MAZL: The Magazine of the American Zionist Left

An Adjacent Offering

Hey, beloved tribe.

When I began writing the Never Alone newsletter, it was because I felt a pressing need to build a home for Zionists on the left side of the political aisle, where the very word had become a slur.

Then I became aware of the many ways Jews were being ostracized, marginalized and pushed out of the American literary world, so I started the Never Alone Book Club with the goal of sending a Jewish writer to the top of the New York Times bestseller list every month.

Then I realized I could not support more than 6-12 Jewish writers a year with the book club alone, so I launched JUDITH, a magazine of Jewish letters, arts & culture.

While the Never Alone newsletter is politically partisan, JUDITH Magazine is at least nominally non-partisan. It’s a place that’s mostly, and blessedly, free of politics.

But over time, I became aware of wanting to amplify the other left-leaning Zionist voices around me. When I started Never Alone, I was aware of no other substacks that were left-leaning and Zionist, but now there are several.

If there is one arena in which I never feel a shred of competitive energy, it’s the Jewish world. I want there to be other left-leaning Zionist writers, editors and publishers — I want that desperately. I want to highlight other Jewish voices who share my loyalties and sensibilities. I want all these others to flourish and thrive.

So I’m starting MAZL as an offering adjacent to JUDITH.

A few important things to know:

I will not be keeping a strict publication schedule for MAZL. I simply can’t. I’m doing too much to take on any more hard and fast deadlines and pressures, especially in light of an exciting project I hope to tell you about soon. You’ll get left-leaning Zionist essays as good ones come in, and that’s all I can do right now. I believe they will feel like a supplement to the offerings from JUDITH, as a way of keeping the latter mostly non-political.

As with everything else I do, MAZL will be entirely free, with no content restricted ever.

As I said when I launched JUDITH: if this is of no interest, simply unsubscribe and I promise you’ll never hear directly from MAZL again unless you explicitly reverse that decision.

For those willing to give MAZL a try, I will be sending out an inaugural essay by Alice Gomstyn very shortly.

I hope you’ll all be open to reading a few MAZL offerings before making a decision!

I so look forward to promoting other left-leaning Zionists. If that’s you, please send me content you’d like to publish. I’m happy to link to your own substack or patreon or other platform when we publish your work.

Much love,

Elissa

P.S. The beautiful image opening this letter was a piece I commissioned from Anna Kronick, who creates beautiful Judaica among other art that you can find here.