Managing Editor Job at Tikkun
Job: Managing Editor at Tikkun MagazineThe Managing Editor is a major player in shaping Tikkun magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives/Tikkun Community, working closely with the editor in chief and C.E.O. of the magazine, Rabbi Michael Lerner.
Tikkun began as a “progressive alternative Commentary magazine and the voices of Jewish conservatism,” but it has evolved toward a culturally inclusive interfaith expression of spiritual politics, and we are seeking to strengthen that interfaith aspect. Our readers and our writers are not only Jewish. We are looking for someone whose interests include the Christian world and Christianity, as well as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and various other worldviews (e.g. Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, etc.).
We need someone who is extremely educated, motivated, interested in the study and practice of religions, progressive social theory, and culture, talented both as an editor and in working with others, and someone committed to the vision of Tikkun articulated in Rabbi Lerner’s book The Left Hand of God. You should also read the Core Vision at www.tikkun.org/core_vision and Rabbi Lerner’s editorial about Tikkun in the current issue (Nov/Dec, 2006).
Prior experience in magazine publishing would be very useful, though we’ve also over the twenty years of existence found excellent editors who were formerly college professors, lawyers, writers, psychologists, and even once we hired someone very good who had only been a graduate student previously. Our ideal candidate should be well-versed in both the editorial and business management of an independent periodical, and can seamlessly multitask between these responsibilities. But someone absolutely brilliant, well versed in contemporary social theory/politics/religion/spirituality/and contemoporary intellectual debates and significant writers, someone talented, and with unlimited energy, charm and sense of humor and commitment to the vision of The Left Hand of God could do this work very well—even if that person had not previously done this specific kind of work—might be able to convince us that s/he was the best candidate.
The Managing Editor’s position requires a full energy commitment that includes activist work, specifically, building Tikkun as a major intellectual force and building the Network of Spiritual Progressives as a force for social change and healing. You will be required to represent and promote the magazine and to widen our impact in the intellectual, political, academic and religious worlds. A person seeking to become known as a public intellectual would be fine, as long as s/he is fully aware that this work involves also tedious line editing and outreach, work in developing each issue with a part-time designer, work in coordination with our printer and distributor, an ability to see the big picture and come up with innovative and smart ways to advance our ideas, the magazine, and our organization. Working with Tikkun is not just a job—it is a life commitment, a cause, a movement, a way of actualizing one’s highest values, so people who want a normal job or who have strong commitments outside of work that would make it hard to attend evening meetings, weekend conferences, or travel for the magazine should not bother to apply.This job is an amazing opportunity to serve God and advance the cause of building a world of love and kindness, generosity aand love, ecological sanity and ethical vision--and to develop your capacity for compassion (because none of us at Tikkun fully lives up to our own highest values, and all of us are flawed in various ways that are at once both exciting and heart-breakingly disappointing because wouldn't it be great if people were able to be as wonderful as their own ideals? So compassion is the key to surviving in this kind of work.)
The Managing Editor must live in the San Francisco Bay Area and appear each day at our office in Berkeley. The pay is good for the sphere of non-profit publishing (though you could make a lot more in the private sector), and includes benefits. Salary depends on years of relevant experience.
Please send a self-revealing letter talking about your own intellectual and spiritual development, your strengths and weaknesses, your professional experience and your educational background, why this job would be perfect for you and what about it might be difficult as well. Please also include a page about your own relationship to the ideas and approach of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org ) including the Q&A about our organization, the Spiritual Covenant with America, and your reaction to the vision in The Left Hand of God.
Also send a normal curriculum vita and a list of people (and phone numbers/email addresses) to whom you invite us to turn for recommendations.
If you wish to send a dvd or video tape of yourself, do it by addressing the questions raised above, and also give five-ten minutes of a talk in which you are speaking to a room full of people who have never heard of Tikkun or the Network of Spiritual Progressives and your task is to convince them that there is something exciting here that they should check out, or even consider joining or subscribing. But this video or dvd is not necessary at this stage in the process, and in any event cannot be a substitute for writing a self-revealing letter, since we need to know how you write and see that aspect of your competence.
Applications To: Adina@tikkun.org or to Adina c/o Tikkun, 951 Cragmont Ave, Berkeley, Ca. 94708.
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