Welcome back!  To friends of Kerem, old and new, we are delighted to bring you a fine collection of thought-provoking articles, rituals, divrei Torah, poetry, and much more.

Some of our readers refer to Kerem as an occasional publication.  By this we assume they mean that our publication schedule occasionally involves a longer than usual interval between issues, and also that they view each issue as a special occasion.  For us, those two elements are related.  Kerem showcases the finest in contemporary Jewish thinking, and we sometimes must wait until we feel that the issue is “there.”  We aim to publish annually, but sometimes we wait for just the right pieces to complete and balance a new issue.

We hope you agree that this almost-double issue – our eleventh – is worth the wait.  Kerem X1 is a mixed media issue.  It includes a mix of memoirs, rituals, poems, fiction, photographs, drama, music, divrei Torah, meditations, and reflections.  From Debra Kolodny's birth ceremony for a baby daughter to Ruby Newman's Kaddish journal memorializing her mother, our authors explore what is missing in their Jewish lives, and how those gaps might be addressed.  Two rabbis, prominent in the organization Rabbis for Human Rights, have developed a Haggadah to raise our consciousness about human rights abuses going on around us. David Stern and Raymond Scheindlin reflect on the High Holidays of their youths, and on the profound place of music and poetry in making Jewish meaning.  Shalom Eilati looks back at the Holocaust and its after-effects through a return to Lithuania, and the lost world of the Jews of eastern Europe. James Jacobson-Maisels takes us deep into the teaching of Hasidism on suffering, human failings, and conflict.  Some of our authors invent, revise, or re-energize ritual and liturgy, seeking to fill in what is missing or recapture what is absent; others return to the years of childhood, seeing the past in new ways.

With this issue, we introduce what we hope will become a new feature of Kerem: stories rabbis tell.  Sprinkled throughout the issue are fond, funny, troubling, and inspiring moments in the rabbinate, contributed by a diverse group of North American rabbis. We hope that the rabbis among our readers will be inspired to contribute stories to future issues.

We thank our poetry editor, Kathryn Hellerstein, for the many fine poems clustered in this issue.  We are especially pleased to welcome some authors and poets published in our pages for the first time.

For Gilah, this issue is dedicated to the memory of her mother, Nancy Langner, zikhronah livrakhah, who was a fervent supporter of Kerem from its inception – a woman of great gifts and a deep love of Judaism.

For Sara, this issue – which coincides with a milestone wedding anniversary – is dedicated to her life’s companion.  Yonatan na’amta li me’od nifle’ata ahavatkha li me’od.

One of the nice things about Kerem is that there's always plenty of time to read it before the next issue arrives! But as you read, please consider sending us some of your own writing – whether a dvar Torah, a poem, a short reflection or essay. We would love to hear from you!