Midrasz, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2007, is Poland's only Jewish monthly, and is considered the country's most important Jewish publication. Published in Polish with a monthly print-run of 2500, it reaches over ten thousand readers in Poland and internationally. According to a poll, half of the readers in Poland are non-Jews who are interested in Jewish thought and culture.
The monthly was founded by Konstanty Gebert, the magazine's first editor-in-chief and now associate director of the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland, established by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture (TFJLC) in 2004. Since late 2000, Piotr Pazinski serves as the editor-in-chief, while Gebert is publisher. Midrasz is supported by grants from the TFJLC, Sigmund Rolat, The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, and the Polish interior ministry, as well as other institutional and individual sponsors.
The magazine, which prides itself in never publishing editorials, takes a broad eclectic approach to the different forms of contemporary Jewish identities, both secular and religious, and different approaches to Zionism, while maintaining a broadly pro-Israel stance. Its range of stories includes coverage of current events in Poland, the Diaspora and Israel, and salient issues of Jewish history, with particular focus on Jewish culture in Poland today. Midrasz's editors say that they want to show that there is more to Jewishness than "the Holy Trinity of anti-Semitism, Shoah and ‘Fiddler on the Roof.'" The closest U.S. analogy to the publication's editorial formula would be Moment magazine.
The Midrasz Association, which publishes the magazine, also runs a Jewish Book Club and organizes an annual Jewish Book Fair, the most important Jewish cultural event in Warsaw. It is currently in the process of setting up a book publishing company.
