Letter from the Editor

It feels fitting that “HaTanin Journal” makes its debut now. Like the opening verses of Bereshit, this issue is born from both chaos and creation. Our cover evokes that first glimmer of light, reminding us that every new beginning carries the remnants of what came before. The red string, an ancient symbol of protection for the Jewish people, serves as a quiet thread of connection, binding past to present, individual to community and memory to possibility.

“HaTanin Journal” is the University of Florida’s student-run Jewish publication supported by the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies. We aim to provide a platform for diverse voices to engage thoughtfully with Jewish tradition, culture, history and contemporary life. We hope to cultivate a space where questions meet scholarship, where faith meets critique, and where the UF and Jewish communities meet in conversation.

The theme of this first issue, Beginnings and Belongings, feels especially urgent now. In a post–October 7 world, what does it mean to begin again? To return to what is familiar and to reimagine “home” when so much has changed? Within these pages, you’ll find writing that explores what it means to belong to a place, memory and community.

As you read, I hope you feel the pull of that red thread, one story at a time. May these works remind you that though suffering shapes us, so too does return. And perhaps most of all, may we carry forward the voices of those who were held, so that their homecoming becomes part of our shared beginning.

With gratitude,
Molly Seghi
Editor-in-Chief, “HaTanin Journal”