A national journal dedicated to fostering conversation about Jewish culture, community, theology and responsibility has recently relocated to the Bay Area.
Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility arrived in Menlo Park in September after decades publishing in Boston.
Editor Susan Berrin hopes the move “allows Sh’ma to revitalize itself and establish new resources and new readers,” she said. “With the changing geography and the changing times, we’ll have a stronger online presence than we’ve had in the past … I’m really excited to experiment and bring Sh’ma into the digital age.”
Berrin has edited Sh’ma since 1998. The move to the Bay Area stems from personal reasons.
Berrin’s husband, Steve Zipperstein, teaches modern Jewish history at Stanford University, and for years, the couple lived apart. When their youngest child left home and went to college in the fall, Berrin decided the time was right to pack up, move west and share a ZIP code with her husband.
“I was going to make this move anyway, and since I’m the only staff person, there was no reason why I couldn’t bring the magazine out with me,” she said.
Sh’ma will continue publishing monthly print and online (www.shma.com)
versions of its journal, which since 1970 has published intellectual (but not academic) essays by Jewish scholars, rabbis, educators, activists, authors and lay leaders on a wide array of contemporary Jewish issues.
“Every issue I build from scratch,” Berrin said. “I think about what the theme will be, and then I think about how to construct the most interesting conversation for our readers. These writers might not sit down together at a dinner table, but through our pages they are willing to engage each other.”
Recent editions of Sh’ma have focused on political issues such as gun control, health care and Iran, and spiritual topics such as wonder, mystery, vulnerability and a Jewish home.
Upcoming editions will delve into emergent communities, storytelling, pluralism and rethinking Jewish weddings.
“I love to make sure that each issue is unpredictable,” Berrin said. “You open it up and want to be surprised by voices inside.” n
Sh’ma will celebrate its new home on the West Coast with a conversation about pluralistic dialogue and engagement 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., San Francisco. Speakers are Rabbi Lavey Derby, Karen Kushner, Josh Rolnick, Dan Schifrin, Peter Stein and Carole Zawatsky. For more information or to reserve a ticket, visit www.thecjm.org.