Moment (magazine)

History

Moment magazine was founded in 1975, by Elie Wiesel and Leonard Fein, who served as the magazine's first editor from 1975 to 1987. Hershel Shanks served as the editor from 1987 to 2004. The magazine was named in honor of an independent Yiddish-language newspaper, entitled Der Moment. Founded in Warsaw in 1910, Der Moment remained in operation until the eve of Yom Kippur 1939, when the building housing the newspaper was destroyed by a German bomb. At the time, the publication was one of two Yiddish-language newspapers in the city.

Background

Moment magazine is a secular, independent journal that publishes articles on Jewish culture, politics, and religion. While the magazine is owned by the Center for Creative Change, it is not affiliated with any Jewish organization or religious movement: its editorial staff, writers, and articles represent a diverse range of political views. As of 2004, Nadine Epstein is the editor and executive publisher. Moment publishes a print magazine once every other month, maintains an online blog, runs literary contests, and hosts esteemed events.

The sections of the print magazine include: From the Editor, Featured Stories, Jewish Word, Ask the Rabbis, Talk of the Table, Book Reviews, and more.

Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative

In 2010, Moment launched the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative (DPIJI), which gives grants to young journalists doing stories on modern anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice. The DPIJI is in memory of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, who was murdered by terrorists while on assignment in Pakistan in 2002. The winners of this contest are mentored by prestigious journalists including: Wolf Blitzer, Linda Feldmann, Martin Fletcher, Glenn Frankel, Bill Kovach, David Lauter, Charles Lewis, Clarence Page, Robert Siegel, Paul Steiger, Lynn Sweet and David Wessel. They receive $5,000 to put towards their project and their final story is published in Moment.

The Karma Foundation-Moment Magazine Fiction Contest

The contest is a short-fiction competition open to writers of any faith, writing about stories related to Judaism, Jewish Culture, or Jewish History. The contest is funded by the Karma Foundation and was started in the year 2000 by Josh Rolnick and Harvey TK.

Moment Cartoon Caption Contest

Each issue of Moment includes a cartoon drawn by the New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff. The magazine asks its readers to suggest captions for the cartoon online and vote for your favorite submission.

Symposiums

In 2010, Moment began publishing symposiums. Some of their past symposiums have included:

Series

In addition to its regular sections and featured articles, Moment occasionally runs series of articles on a specific topic. These articles are published in a few consecutive issues of the magazine.

Democracy in Retreat

This series explores how democracy is declining in ostensibly democratic countries. Through highlighting one country at a time, this series aims to provide insight into the ways in which elected governments do not always hold democratic values. This series has included articles on Ukraine, Hungary and Turkey.

Israel's Arab Citizens

Beginning in Moment's September/October 2009 issue, the special series "Israel's Arab Citizens" has examined aspects of the social, economic, and cultural life of the 1.5 million Arab citizens of the State of Israel. The first installment, written by New York Times and Associated Press reporter Dina Kraft, profiled three generations of Arab Israeli women, titled "From Arab to Palestinian Israeli: One Family's Changing Identity".

The second, "Separate But Not Equal", which appeared in the September/October 2010 issue, examined the performance of Arab Israeli children in segregated public schools. "Separate But Not Equal" tied for first place in the Best Investigative News category of the Ethnic Media Awards, sponsored by the American University School of Communication and New America Media.

Editor and executive publisher Nadine Epstein wrote of her motivation for initiating the series and the importance of focusing attention on the Arab Israelis in a letter from the editor:

Our lack of knowledge has serious consequences: I regularly meet Jews and non-Jews who view Israel's Arab citizens as, at best, suspect and at worst, terrorists. The reality is that this is a largely peaceful population—very few have been associated with terrorism—with a complex identity. They speak Hebrew, sometimes even better than Arabic, and many vote in Israeli elections. They support a Palestinian state, but their lives are in Israel and most have no intention or desire to leave. At the same time, they are often considered collaborators by some of their Arab brethren.

Events

Moment hosts multiple events every year, focused on a large array of topics related to Jewish culture, life, and politics. Past events include:

A Great Civil Rights Partnership

A celebration in honor of the struggle for racial equality, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. This event was hosted in partnership in May, 2015. It was moderated by Steven V. Roberts and featured Congressman Barney Frank and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Jews and Science Symposium

This event took place at the Oshman Family JCC of Palo Alto in April, 2015. Symposium participants included Joel R. Primack, Professor of Physics; Nancy Ellen Abrams, author and philosopher of science; Nadine Epstein, editor and publisher of Moment; Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, emeritus chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth and 2015 Moment Magazine Creativity Award Winner; event moderator Michael Krasny of KQED; Ronit Widman-Levy director of Arts & Culture, Oshman Family JCC; Marcus Feldman, Professor of Biological Sciences; and John Efron, Koret professor of Jewish History.

Honors and awards

In 2011, Moment was presented with the Be'chol Lashon Media Award for Carl Hoffman's article entitled "Letter from the Philippines", which chronicles the history of the island's Jews and his rediscovery of Judaism as a foreigner living in Manila.