''Jewish Renaissance'' is a quarterly cultural magazine, founded in October 2001,
covering
Jewish culture
Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not simply a faith-based religion, but an orthopraxy and Ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, ...
,
arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...
and communities in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
and beyond. It is edited by Rebecca Taylor, a former News Editor at ''
Time Out London''.
Scope and content
The magazine focuses on
the arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...
–
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...
and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
,
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
cinema,
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and in
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
– as well as on
Jewish identity
Jewish identity is the objective or subjective sense of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. It encompasses elements of nationhood, "The Jews are a nation and were so before there was a Jewish state of Israel" "Jews are ...
and relations with other cultures and religions. In each issue there is a 10–16 page illustrated feature (now called ''Passport'') on a different Jewish community around the world, drawing on historical material, contemporary interviews, and a cultural events listing, among other content. The October 2012 issue, for instance, looked at the Jewish community in Brazil,
in January 2014, Jews in
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
, Poland, in April 2016, the community in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
and, in July 2017, the Jews of
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
.
The magazine also contains in-depth interviews of people of interest from a Jewish historical or cultural viewpoint. For example, it interviewed
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin In ...
prior to the
National Theatre production of his 2005 play ''Two Thousand Years'',
Glasgow artist
Hannah Frank and philanthropists
Elizabeth Sackler of the
Arthur M. Sackler Foundation
and
Nasser David Khalili. The magazine published an interview with Helga Bejach, a Jewish child rescued on the
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...
and subsequently adopted by the family of
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
and
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...
.
In July 2012, on the eve of the
2012 Paralympic Games in London, it interviewed
Israeli Paralympic rower
Moran Samuel. In October 2013 it interviewed Dame
Vivien Duffield
Dame Vivien Louise Duffield, (née Clore; born 26 March 1946) is an English philanthropist.
Life and career
Vivien Louise Clore was born to Jewish parents. Her father was millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Charles Clore and her m ...
.
It interviewed violinist
Irmina Trynkos in January 2015
and author
Howard Jacobson in January 2016.
In January 2017 the magazine interviewed British surgeon and
cochlear implant
A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted Neuroprosthetics, neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for imp ...
pioneer
Ellis Douek.
Organisation
The magazine is independent and is financed by subscriptions, advertising and grant funding. It is published by Renaissance Publishing, a
registered charity
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good).
The legal definitio ...
,
whose Executive Director is poet, academic and arts curator Dr
Aviva Dautch.
''Jewish Renaissance'' was founded by Janet Levin who edited the magazine from 2001 to 2014 and was Chief Executive until early 2019. Individuals from the British Jewish community who sit on its editorial advisory board include the educator
Clive Lawton; actress
Maureen Lipman;
Ben Barkow, Director of the
Wiener Library
The Wiener Holocaust Library () is the world's oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the pers ...
; and
Alex Brummer, City Editor of UK national newspaper the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
''; the music historian
David Conway is a member of the editorial committee.
David Dangoor is the organisation's President.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewish Renaissance
2001 establishments in the United Kingdom
Cultural magazines published in the United Kingdom
English-language magazines
Entertainment magazines published in the United Kingdom
Jewish magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 2001
Magazines published in London
Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Secular Jewish culture in England
Sephardi Jewish culture in the United Kingdom
Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom