David Ellenson

Giving Endings Meaning

A Hebrew adage asserts, “Kol hat’chalot kashot,” “All beginnings are difficult.” So are endings. In the case of Sh’ma, it has been 50 years since my teacher Rabbi Eugene Borowitz inaugurated this journal of Jewish ideas and responsibility as a vehicle for Jewish communal discussion, debate, and dialogue, and my feelings are mixed ones of sadness and gratitude as I both lament the journal’s impending closure and am grateful for its many years of existence. This, the final issue of Sh’ma, marks the end of a vital chapter in American-Jewish history.