Mixing Guilt and Pleasure
If you want to fall into a different sort of GAP, take a look at a new literary journal, Guilt & Pleasure. Soon to be published by Reboot — a New York City-based nonprofit that promotes discussion on issues of Jewish identity — the new quarterly will focus on “identity, community, and meaning” in America. It will feature fiction, nonfiction, photographs, comics and other forms of graphic art. Each edition will revolve around a theme, the first of which will be “Home & Away.”
Among the names associated with the venture is Jonathan Safran Foer, author of “Everything Is Illuminated.” Foer won’t be illuminating anything in the first issue, but Gary Shteyngart, author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook,” will contribute a fictional Q&A between Mikvah Tannenblatt, a reporter for Kosher Homes & Gardens, and Shteyngart alter ego Jerry Shteynfarb. Other contributors to the first issue are Mark Oppenheimer, who writes for the Forward frequently, and Israeli author Etgar Keret. Also featured will be an online forum for readers interested in discussing the themes addressed in each issue.
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.
