Prophecy

On the seventh night of Passover, the Israelites stand at the edge of the sea. Egypt is behind them. The chariots are closing in. And God says to Moses: Why do you cry out to Me? Tell Israel to go forward.

This is the Seder at the Sea. Not the celebration of liberation, but the movement towards a destination. The moment when a people, exhausted and terrified, must choose to wade in before the waters part.

This is where we find ourselves now.

Three years after the judicial overhaul, October 7th, and the war shattered every old certainty, the Jewish world is standing at that shore. The question is no longer what we left behind. The question is where we are going and what we are planning to build when we get there.

The fifteen writers in this issue propose roads forward: for Israel's democracy and its constitution, its schools and its wounded, its relationship to Jewish tradition and to its Arab neighbors. For Jews in America, Britain, and Australia navigating a world that no longer feels the same. And for Israelis and Palestinians who have chosen, against the odds, to act differently right now.

With contributions by Yizhar Hess, Ben Koan, Sapir Bluzer, Yotam Hod, Calanit Valfer, Nofar Simpson, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Khaled Hassan, David Shlachter, Valerie Milhado, Jordan Chandler Hirsch, Michael Freedman, Sarah Vanunu, Matt Bar & Dvir Cahane, and Ariel Beery.

The sea is waiting for us to step in. The chariots are coming. Onward we go.