First Person: Dogged by Controversy

I admit I like a little controversy. On the other hand, I also like the serenity of unusual insight. On the third hand (I sometimes wish I had three hands), I also admit that there is such a thing as too much controversy.

People think we control the amount of controversy in the magazine. Yes and no. Or rather, no and yes. I like to say that I do not court controversy, but I do not shrink from it either. In our pages we do take up controversial matters, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. We invite articles on which scholars disagree. We even write articles ourselves about scholarly disagreements, like the article in this issue about whether or not two sites in the Holy Land are indeed synagogues, as claimed by their excavators.

But there are other controversies that we do not seek out and that surprise us when they surface.