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SHOULD ORGANIZATIONAL MAGAZINES BE PUBLISHED AS COMICS?By MF.YEK LEVINI SEE by The Post that my fellow-Chicagoan, S. B. Komai-ko, also a writer, thinks that the Jewish organizational publications, such as The American Zionist and Congress Weekly, are too highbrow. He has failed to include Commentary, I presume, because he doesn’t con-sider the A m c r i c a n Jewish Committee, or maybe their magazine is so highbrow that it hasn’t even come to Mr. Komai-ko’s Attention. LEVINHis polling system, about the highbrow quality of these publications, consisted in asking some 100 ZOA members in Chicago about The American Zionist. “All of them said they gave It no more than a passing glance.# sBefore decapitating these periodicals, perhaps a few* more questions should be asked. Do the.se representative hundred ZOA members read anything at all? Do they give more than a passing glance to their daily newspaper? To Time magazine? Or perhaps they reserve their intense scrutiny for such literature as Superman?Should the organizationalmagazine* immediately be redesigned, to be published as comics?AS A MATTER of fact, The American Zionist has been in existence only a few months, and has, it appears to me, already proven that such a magazine should have been brought into being long, long ago.Here was a movement of importance on a policy level; it represented the opinion of an active element of the American Jewish community and the pressure of that community in the greatest movement in modern Jewish history. Yet this movement had no serious organ. There was no place where the continuing history of the govement, where the formative thought within the movement, and where the considered policy of the movement could be properly expressed!THE ESTABLISHMENT of aQuarterly, last ’year, was the first step in this direction, and the present monthly magazine is an extension. Recent issues have contained* work of journalists of the very first rank—Alvin Ro-senfeld, in Israel, known for his lively and personalized style of observation; Louis Lipsky, who is an eloquent and highly readable author, and a walking history of the Zionist movement land its personalities; Israel Goldstein, a straight-thinking leadercomplete lucidity.It is rather a fablt of the Zionist movement that it has until now failed to produce publications of this kind, which would attract to leadership in the movement persons who respond to thought as well as to emotions, persons to whom reading and knowing is of importance. And perhaps even a few of Mr. Komaiko's representative hundred might have caught an idea or two, in glancing through such publications, and been the better Zionists for their glance.AS TO Congress Weekly, published on an obviously infinitesimal budget, it has managed to maintain a highly creditable standard, * . ^In recent Issues, the series by Louis Lipsky on the great Zionist leaders he has known in his life has been a highlight, and it would be truly unfortunate if we had no publication ready to present such work.The Weekly is consistently lively. Of course, it does not print the kind of jokes and anecdotes to be found in Mr. Komai-ko’s collection. Here To Stay, published by Bloch; publications whose editorial standards descended to the level of the kai fee-Klatsch might be easier on some intellects, but it is to be hoped that their opinion-poll will not be taken as entirely representative.So often, the down-draggers, scorned with silence, are allowed to prevail.
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis Indiana Jewish Post
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Fri, Jan 30, 1953
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Library O.
DC, USA 02 May 2024
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