// from the editors //
Spring 2019
Spring 2019
From the Editors
It is easy to see the contradictions that come with Spring time. As the school year comes to an end, the world around us starts to bloom. It is funny how reliable nature is in that way. Cherry blossoms emerge around campus and the sun invites us to spend time on Low Steps. Yet despite all this, we soon find ourselves filling the libraries and exam rooms before finally packing up. Finals are completed and goodbyes are exchanged, but the cultivation of a reflective voice along the way is in part sacrificed. Maybe it is because of the psychology around seasons and how weather affects our moods and relationships; or maybe it is because exhaustion catches up to Columbia. By the end of the Spring term, with the color of last year almost forgotten, it seems campus is torn between when to speak and when to remain silent.
As editors of The Current, we invite the many shapes one’s voice can take. 21 students across Columbia’s campuses contributed to this semester’s issue, each challenging our common interpretations of art, justice, Judaism, and more. Rarely do these writers produce unequivocal answers to the complex topics they address. But, as we read the issue as a whole, their voices are confident and never unsure about what to say. They are not tired to the point of choosing silence because it seems easy. They tire over when the beauty of Spring will match the beauty created by the inhabitants of our world. Their writing allows us to pause and reflect before we are swept away by the closing of the semester.
The Current presents a unique catalogue of the journeys that many of our writers have undergone through the semester. Whether by interviewing RBML Librarian Jane Siegel or exploring the founding of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS) on Columbia’s campus, or finding conflict and wonder in the art of Leonard Cohen and the performance of Glenda Jackson, and even by looking both near and far at the world around us, a new kind of life is created.
This issue is loud in the same way Spring is. It invites growth, color, and compels us to look back on another year of school. We urge you to question what is said in the unsaid, what is seen in the unseen, and what is heard among hundreds of words telling a myriad of stories.
As editors of The Current, we invite the many shapes one’s voice can take. 21 students across Columbia’s campuses contributed to this semester’s issue, each challenging our common interpretations of art, justice, Judaism, and more. Rarely do these writers produce unequivocal answers to the complex topics they address. But, as we read the issue as a whole, their voices are confident and never unsure about what to say. They are not tired to the point of choosing silence because it seems easy. They tire over when the beauty of Spring will match the beauty created by the inhabitants of our world. Their writing allows us to pause and reflect before we are swept away by the closing of the semester.
The Current presents a unique catalogue of the journeys that many of our writers have undergone through the semester. Whether by interviewing RBML Librarian Jane Siegel or exploring the founding of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS) on Columbia’s campus, or finding conflict and wonder in the art of Leonard Cohen and the performance of Glenda Jackson, and even by looking both near and far at the world around us, a new kind of life is created.
This issue is loud in the same way Spring is. It invites growth, color, and compels us to look back on another year of school. We urge you to question what is said in the unsaid, what is seen in the unseen, and what is heard among hundreds of words telling a myriad of stories.
Editor-in-Chief, Charlotte Rauner
Managing Editor, Solomon Wiener
cover photo courtesy of New York Chamber of Commerce, “Great Hall."
Managing Editor, Solomon Wiener
cover photo courtesy of New York Chamber of Commerce, “Great Hall."