Two Jewish Magazines, One New…One a Classic
This has been posted both at TamaraEden and at JewsByChoice.Org
Avi suggested I do a little post about two of our favorite magazines. In general neither of us are big magazine people. That is not to say that I don’t receive a handful of magazines that we have free subscriptions to or relating to my profession: Teaching.
Avi and my two favorite AND Jewish magazines are something we both consistently look forward to getting. We just wish they came monthly instead of bi-monthly. Let me introduce you to:
Moment Magazine is an amazing magazine filled with articles of Jewish culture, lifestyle, politics, and religion. This magazine is superb and honestly, my review of it would not do it justice so I will clip a piece from their website which truly does accurately represent this magazine.
Moment Magazine, dedicated to serious, highly-literate, intellectual journalism, provides the American Jewish community and other readers with a much needed independent forum that is not tied to any organization or point-of-view. Moment is committed to portraying intellectual, political, cultural, and religious debates within the community, and to educating readers about Judaism’s rich history and contemporary movements, ranging from left to right, fundamentalist to secular. Through a high level of civil discourse, Moment strives to counteract anti-Semitism, promote Jewish continuity, and encourage constructive, meaningful discussion about Jewish life and civilization.
Jewish Living Magazine is brand new. They’ve only had one issue so far. Instead of being a shallow, trendy, hipster, barely Jewish magazine (personally I think of Heeb with that description); this magazine was packed with surprises. I guess you could say it’s geared towards the Jewish woman or Jewish mom. However, there are articles that are of value to all. Yes, Avi appreciated the magazine. The December issue was chock full of Chanukah party and recipe ideas. There are also articles on the significance and basics of the mezuzah, quick Friday night meals, ways of giving back to the world. One very interesting article was about Jews and tattoos. One of my favorite articles in this issue is about Chinese born children, being raised Jewish by their adoptive families and how the child and parents honor their nationality and how they blend it with their Judaism. As you can see, this is quite a dynamic magazine that gives a nice broad spectrum of Judaism to its readers.
Love the former, haven’t read the latter (I saw it at Borders but it looked so Martha Stewart WASPy so I neglected to pick it up). I will have to grab a copy, though.
Another Jewish pub. I’d recommend is Guilt and Pleasure, which is a quarterly journal/magazine (you can find it at Borders and B&N), that is chock full of Jews writing about what it’s like to be Jews. Each issue has a theme (food, music, health), and I have to say that since I’ve discovered it … my quality of life has been higher, hah. I look at it as what HEEB really wants to be, but fails miserably at. Guilt + Pleasure is smart, creative, absolutely genius.
Read up, folks. Nice post, Tamara!
Chavi
Chaviva,
Yes, Jewish Living looks “chicky” which is part of why Avi suggested I do this post. You see, another popular Jewish blog put it down deeply which was cause for me to want to check it out further. Both Avi and I felt it was of quality. Now, it’s not super religious, it’s not uber intellectual. However, there are many Jews out there who want to baby step into doing and knowing things. Or, who want to not feel pressured. I think this is a great magazine for this!
I just discovered Moment at our shul’s library a few weeks ago. Recent issues really caught my eye for two articles. One on “Why a Green world is safer for Jews,” which is an interview of Thomas Friendman. Highly recommended (and I will probably blog about it one of these days).
Another article in Moment that was quite good was “Is the Nation’s Favorite Pastime Pitching Jesus?,” about the evangelical movement within baseball.
It seems that it is a magazine worth paying attention to.
Another Jewish magazine that I just discovered and rather liked is Lilith. The fall issue has an article on “Seven Eco-Revolutionaries.”