The Menorah Journal

{{Short description|American magazine}} {{Italic title}} {{For|the Austrian Jewish magazine|Menorah (magazine)}} {{Lead too short|date=April 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} '''''The Menorah Journal''''' (1915–1962) was a Jewish-American magazine, founded in New York City. Some have called it "the leading English-language Jewish intellectual and literary journal of its era."<ref name=Currents>

{{cite magazine | first = Bennett | last = Muraskin | title = The Menorah Journal | magazine = Jewish Currents | url = https://jewishcurrents.org/editor/the-menorah-journal/ | date = 13 July 2016 | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}</ref><ref name=Commentary> {{cite magazine | first = Robert | last = Alter | title = Epitaph for a Jewish Magazine:Notes on the Menorah Journal | magazine = Commentary | url = https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/epitaph-for-a-jewish-magazinenotes-on-the-menorah-journal/ | date = 1 May 1965 | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}</ref><ref name=Stanford> {{cite web | title = The Menorah journal | publisher = Stanford University | url = https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/368633 | date = 1 May 1965 | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}</ref><ref name=Wald> {{cite book | first = Alan M. | last = Wald | authorlink = Alan M. Wald | title = The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s | publisher = UNC Press| url = https://jewishcurrents.org/editor/the-menorah-journal/ | pages = 30–64 | date = 13 July 2016 | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}</ref> The journal lasted from 1915 until 1961.

==History==

'''1920s:''' The journal emerged from the Menorah Society (founded 1906) at Harvard University<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Menorah Association and Menorah Journal |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/menorah-association-and-menorah-journal |access-date=December 28, 2023 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> which had been created to emphasize the best aspects of Judaism in English, so that not only Jews, but others could see the richness of the culture, the literature and the religion. Horace Kallen, who worked with Henry Hurwitz on the magazine, developed a theory of cultural pluralism, where all the different religions and cultures in the US would emphasize the best of their religion and culture so that all could appreciate those individuals different from themselves as well as their cultures. The Menorah Society expanded from Harvard to other colleges and an Intercollegiate Menorah Association arose in 1913; membership peaked in the 1920s on 80 US and Canadian colleges and universities.<ref name=Currents/><ref name=Commentary/> Hurwitz started the Journal in 1915<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Menorah Journal, Vol. 1, 1915, by Various |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22300/22300-h/22300-h.htm |access-date=December 28, 2023 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> and for the first few years, it emphasized the best of Judaism.

'''1930s:''' The Great Depression that started in late October 1929 led the journal to cut publishing from monthly to quarterly.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Trilling |first=Lionel |date=May 1, 1966 |title=Young in the Thirties |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/lionel-trilling/young-in-the-thirties/ |access-date=December 28, 2023 |website=Commentary Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> At the same time, Jewish intellectuals moved left, splitting readership. "In 1931, a core of key editors and writers, including Elliot E. Cohen, Herbert Solow, and Felix Morrow joined the Communist Party and its literary journal, the ''New Masses''. Most of these writers had abandoned the Party by 1934 for Trotskyism. Most moved away from Jewish identity (except Cohen, who became editor of ''Commentary'' of the American Jewish Committee).<ref name=Currents/><ref name=Commentary/><ref name=Beginning> {{cite book | last = Trilling | first = Diana | title = The Beginning of the Journey | publisher = Harcourt Brace & Co. | year = 1993 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/beginningofjourn00tril/page/137 137–138 (Menorah Journal), 214 (Isidor Schneider)] | isbn = 0-15-111685-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/beginningofjourn00tril/page/137 }}</ref><ref> {{cite book | last = Langdon | first = Jennifer E. | title = Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 2008 | url = https://archive.org/details/beginningofjourn00tril | isbn = 978-0-15-111685-0 }}</ref> Solow's wife, Tess Slesinger is presumed to have described much of the ''Menorah'' scene in the guise of fiction in her book ''The Unpossessed'' (1934).<ref name=":1" />

'''1940s–1960s:''' Following World War II, nationalist Zionism become popular, but journal editor Hurwitz aligned the ''Menorah Journal'' with the American Council for Judaism (Reform Judaism) and so it was not Zionist. More specifically, Hurwitz advocated what he termed "Zakkaian Judaism" (Yohanan ben Zakkai). The journal ended shortly after Hurwitz's death (1961).<ref name=Currents/><ref name=Commentary/>

==Founders==

* Henry Hurwitz (1886–1961): long-time editor * Harry Wolfson (1887–1974): historian, philosopher * Horace Kallen (1882–1972): advocate of "cultural pluralism"<ref name=Currents/>

==Editors==

* Henry Hurwitz * Herbert Solow * Elliot E. Cohen<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/elliot-e--cohen-12135 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609125740/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/elliot-e-cohen/ |access-date=2018-08-07 |archive-date=2011-06-09 |title=Elliot e. Cohen « Commentary Magazine }}</ref><ref name=eggheads> {{cite news | first = Eric | last = Alterman | title = Inspiring Eggheads | newspaper = New York Times | date = 26 July 1998 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/26/bookend/bookend.html | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}</ref>

==Contributors== '''Writers:'''  {{div-col}} * Isaac Babel<ref>{{Cite web |last=Balint |first=Benjamin |title=Excerpt: Running Commentary |url=https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/books/excerpt-running-commentary.pdf |access-date=December 29, 2023 |website=www.nyt.com}}</ref> * Salo Baron * Chaim Bialik * Randolph Bourne * Morris Raphael Cohen * Lucy Dawidowicz * Simon Dubnow * Mordecai Kaplan * A. M. Klein * Fritz Mauthner * Lewis Mumford<ref name=Currents/> * I. L. Peretz * Charles Reznikoff * Cecil Roth<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Prosser |first=Jay |date=August 21, 2019 |title="This charnel house of historic memories": Salonica as Site of Transcultural Memory in the Published Writings of Cecil Roth |url=https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/transcultural/article/view/23793 |journal=The Journal of Transcultural Studies |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–53 |doi=10.17885/heiup.jts.2019.1.23793 |issn=2191-6411}}</ref> * Nina Salaman * Maurice Samuel * Isidor Schneider<ref name=Beginning/> * I. B. Singer * Tess Slesinger * Lionel Trilling * Harry Wolfson<ref name=Commentary/> {{div-col-end}}

'''Artists:'''  * Marc Chagall * William Gropper * William Meyerowitz * Elie Nadelman * Lionel S. Reiss * Max Weber<ref name=Currents/>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==External sources== *[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000532501 The Menorah Journal archive at HathiTrust] * {{cite book | title = The Menorah Treasury | editor = Leo W. Schwarz | publisher = Jewish Publication Society | pages = 963}} * {{cite book | first = Alan M. | last = Wald | authorlink = Alan M. Wald | title = The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s | publisher = UNC Press| url = https://jewishcurrents.org/editor/the-menorah-journal/ | pages = 30–64 | date = 13 July 2016 | accessdate = 25 September 2011}}

==External links== {{Commons category-inline}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menorah Journal}} Category:Jews and Judaism in New York City Category:Jewish anti-Zionism in the United States Category:Magazines established in 1915 Category:Magazines disestablished in 1962 Category:Defunct magazines published in New York City Category:Defunct Jewish magazines published in the United States