2020 HAS BEEN A YEAR of protest and political upheaval, set against the backdrop of illness, isolation, and death. Throughout this tumultuous year, we have sought to articulate a new vision for Jewish political engagement, and to provide our readers with the intellectual resources to better understand and reimagine their place in the world. As 2020 draws to a close, we’re looking back on the work we published this year. Here’s a selection of some of the pieces that made the biggest impact.
In March, as Covid-19 upended our world, we struggled to reassess our relationship to work. In her essay “No One Is Well,” Editor-in-Chief Arielle Angel reflected on that question and concluded that to pry open political possibility in a catastrophic moment, “we will need to begin to replace the logics of capitalism with the logics of care.” And in a subsequent staff roundtable, we discussed and debated the nature of our responsibility in the moment.
We soon decided that one thing we could offer our readers during the long period of confinement was spiritual nourishment. Our “Provisions” series invited writers to reflect on poems they were holding close in a difficult time. We also hosted the “Slow Burn: Quarantine Edition” reading series on the Book of Exodus, a parsha-by-parsha conversation among critics rereading this ancient text of liberation from the strange vantage of quarantine.
We found that the pandemic provided opportunities to help spread crucial practical information. In the early days of the pandemic, our guide “How to Give Yourself an Abortion”—written by Arielle Swernoff and illustrated by Matt Lubchansky, published online in January—found a wider readership; the renewed circulation served as a grim reminder of the dismal state of reproductive rights in this country. Later this year, amidst an eviction crisis, we followed up with “How to Organize Your Building,” also illustrated by Matt Lubchansky, and co-written by Rose Lenehan and Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal.
2020 HAS BEEN A YEAR of protest and political upheaval, set against the backdrop of illness, isolation, and death. Throughout this tumultuous year, we have sought to articulate a new vision for Jewish political engagement, and to provide our readers with the intellectual resources to better understand and reimagine their place in the world. As 2020 draws to a close, we’re looking back on the work we published this year. Here’s a selection of some of the pieces that made the biggest impact.
In March, as Covid-19 upended our world, we struggled to reassess our relationship to work. In her essay “No One Is Well,” Editor-in-Chief Arielle Angel reflected on that question and concluded that to pry open political possibility in a catastrophic moment, “we will need to begin to replace the logics of capitalism with the logics of care.” And in a subsequent staff roundtable, we discussed and debated the nature of our responsibility in the moment.
We soon decided that one thing we could offer our readers during the long period of confinement was spiritual nourishment. Our “Provisions” series invited writers to reflect on poems they were holding close in a difficult time. We also hosted the “Slow Burn: Quarantine Edition” reading series on the Book of Exodus, a parsha-by-parsha conversation among critics rereading this ancient text of liberation from the strange vantage of quarantine.
We found that the pandemic provided opportunities to help spread crucial practical information. In the early days of the pandemic, our guide “How to Give Yourself an Abortion”—written by Arielle Swernoff and illustrated by Matt Lubchansky, published online in January—found a wider readership; the renewed circulation served as a grim reminder of the dismal state of reproductive rights in this country. Later this year, amidst an eviction crisis, we followed up with “How to Organize Your Building,” also illustrated by Matt Lubchansky, and co-written by Rose Lenehan and Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal.
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