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| Midstream (magazine) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Midstream |
| Category | Politics, Jewish affairs, Culture |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Firstdate | 1955 |
| Finaldate | 2013 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Midstream (magazine) was an American monthly periodical founded in 1955 that focused on Jewish affairs, Zionism, Israeli politics, and cultural discourse. It positioned itself at the intersection of intellectual debate and communal concerns, engaging with subjects ranging from Jewish history and Zionism to international relations involving Israel and diasporic communities in the United States. Over its decades of publication the magazine featured contributions from a wide array of scholars, politicians, journalists, and cultural figures.
Midstream emerged in the mid-20th century amid debates following World War II, the Holocaust, and the establishment of Israel in 1948. The founding reflected tensions among movements including Labor Zionism, revisionist Zionism associated with figures like Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and religious Zionist currents linked to leaders such as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Its editorial trajectory ran parallel to discussions in institutions like Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Jewish Agency, and American organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Midstream covered events such as the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War, and the Yom Kippur War, while hosting debates involving perspectives connected to David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and commentators influenced by Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt. The magazine’s lifespan spanned periods of social change in the United States including the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War era, which shaped diaspora discourse and Jewish political engagement.
Midstream curated essays, polemics, literary criticism, and reportage addressing Jewish identity, Israeli statehood, and international diplomacy involving actors such as United Nations delegates and foreign policy figures from the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States. Editorial debates invoked thinkers from the worlds of philosophy and political theory including Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Leo Strauss, and Martin Buber, alongside historians like Salo Wittmayer Baron and Jacob Talmon. Coverage included analyses of Israeli politics involving parties such as Mapai, Likud, and Labor, as well as discussions about American Jewish institutions like the Anti-Defamation League, the B'nai B'rith, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Cultural content placed the magazine in dialogue with figures from literature and the arts such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Chaim Potok, and critics connected to publications like Commentary (magazine), The New Republic, and The Nation.
Contributors ranged across political and intellectual spectra and included journalists, academics, rabbis, and novelists with ties to centers such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University. Notable contributors included analysts who wrote on Middle East diplomacy referencing personalities like Henry Kissinger, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin, historians discussing figures such as Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann, and commentators on Jewish thought invoking Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, and Emmanuel Levinas. The magazine published essays engaging with landmark events like the Camp David Accords, debates over Soviet Jewry involving activists who worked with organizations such as HIAS and litigators who appealed to institutions including the European Court of Human Rights. Literary and cultural pieces interacted with works by poets like Allen Ginsberg and novelists such as Philip Roth and Bernard Malamud.
Published in the United States, Midstream circulated primarily to readers in major urban centers with significant Jewish populations such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Distribution channels included subscriptions, academic libraries at institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and public libraries, and sales through specialty bookstores associated with communal hubs such as synagogues and cultural centers in neighborhoods like Brooklyn and Upper West Side. Its editorial offices engaged with printers and distributors in metropolitan publishing ecosystems connected to the broader American periodical industry shared with titles like Commentary (magazine), The Forward, and Moment (magazine).
Critical reception of the magazine varied across the political and religious spectrums. Some commentators from conservative circles associated with publications like National Review praised its critiques of left-wing positions on Israel, while liberal intellectuals writing for outlets such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic engaged with its debates on pluralism and identity. Scholars in Jewish studies and Middle Eastern studies at universities including Brandeis University and Tel Aviv University cited its essays in discussions of Zionist historiography, diaspora politics, and cultural modernity. The magazine influenced communal debates on policy toward Soviet Jewry, American immigration law discussions involving the Immigration and Nationality Act, and intra-communal dialogues about religious pluralism involving organizations like the Rabbinical Assembly and movements such as Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. Its archive remains a resource for researchers tracing postwar Jewish intellectual history and the evolution of discourse surrounding Israel and the global Jewish diaspora.
Category:Jewish magazines Category:Defunct magazines of the United States