Jews who describe themselves as non-Zionist, a term obviously not restricted to their locale or age cohort. I find the term deeply unsettling, since I believe strongly in the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state, and in Jews’ right to self-determination and relative safety. At the same time, I disagree vociferously with many decisions of Israel’s current leadership, and with those of several previous, duly elected governments in Israel. And I also believe that, as Jews, we need to know what others of our tribe are thinking and feeling and saying––and protesting about, so that if our opinions differ we’re prepared to have thoughtful conversations about the understanding that shapes each of our views, and how our thinking evolved.

As ever, in the pages of Lilith, we work to bring you a unique meeting place for Jewish feminists.

Susan Weidman Schneider

susanws@lilith.org