From the Editors:
Ideas on the March
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This month we celebrate the birthdays of two individuals who dedicated their lives to fighting social injustice—Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. These two men, who walked together arm in arm from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, shared a vision that dramatically changed the course of history. These are men of action – men who marched, fought, and bled for what they believed. However, these were not just men of action, but men of great ideas as well.
Even while sitting in a Birmingham jail, King preached a message of love and non-violence. In 1964 he wrote, “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
Heschel, too, wrote that a truly religious man is one “who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.” It was these philosophies that spoke to the heart of the American people and persuaded them to change their long held prejudices.
We believe that the battle of ideas is what helps shape the course of history. Our generation of college students has long been accused of being apathetic, more inclined to play X-box and watch MTV than to take a stand for a cause about which it feels passionate. However, we believe that this is not the case. This journal is a call to action—to fight against those misconceived stereotypes and to make our voices heard in the battlefield of ideas.
Judaism is at a crossroads. The seminal minds of modern Judaism—thinkers such as Heschel, Mordechai Kaplan, and Joseph Dov Soloveichik are gone with no replacements in sight. These men helped to define Judaism for a generation of Jews struggling with their identities. At the same time, Judaism is in the throes of a cultural revival. Birthright trips to Israel are so popular that students are turned away; hipster magazines such as Heeb and blogs like “Jewlicious” allow young Jews to flaunt their roots as an alternative identity; the ‘Reggae-Hasid’ Matisyahu is on continuous play on iPods everywhere. But what will happen when this cultural Judaism’s fifteen minutes are up? Judaism must be concerned not only with style but with substance as well. Someone must answer pressing questions such as where is Judaism heading, and what is the future of the Jewish people?
Israel is also at a crossroads. Zionism faces unprecedented challenges; Palestinians and Israelis alike face questions of identity and ideology. On the eve of a new political era in Israel there is much uncertainty. Where is Israel heading as a state? Is its greatest threat from without or from within?
We are not so bold to state that, in this journal, we will answer all these questions. But we will certainly try. In forming this journal, we seek to create an open space for debate on vital issues affecting students on campus and the community as a whole. Kedma can provide a forum for Penn students not only to discuss, but also to mold, the future of which we are going to be an integral part. We hope that Kedma will contribute to the Penn community by sparking lively dialogue on crucial subjects, both inside its pages and beyond. And we modestly suggest that this conversation will impact the larger Jewish world as well.
Ethics of Our Fathers teaches, “It is not your duty to complete the work. Neither are you free to desist from it.” This sentiment is echoed by Martin Luther King Jr., who taught, “All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” We are the next generation. Are we up for the challenge?
-Sarah Breger and Meira Levinson
Submissions and letters to the editor are welcome.
KedmaJournal@gmail.com