January/February 2005 Feature

Jubilee: Midstream at 50—1955-2005

The very first issue of Midstream appeared in the autumn of 1955 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States and David Ben Gurion was the first Prime Minister of Israel. It was only ten years after the end of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. The miraculously established modern State of Israel was a mere seven years old.

The new American-Jewish magazine called Midstream began as a quarterly publication, appearing four times a year. Its founding editor was Shlomo Katz, a writer and translator of note. The journal was somewhat smaller in size than a current issue, but it contained more pages. Then as now, it was sponsored by the Theodor Herzl Foundation, and the “Statement of Purpose” printed by the Foundation on the inside front cover of all current issues has not changed a single word of the original Statement since the inception of the magazine. The overwhelming impact of the Holocaust, the glorious birth of Israel, the abiding questions of Jewish survival worldwide, both physical and cultural, and the survival of Israel as a Jewish state are still worthy themes of concern and interest for the modern reader as they were for the readers of that era. And from our point of view in the editorial office, the need to publish in America an indigenous journal of free inquiry on these vital subjects within the parameters of our stated identification as a Zionist magazine is still self-evident and our all-embracing goal.

The word “jubilee” is the English cognate of a Hebrew term yovel mentioned in the Torah in the Book of Leviticus (Va-Yikra 25:10) referring to the law of the Jubilee year. The word appears immediately after the following directive that must have changed the world, “and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”—a quotation that is inscribed (in English, not in the original Hebrew) on the American Liberty Bell still housed in Philadelphia with its famous crack that does not diminish its powerful message. The Jubilee year requirements of freeing all slaves and returning all bought property to their original owners was to take place, according to Biblical law, every fiftieth year. First would come seven Sabbatical years, each one occurring, naturally, once every seven years. Then after 49 years, the 50th Jubilee year. The return of all property to their original owners on the Jubilee year was predicated on the equal distribution of property in the Land of Israel to all families upon the entrance of the Hebrew tribes to the Land of Promise under Joshua after the passing of Moses. Both the seven Sabbatical years and the Jubilee year also included the obligation to allow all the land to lie fallow and regenerate for the full year, perhaps the first law, or one of the first, proclaiming environmental concern for the preservation of the earth. The return of all property to original owners, set in motion by the law of Jubilee, impressed the 19th-century American economist and social theorist Henry George. I’m not familiar enough with the writings of Marx to know if he was conversant with the Torah text and if he had ever written a reaction to this landmark innovation of Jubilee. I suspect that the Torah’s sanctioning the existence of private property but also insisting that bought property must be returned to the seller every Jubilee year to assure that no family would be permanently exploited and impoverished, might have given the author of Das Kapital apoplexy.

By the way, the traditional Jubilee year observed by devout farming Jews in Israel is to return in 2008-2009, from Rosh Ha-Shanah to Rosh Ha-Shanah. Our Midstream Jubilee in this year of 2005 is not so earth-shaking, but it has filled us all with pride and hope that we have enlightened and inspired our readers in America and elsewhere in the world on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel.

The “Table of Contents” of our first issue in 1955 (Volume 1, Number 1) is reprinted on page 2 of this issue, opposite this editorial. The reader is urged to take a look at it. He will find evidence of the themes mentioned above that have appeared in our issues for fifty years. The Holocaust: Julius Horwitz writes in 1955 about a visit to the concentration camp at Dachau. Israeli survival and peace: A renowned Labor member of the British Parliament, Richard H. S. Crossman, pens an essay entitled “Toward Arab-Jewish Peace.” The very title seen fifty years later gives what my mother would have called in Yiddish, “a shtokh in harts,”—“a stab in the heart.” Here is a quotation from Mr. Crossman’s incisive article of 1955.

Since Israel’s independence was declared more than seven years ago, no Jew has visited the Wailing Wall. No Israeli, unless on a retaliation raid, has crossed the frontier into Syria, Lebanon or Egypt. To speak of “cold war” here is a gross understatement. What we have witnessed for seven long years is a state of active but suppressed hostilities, waged by all the Arab States by every military, political and economic means available, against a State whose very existence they still do not admit. If the steel of the Israeli nation was hardened in the forge of war, that steel has never been permitted to cool. Israel must be the only State in the world whose people have not known a single day or a single night of peace. (p. 6)

Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose. This editorial is being written on the day of the death of Yasir Arafat. Crossman’s title “Toward Arab-Jewish peace” has reverberations. Would that the title’s intent were so, with the passing of the evil architect of modern terrorism, the devious Arab negotiator who could never say “yes” to a deal that would assure the founding of a Palestinian state and that would simultaneously assure the secure existence of the State of Israel.

What about other related subjects and other forms of writing in that first issue that currently also appear in Midstream? The first “Table of Contents” presents an essay in Jewish theology and Biblical analysis called “The ‘Chosenness’ of Israel and the Jew of Today” by the brilliant Will Herberg of mid-century Jewish scholarship. When our readers go to the essay by Dr. Harold Brackman, and another by Dr. Joel S. Kaminsky, in this issue of 2005, both of which make copious references to the work of Will Herberg, they will surely realize that Herberg’s impact and influence live on fifty years later.

Were there authors of reputation, even of international renown, in our modest first issue? You bet! Eleanor Roosevelt, then and perhaps now, the first lady of the world, wrote a little travelogue on her visit to the relatively new State of Israel. Darius Milhaud, the famed French-Jewish composer of classical music (La Création du Monde with jazz tinges) wrote a book review on Vinaver’s Anthology of Jewish Music for Midstream. Marie Syrkin, the Jewish writer, editor, and later a member of Midstream’s Editorial Board, who was the subject of a biographical essay by Carole Kessner in our September/October issue of 2004, graced our initial issue with a biographical essay of her own on Golda Meir’s landmark first diplomatic visit to Moscow. (Golda is identified in the article of 1955 by her prior galut name of Myerson.)

Poetry and fiction were a touchstone of Midstream from the very first issue. Charles Reznikoff, a well-known American poet of the time, contributed a poem to Volume 1, Number 1. But perhaps the pièce de résistance of our first issue was a short story by none other than Isaac Bashevis Singer, the future Nobel Laureate. The story, “The Wife Killer,” translated from the original Yiddish by Midstream’s first editor Shlomo Katz, soon enough appeared in Bashevis Singer’s first published book in English, Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories. Singer was already a notable Yiddish author at the Forward, but we at Midstream pat ourselves on the back for perhaps getting his worldwide English reputation going. Hayim Hazaz, a Hebrew novelist, also appears in our first issue. Our May /June issue of 2004 continued the tradition of opening up to Hebrew writers from Israel and elsewhere in the world, balanced by Yiddish and Ladino writers in our July /August issue of last year and the year before. In sum, Midstream be-gan as, and continues to be, a haven for Jewish creative writing in poetry and fiction despite the paucity of such hospitable magazine venues elsewhere in the United States.

Yes, we have our faults; we hear about them too from readers and writers alike on occasion. But “Jubilee” is a time for celebration. We hope to continue our work in all the areas of intellectual endeavor mentioned above. The success of our efforts can perhaps be measured by the warm response to our first appeal made to our readers for contributions in the September/October issue. The gratifying results are noted below. They are not only a validation of our efforts but also an investment by our avid readers in the future of Midstream as an American-Jewish Zionist journal of writing of the first rank on current affairs and cul-ture in the Jewish world. Here’s to the next fifty years of Midstream, mi-yovel le-yovel b’shalom u-v’rachah.•

About the author
Leo Haber is editor of Midstream. His recently published novel, The Red Heifer (Syracuse University Press) is in its second printing.

Honor Roll of Contributors to Midstream

Here is our first list of readers who were kind enough to make tax-deductible contributions to Midstream after our unprecedented appeal in the September/October issue. The list includes contributions made as of November 15, 2004. If your name has been misspelled or left out inadvertently, please let us know. Do not be bashful. We hope to publish new lists at timely intervals in the future. It goes without saying that we are grateful to each and every one who contributed and to those who will contribute, no matter the size of the contribution. Individual letters of thanks listing specifics will be going out as soon as possible, b’li neder. Todah rabbah.

FRIEND: $36 to $99:

Birns, Nicholas, New York, NY
Breiterman, Ira, Silver Spring, MD
Cameron, Esther, Madison, WI
Efron, Dr. & Mrs. Herman, Silver Spring, MD
Horvitz, E. F., Fall River MA
Isler, Marilyn, New York, NY
Leitner, Amos, Wichita, KS
Lown, Harold & Yaffa, Schenectady, NY
Markson, Esther, Santa Rosa, CA
Maslow, David E., Silver Spring, MD
McGuire, Darlene M., Davis, CA
Mildice, Paul J., Worth, IL
Miller, Bella, Flushing, NY
Moskowitz, Jack, Washington, DC
Rabin, Albert, Okemos, MI
Rifken, Lillian, Bronx, NY
Ruskin, Jill & Paul, Baltimore, MD
Sandick, Leonard, Brooklyn, NY
Schulman, Jennie, Brooklyn, NY
Siegel, Gerald & Eileen, Minneapolis, MN
Sulzberger, Jean, New York, NY
Teaford, Sean, Bryn Mawr, PA
Teichman, Milton, Brewster, MA
Wall, Norman & Faye, Heathrow, FL

SUPPORTER: $100 to $499:

Arkules, Bernard, Paradise Valley, AZ
Azimov, Maxine E., Haskell, NJ
Bernstein, Evelyn, Peabody, MA
Braunstein, M. B, New York, NY.
Century, I., New York, NY
Gans, Dr. Joseph H., Walnut Creek, CA
Graupe, Dr. & Mrs. Daniel, Highland Park, IL
Joffe, Gerardo & Priscilla, San Francisco, CA
Kornreich, Mr. & Mrs. Morton, White Plains, NY
Nad, Abraham & Elsa, Westport, CT
Lowenberg, William, San Francisco, CA
Shpak, Symcha, Neavitt, MD
Slobin, Gordon, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Steiner, David, Jr., Nashville, TN
Ticktin, Harold, Shaker Heights, OH
Young, M. T., Albuquerque, NM

ASSOCIATE: $500 to $999:

Hammerman, Benjamin & Lorelei, New York, NY
Jochnowitz, George, New York, NY
Kalkin, Joan & Eugene, Bernardsville, NJ
Kerker, Milton, Potsdam, NY
Stern, Penny, Flushing, NY

PATRON: $1,000 to $4,999:
Rohr, George, New York, NY

BENEFACTOR: $5,000 and above:

To those who would like to join our group of friends noted above and make a tax-deductible contribution, here are the simple details. Please make checks payable to The Theodor Herzl Foundation/Midstream, and address your contributions to The Theodor Herzl Foundation / Midstream, 633 Third Avenue / 21st Floor, New York, NY 10017. Again, many thanks.