POEM: ‘On the Machine’
my grandmother did not change
my grandfather’s greeting,
so his voice ripened my sadness
before the tone.
I considered how he might find
contentment knowing we were
checking on the short woman
he had left to the heavy warmth
of lower Florida,
how for the children of Israel,
it is customary to leave
desperate notes
over tombs of the righteous,
how a measure of the soul
might remain in the sound
of a voice uncontained
by the body,
completing the circuit
between the dead and
their grandchildren.
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.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
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