About Us

Jewish Currents is a progressive Jewish quarterly magazine that carries on the insurgent tradition of the Jewish left through independent journalism, political commentary, and a “countercultural” approach to Jewish arts and literature. Founded in 1946 as Jewish Life, the magazine was reorganized and relaunched in 1958 as Jewish Currents, with Morris U. Schappes (1907-2004) as its editor, a post he held for four decades.

Now in our 66th year of publication, JC is undergoing a revival and expansion under the leadership of editor Lawrence Bush, whose column, “Religion and Skepticism,” contends playfully with many manifestations of the “spirituality” of contemporary American culture. Other regular columns include “The View from Israel,“ “Stirring the Pot” (a food column), “Radical Yiddish,” and “Notes from a Small Planet.” Each issue also features a full-color, 16-page arts section, “JCultcha & Funny Pages” which showcases contemporary Jewish artists and poets — including, most recently, Harvey Pekar, Joan Snyder, Spain Rodriguez, and numerous other well-known and underground figures.

The Jewish Currents website features bloggers from age 20 to 90, articles that don’t appear in the magazine, and our daily blog about progressive Jewish history, JEWDAYO. In 2011, our website had 139,000 unique visitors and more than 2.1 million hits.

JC is unique among Jewish publications in its historical awareness, its commitment to diversity and democracy in Jewish life, its doikayt (here-ness), its love of Yiddish language and culture, and the independence and unpretentiousness of its political voice.

Lawrence Bush, editor of JC, is author of six books of Jewish fiction and non-fiction, including Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist. He is the former editor of Reconstructionism Today, the quarterly magazine of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, and also co-edited Jews., an arts magazine and mail-art experience. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Tikkun, Moment, Reform Judaism, Mad magazine, and numerous other publications.