From the Editor

Most magazines put readers in a passive relationship to the process and the product. This 18th anniversary issue of LILITH is different. It represents an unusually collaborative venture between readers and staff. A few examples:

• The special section on bat and bar mitzvah was informed and enriched by those of you who wrote and called to tell us about your own experiences with this rite of passage, responding to a call on this page in this spring issue.

• The notable women who tell us about their own syntheses of Judaism and feminism include many writers whose work has appeared in previous issues of LILITH, and who themselves are also our readers. The “young women to watch” (or the “young hags” as they were dubbed in the office) came both from LILITH’s subscription lists and from the address books of the wonderful crop of student interns working in the LILITH office this season.

• We use some new transliterations for Hebrew and Yiddish words in this issue, encouraged by longtime subscriber—and writer—Judith Romney Wegner, who wrote urging us to change to the system now becoming widely recognized as the standard for publications the world over.

• Although we recognize that the transliteration of the word “chai“ in this issue isn’t yet modernized, we’ve stuck to the more easily recognized form of the word for now. At the suggestion of subscriber Nicki Tanner of New York, we’re asking women around the country— how about you?—to host a LILITH discussion group (a “chai tea”—get it?) in honor of the 18th anniversary. The LILITH office will help you figure out how to invite a group for good talk, spirited discussion and a chance to introduce the magazine to new audiences in honor of its 18th birthday. We’ll send a 12-minute video, LILITH flyers and discussion ideas, and even put you in touch with other LILITH readers in your area.

I hope that you’ll want to celebrate this banner year for LILITH by bringing the magazine to people who might not yet have seen it. Please take a minute now to give a gift subscription to LILITH to a local or college library, to a good friend or to someone you’d like to get to know better. Call the office at (212) 757-0818 or fax to (212) 757-5705 if you’d like extra gift subscription forms.

Honor special women in your life on the occasion of LILITH’s significant birthday. Make a tax-deductible “birthday” contribution of $36 to LILITH for each woman you want to honor, and we’ll publish their names— and yours—in the anniversary year issues of the magazine. L’Chaim!