During this pandemic, medical professionals, government officials, the media, and Mennonites themselves have raised the issue of neighbourliness. As we’ve been encouraged to make sacrifices for the protection of others, people have been asking: are Mennonites good neighbours? Future generations will pass judgement on this specific moment of crisis, but an argument can be made that historically we haven’t concerned ourselves too much with the welfare of our non-Mennonite neighbours. This doesn’t mean that we haven’t helped in times of need; however, it is safe to say that Mennonites have a long tradition of focusing on the well-being of our own communities, circulating resources, compassion, and respect internally. While this detachment from the world served to create strong ties among us, it also limited exchanges and connections with those outside our ethno-religious communities.

Although Mennonite communities have been slow to foster neighbourly relations, individuals have shown a willingness to cross cultural boundaries. The cover of Preservings provides an example of one such person, Emil Riesen. Why is this Mennonite man, born in Prussia, seated next to the Khan of Khiva, Isfandiyar Khan? Riesen, who travelled to Central Asia with Klaas Epp’s millenarian group in 1881, settled in Ak Mechet near Khiva (in present-day Uzbekistan). Possessed with a gift for languages, he quickly emerged as an important emissary between his own Mennonite community and local Muslim leaders. Although Riesen wore a suit in the photograph and remained steadfast in his Christian beliefs, he often dressed according to local custom and greeted others using the Islamic tradition of salaam, a low bow with his hand on his forehead. By immersing himself in Islamic texts and practices, Riesen could cross seamlessly between cultural realms, serving as a translator of world views for both Muslim leaders and Mennonites.

It was not only Mennonites who served in this role. Sometimes non-Mennonites found themselves in this position as well. In this issue, Albert Siemens describes how the “English” lawyer,
J. B. McLaren, acted on behalf of Mennonites during land negotiations with the Canadian government. McLaren was quick to use his knowledge, position, and personal connections to forward the Mennonite cause, even if he believed the assimilation of this group was the ultimate goal. In the Molotschna region, Daniel Schlatter, a Swiss missionary, acted less as an intermediary and more as a critical observer of relations between Mennonites and their Nogai neighbours. As James Urry demonstrates, Schlatter was an outsider with the necessary language skills to access both communities as an insider. This position allowed him to offer an account of the tensions and prejudices that shaped interactions between these neighbours.

The significance of language for basic understanding and communication can’t be overstated. In Alan Guenther’s article, the issue of language arises often as the Bartsch brothers navigated life as migrants and Bible salesmen for the British and Foreign Bible Society in the eastern reaches of the Russian empire. Yet, language only tells part of the story. Often overlooked is how the exchange of objects can be the pretext for dialogue between neighbours. In this case, selling Bibles offered an opportunity for the brothers to interact with local Muslim men at the market.

Such exchanges of physical objects could also solidify fleeting moments of encounter. The visit of five international agronomists to the Loewen household in Blumenort, Manitoba, was brief, but the exchange of a Bible for a Qur’an, which then stood on his father’s bookshelf, imprinted the event on the memory of a young Royden Loewen. In the case of Ernest Braun, the sharing of a name served as the poignant reminder of a connection between families, forged in the most unlikely of circumstances. The quartering of German POWs in Manitoba during the Second World War is a little-known story. The relationship that developed between the German and Canadian Braun families crossed and bound generations in part because of the exchanges over these decades of food, gifts, and stories.

Even though most articles in this issue concern connections created by individuals, as Kennert Giesbrecht shows, community also has had a role to play. By sharing examples of missions and aid work initiated in Latin America, Giesbrecht emphasizes the communal nature of Mennonite interaction with their neighbours, and how this interaction changes over time depending on economic circumstances.
This issue of Preservings, along with the last, “Neighbourly Encounters,” offers only a snapshot of Mennonite neighbourliness. More needs to be written about how gender, age, denominational status, and race have influenced our interactions with others. The topic of Indigenous-Mennonite relations, in particular, deserves much more attention. But perhaps the stories in this issue will encourage us to think about how we relate to those outside of our community.