Jewish Currents et al

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/style/arielle-angel-jewish-currents-magazine.html

Amazing New York Times piece about Jewish Currents and Arielle Angel in last

Sunday’s paper, written by Emma Goldberg, daughter of J.J. Goldberg, writer and

former editor of  The Forward.  JJ is a contemporary of us Altes.

The piece focused primarily on Arielle’s impressive vision, her unflagging

determination, and her desire, along with her largely young team of dedicated

leftists, to tackle many of the issues around being an American Jew today.  The

magazine’s courageous and controversial coverage of Palestine and Israel is front

and center in their reporting.  The article also talked briefly about Jacob Plitman,  

an enthusiastic and very young visionary chosen by Larry Bush and some of the

rest of us to take over the magazine when Larry left.  Jacob and Arielle along with

the people they hired transformed a magazine that was wonderful in one way 

to wonderful in another.  They broadened the base to serve the young.  Their

launch party took place in a club in Gowanus and 400 young people happily

appeared. Larry Bush took over Currents from its founder and long time editor in

chief, Morris Schappes,a Communist victim of the City College Rapp Coudert

commission. Schappes edited Currents with his own strong arm and his own

strong lens for four decades, until 2000 when Larry became editor-in-chief.  A

writer and artist who writes music, creates large and small art works, and has

written and published numerous books, he was a one man band at the 

magazine for many years. There he created JEWDAYO, an ingenious daily record of

secular Jewish history through the lives of the people who made it. His followers,

like the followers of Morris and Arielle, were grateful and devoted. 

In his sixties, Larry was ready to retire.  He worked hard, and felt it was time to

turn the magazine over to people who were young.

How a story is told always depends on who is doing the telling..  And of  course

how the piece is edited.

We here all know about the long rich history of the Jewish Left .

In our own lifetime, we’ve had many progressive Jewish groups across the country, 

working for social change – from New Jewish Agenda to Jews for Racial and

Economic Justice. (Aliza Becker did extensive interviews with scores of activist

Jews, in her impressive American Jewish Peace Project, with Bard College.

 https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-american-jewish-peace-archive-2015-02-26).

 After the party in Gowanus, where a few of us over 50 huddled together talking,

Jessica and I had lunch.  Her daughter, a rabbi, suggested we start a magazine for

us called Alte.

We had lunch with Larry a few weeks later, and here we are.

LOVE to all,

Esther

PS I had some experience myself with passing the baton.  My boss, Moe Foner,

insisted he wanted to die in the office.  I argued against him, and actually won.  He

died at home, although the night before, he called and asked me to write down

what to do when he was gone.  And when I left my own replacement was actually

Harry Belafonte.  But that’s another story.