Israel at sixty remains, with all its complexities, contrasts and contradictions, a success story of almost implausible dimensions. Born into poverty and war, upon its inception the young State could barely feed itself. Sixty years later, Israel can gaze with gratification and pride upon its phenomenal accomplishments; massive immigrant absorption, mature and daring creative expression—dance, literature, art, film, music and theater, a flourishing economy based on few natural resources, a strong army with which to defend itself, advanced agriculture, pioneering technologies, the renaissance of a language, a world class academia and a center for Jewish learning and continuity.

Yet, pride by no means translates into complacency. Israel is not all we would wish her to be; of course, no place is. Israel is a work in progress of the Jewish people; first and foremost about being free to be proudly Jewish— freedom to struggle with who and what we are, as a people, a community and as individuals, free to question, free to be disappointed, and most of all, free to make change.

In these pages, we try to present a slice of Israel — spirited and sober, Jewish and worldly, introverted and extroverted, impassioned and fun. We invite you to come and visit: explore her cities, climb her mountains, swim in her waters, get a feel for her people, discover her spirituality, sing her songs and taste of her bounty.

The Editors

Editor and Design
Becky Rowe

Associate Editors
Barbara Meltz-Kahn
Dafna Renbaum

Editorial Board:
Josie Arbel, Erika Dahan, Ronen
Goldman, Alan Green, Anat Kagan,
Jonathan Katz, Dorron Kline, Dan Krakow,
Tamar Meir-Schneider, Hava Schoffman,
Faith Segal, Naomi Shmuel, Maurice
Singer, Frankie Stein

Thanks to photographers Becky Weisberg and Itamar Grinberg.

A wealth of Hebrew-only sites are available for each topic covered in the magazine. For the most part, we limited our listing of websites to those with English translations. [ed.]