For our 50th anniversary edition, we’re doing some time traveling. First let’s go back to 1975, the year Moment’s first issue (May/June) arrived in the world. It was dreamed up by Moment’s first editorial team, a small group that included cofounders Leonard “Leibel” Fein (editor) and Elie Wiesel (literary editor), along with Carol Kur (managing editor) and William “Bill” Novak (associate editor). At the time, Elie lived in New York (he would start teaching at Boston University in 1976), while the rest of them worked together in a two-room office in Newton, MA. The office was outfitted with three phone lines and state-of-the-art IBM Selectric typewriters.
Bill was the youngest, a twentysomething at the time, and the only one still alive today. I asked him what it was like back at the beginning. “None of us knew much about magazines or had much experience as editors,” he says, adding that there was a great deal of excitement. “It was thrilling to be on the phone with authors and agents.”
As with any time capsule, some things seem antiquated while others exemplify the old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
He remembers Leibel as a smart, charismatic man who smoked a lot and was usually on the phone, his voice ricocheting around the office. “He was a great speaker,” says Bill, who went on to an illustrious writing career himself that included editing, with Moshe Waldoks, The Big Book of Jewish Humor. He recalls Leibel being very popular with the United Jewish Appeal Federation in New York, “especially the young leadership division. He could mesmerize a crowd, and he had something to say.”
Moment’s editors, along with publisher Moshe Dworkin, worked together for 18 months (the equivalent of two human pregnancies, and chai, too!) to launch the magazine. It was a hit, the first of hundreds of issues to come that were packed with articles, commentary, symposia, literary and cultural criticism, poems, fiction and art.
Which brings us, just briefly, to 2025. A jubilee anniversary is a big deal in a world where magazines and journals come and go, and Moment is one of the few Jewish publications that have survived. So we, the Moment editors of today, had a gazillion ideas for how to mark the occasion.
One idea was inspired by looking back at that very first issue. Approaching it like a time capsule, we decided to crack it open. Inside were artifacts, from articles to advertisements. We imagined them as encrypted with messages for the future and threw ourselves into decoding them.
The result is the “Moment Time Capsule,” a special section that explores the world as seen from 1975, on topics such as the new Jewish right (Harold Shulweis); the possibility of another war between Israel and her neighbors (Drew Middleton); the competing souls of Israel (an exchange between Robert Alter and Shlomo Avineri); the changing role of women in Jewish life (Susan Dworkin); do-it-yourself Judaism (Bill Novak); language policing (Leonard Fein); the relevance of science fiction (Arthur Waskow); immigrants vs. plutocrats (satire by Calvin Trillin); and the conservative metamorphosis of a Columbia University professor (fiction by David Stern). If it sounds to you as if topics haven’t changed much, you are right. Yet, as with any time capsule, some things seem antiquated while others exemplify the old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same. We also invited our “Ask the Rabbis” contributors into the time machine, asking: “What would astonish a time traveler from 1975 about your denomination today?”
Kicking around the beginning for a bit longer, I know you’ll enjoy a selection of advertisements that appeared in Moment in its first year (peddling the merits of 8-track tapes, filtered cigarettes and skiing at a now-closed Borscht Belt resort—what can you say, it was the seventies!) as well as Dan Freedman’s “Talk of the Table,” covering 50 years of Jewish food and featuring fun illustrations from the 1975 edition of the Hadassah Cookbook.
Things get even more ambitious, fellow travelers, as we go back and forth in time. For this issue’s “Big Question,” we asked eleven thoughtful observers (all of whom were alive 50 years ago) to choose dates from the past five decades that in some way shaped the American Jewish experience. This collection touches on political milestones, acts of violence, women’s rights, Jewish education, art, science, Israel and more.
It’s a story of us, though hardly definitive, and so I’d love to hear what you would add (please send your dates to editor@momentmag.com). In “Time Traveling with Moment,” I examine a few developments that early Moment readers—or anyone else in 1975 for that matter—could never have imagined and also consider the challenges ahead. And in a special edition of “Visual Moment,” Arts & Articles Editor Diane M. Bolz selects 50 Jewish artists from the last 50 years who created music, visual art, architecture and performances that have enriched our lives.
Of course, an issue of Moment wouldn’t be an issue of Moment if we didn’t delve into current events and pressing issues. Whether you were one of the many who responded to our recent reader survey or not, I think you’ll find the results herein revealing, as we gauge the current mood of American Jews. (For complete survey results, go to momentmag.com/reader-survey.) This issue’s “Moment Debate” (Jamie Raskin vs. William Choslovsky) asks a question that deserves serious discussion: “Is due process always good for the Jews?” In “Tranquility Will Have to Wait,” Letty Cottin Pogrebin maintains that despite setbacks for women and for Jewish safety, we have to keep fighting for progress, and Sarah Posner wonders if, in President Trump’s world, there’s still religious freedom for all. Fania Oz-Salzberger pinpoints five moments that have shaped Israel, while Shmuel Rosner talks about the Jewish state’s most important change since 1975 (“It’s not what you think”).
In “Jewish Word,” Opinion & Books Editor Amy E. Schwartz takes a deep look into the word “diaspora,” which started as negative and eventually came to be viewed in a more positive light. And in “Literary Moment,” Robert Siegel examines Theodore Roosevelt’s relationship to the Jews; Gloria Levitas reflects on David Denby’s profile of four icons of the so-called golden age (Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, Norman Mailer and Leonard Bernstein); and Carl Rollyson reveals disquieting aspects of poet Sylvia Plath’s attitude toward Jews. There are also two memorable poems by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) chosen from our archives by Poetry Editor Jody Bolz. And finally, be sure not to miss “Spicebox” and our 50th anniversary cartoon and caption contest.
A 50th anniversary is a big one, but even this double issue couldn’t hold everything. Look for more commemorative projects and half-century lists as the year goes on. And save the date—November 16—because we’re throwing a big party here in DC. You’re all welcome.
Meanwhile, Happy Anniversary to Moment, and thank you to all our wonderful readers!