Mitzpeh has the potential to serve as a unifying bond for the entire Jewish community, just as The Diamondback serves as a news source for all students.

This potential, however, remains largely untapped. We have the ability to serve as the voice of a large, vibrant Jewish community.

Our potential for achievement was seen last month when a letter to The Diamondback cited a Mitzpeh article during a rant about the recent pro-choice rally in Washington.

More than the content of his argument, I was troubled by the fact that he chose to send his letter to The Diamondback, which had not covered the Hillel conference referenced by the writer.

The letter, if sent to Mitzpeh, could have started a dialogue about these issues within the Jewish community. Instead, both he and those who chose to respond to his letter bypassed the voice of the Jewish community. In order for us to succeed, we need you to get involved.

By this, I don’t mean that you need to start writing for us (although we’d certainly welcome that). What I mean is that a newspaper can not succeed without input from its readers.

To this end, I plan to talk with Jewish community members in an attempt to find out what people want from Mitzpeh.

Another important part of getting involved is taking advantage of what Mitzpeh can offer you. We have the capability to cover the campus and facilitate discussion from a Jewish point of view.

Discussions like the one described above could take place on our pages if people got involved. If the interest exists, we could also create an online forum that would allow discussion of important issues to the Jewish community.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank several graduating members of our staff for their service to the newspaper. Andrea Cohen, our outgoing editor in chief, spent two years as Mitzpeh’s editor in chief and deserves credit for making Mitzpeh what it is today. Dan Stamm, our commentary editor, is also graduating, and we thank him for the humor and unique views he brought to us. I also want to thank Tim Goff, our webmaster, for his hard work.

The new editorial staff can’t continue the tradition these staff members have made without your help. So, please get involved — because we’re more than just a word search.