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June 5, 2009
It's a good time to be Jewish
Judeo-centric reading materials offer many alternative viewpoints.
MIRA SUCHAROV
For readers with limited time – or attention spans – there's probably never been a better time to be Jewish.
More than 100 years since the launch of the Forward newspaper – initially a Yiddish daily, now in both Yiddish and English versions – magazines, blogs and podcasts are sprouting up to provoke and stimulate. What better way to prepare for a Jewish summer than by engaging with Jewish politics, culture and lifestyle? Here is a rundown of several magazines (one virtual) worth checking out. Some are more high brow than others, but all contain a current of cleverness.
Perhaps the most talked-about of the lot, the quarterly Heeb magazine, launched in 2001, bills itself as a "take-no-prisoners 'zine for the plugged in and preached out." Issues have included separate focuses on food, money and Hollywood. Heeb is cheeky and irreverent. With in-house ads initially created as parodies of popular Jewish food products, such as one for Streit's almond macaroons, calling them "the perfect cure for the munchies" and depicting a stoned hipster, Heeb has now created a built-in ad agency of sorts. The magazine has received some negative response, though. In a 2004 letter, the U.S. Anti-Defamation League expressed "outrage" at the magazine's "deeply offensive" parody of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ film.
More intellectual than Heeb, Guilt & Pleasure is a quarterly magazine that tags itself as "making Jews talk more." Launched in 2005, it is a mix of art, culture, history and criticism. The graphics are beautiful and the writing is provocative and intelligent. Special editions have included a fight issue, a magic issue and a sound issue. The death issue featured an essay about Jewish pulp fiction and a haunting and fascinating photographic installation of embalmed corpses from a Harlem church, where the artist wondered whether this experiment would be able to portray the "complexities of the character of the person." The magazine's website includes podcasts, as well as an essay on how to host a salon. Invoking the European salon tradition of the 19th century, the magazine encourages Jews to gather in living rooms to discuss issues of the day. As my mom would say, "what are you serving?"
Nextbook is a website (www. nextbook.org) that calls itself "a Jewish cultural organization that produces an online magazine, publishes a book series and presents events across the country." With podcasts available for download, the site carries features about Israelis protesting the "occupation," book reviews on such topics as the history of Jews through shoes and a memoir about genetic mutations. The site also co-sponsors the excellent Nextbook/Schocken Jewish book series and creates programs for Jewish libraries to promote events and discussion, including a recent one on Jewish graphic novels.
Founded by Elie Weisel and Leonard Fein in 1975, the bimonthly Moment magazine continues to provide a nonpartisan, non-ideological and nondenominational approach to politics, culture and history from a Jewish perspective. The United States election issue asked whether the religious outlook of a judge has any impact on his or her U.S. Supreme Court rulings, contained a feature on actor Kirk Douglas and included articles such as "Why a Jew should vote for Barack Obama" by Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine, and "Why a Jew should vote for John McCain" by Israeli novelist Naomi Ragen.
Since 1945, Commentary has provided a monthly, right-leaning take on public affairs and culture from a Jewish perspective. Describing itself as representing "the flagship of neo-conservatism" since the 1970s, the magazine – edited for most of its years by prominent Jewish neo-conservative Norman Podhoretz – Commentary seeks to challenge liberal opinion on public affairs and to support Israeli policies.
The bimonthly Tikkun magazine, founded in 1986 is in some ways a liberal response to Commentary. Also focusing on issues of politics and religion, the magazine, headed by Rabbi Michael Lerner, seeks to critically analyze Israeli policies, promote a two-state solution and galvanize a multi-faith, spiritual vision for social justice in the United States and around the world.
Jewish Living launched to great fanfare in 2007 but has sadly – and surprisingly, given its reportedly large initial financial endowment – sealed its covers. I'll briefly mention it here in the hope that someone is inspired to rescue it. It was the Jewish answer to Martha Stewart, that consummate creator of Yuletide confections that make non-Christmas-celebrators drool. One issue included a feature called "How gay is your shul?" and the High Holiday issue provided tips on how to dress to impress for synagogue services – cut of skirt dependent on denomination – and how to decorate a sukkah that would not be out of place in House & Home, the Tabernacle edition.
Readers might also be interested in checking out Zeek, jcarrot.org, Eretz Acheret and, for teens, jvibe.com. There's not enough space to cover everything here.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University.
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