From ‘Portions’
Six years you may sow your field and six years may you prune your vineyard
Pruning
When we came in August, there were roses —
budding, half opened, in bloom —
and some we had missed in their glory.
Their histories lost to us. The future is ours,
and so I took up orange-handled shears,
and all morning I severed and severed.
Whatever knotted shape the canes took
I cut away, with the small red buds
that would have been new growth.
Now, above each bush, a sphere of air.
May I be spared to cut again,
sever one future, shape another.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
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