The High Holy Days are a time of reflection. We look inside ourselves, considering our thoughts and actions these past 12 months. We look to the future, as well — how can we live better lives? How can we help make our world a better place?
Here at J., we also look back at the past year, taking stock of what we’ve accomplished and the news we have brought you.
This year we celebrated. Our cover story on the monumental Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage (“Equality for All,” May 29) considered the leading role Bay Area Jews played in that struggle. Managing editor Andy Altman-Ohr was in Berlin for the European Maccabi Games, bringing us the stories of Bay Area athletes marching into the amphitheater Hitler built for the 1936 Olympics (“Back to Berlin,” July 31).
This year we looked to Israel, with stories on how cutting-edge technology from the Jewish state can be used to mitigate our drought (“Can Israel help California out of its water crisis?” May 15), and how local day schools coped with last summer’s Gaza war in their fall classrooms (“Teaching Israel after the war,” Oct. 10, 2014).
This year we stood in solidarity, with #BlackLivesMatter at Hanukkah (“Standing for justice,” Dec. 19, 2014) and with a young man who took a brave public step (“Transgender teen comes out in emotional ceremony at Tehiyah,” March 24). And we launched a three-part investigative series on the inner workings of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement by senior writer Dan Pine — part 4 is coming next month.
We brought you profiles of philanthropist-entrepreneur Maurice Kanbar and iconoclastic Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin. We tipped you off to highlights of Jewish film festivals in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the East Bay. We described how a living room Torah study project spread from the East Bay to Denver, Boston and beyond (“Home School,” Nov. 28, 2014), and we reviewed Jewish books, music and restaurants — lots of ’em.
We wouldn’t have been able to do all this without you, our readers, subscribers and donors. Two years ago, J. became a 501(c)3 nonprofit, which means your donations to us are tax-deductible, just like those made to any other charitable cause. We are not owned by either the San Francisco or East Bay federation, although both are generous donors. Since our first issue in November 1895, we have always been independent, serving the Jewish community of the Bay Area for 120 years.
And may we keep on doing it for another 120.
All of us at J. wish you and yours a sweet and healthy new year.