I was thinking of getting my chabad “in middle of nowhere” friends a subscription to Mishpacha Magazine because they are always starved for frum reading material and I heard it was pricey, so I figured I would be willing to throw down $50 for a magazine subscription if it helped people stay in touch with the frum world and all of its madness. Well my plan immediately came to a halt when I saw the price. If you wish to received mishpacha magazine and don’t live in the frummy ghettos of Lakewood, Detroit and LA, you must pay a whopping $200 a year in subscription fees.
I was just as shocked as you are, considering the fact that most of the best frum writing (that’s kind of moronic I know) is available for free online (maybe mishpacha is like frum porn – being able to look at something while unloading that cholent and kugel on shabbos afternoon does have its merits, but 200 bucks – seriously folks – it’s not even on the same wavelength as Atlantic, New Yorker or Esquire and they have the nerve to charge that much. Granted, it is published weekly and there isn’t much competition besides for Ami and Binah, both carbon copies of Mishpacha, but it still seems a bit steep for me and how are all those poor frummies able to afford the darned thing?
It could be that frummies don’t spend much on entertainment besides for mishpacha magazine and the occasional evening out to pizza, so maybe they could afford it, but what about all those missed kiruv opportunities? Shouldn’t a magazine of such high hasmadus be available to all Jews, not just frummies? I do wonder if anyone from mishpacha is reading this, maybe they are willing to give me a break on the subscription, after all it was for a starving chabad couple who lives very close to good skiing and very far from a tall mechitza or pizza store.
Search for frum magazines on 4torah.com
Mishpacha is pretty good. I like reading most of the articles.
(Now, the Hamodia magazine has a column by Mordechai Shmutter, which is the funniest frum column not making fun of anyone.)
Shmutter reminds me of a frum Dave Barry. I was not expecting to enjoy it at all and was very pleasantly surprised.
Does anyone remember the “who is mordechai shmutter” debate?
I actually went to Yeshiva with him and he is a real person. What was the debate?
I got to put in a plug for Yaldah — a seriously good mag for and by pre-teen and teen girls. And yes Dan, Shmutter is funny.
Yaldah is seriously awesome. Shoshanim was really cool too (now defunct because they couldn’t afford it anymore), but Yaldah is cooler. The girls who work on it are also really amazing people, I know most of them and they’re really lovely and dedicated.
Agreed. 100%
I am attempting to build my vocabulary of frumspeak. Could you please translate “hasmadus”? Thanks!
it’s usually meant to say someone is diligent in their torah study
Why support a magazine that won’t publish photographs of women?
Why buy gasoline from countries who want ti kill us?
The difference is there are unbelievably wealthy and powerful interests who spend billions making sure we keep suckling at the petroteat. I don’t think Mishpacha is spending nearly that much to convince you to overlook their disgraceful policies.
disgraceful policies?
Once more we have A. Nuran ascribing evil intent to people he disagrees with.
The magazine doesn’t publish pictures of women because they don’t think men should be looking at any pictures of women.
Nuran thinks there is no reason for men to not look at women, so he decides it is because they want to subjugate women.
Nuran is ignorant and a fool.
Yes, disgraceful. Turning half of humanity into voiceless, faceless, powerless baby factories is disgraceful. It doesn’t matter how long the beard or how black the hat. And if your god really does want it he’s not worth acknowledging much less worshiping.
You have clearly never met any of these baby factories.
You and your ilk are the only ones who consider them that. If anyone is making them faceless, it is you.
Heshy, for serious, Mishpacha is good value. They have a huge staff and amazing graphics and are a weekly, with high caliber writers and advertisers who cant shell out like Chevy or Prudential, more like yeshivos and shoe stores.
Give ’em a break, they are one of the only hopes we have of being a normal society. They are open-minded and give coverage all around. Go easy.
“They are open-minded ”
Wow! I guess that is a relative term.
Open minded in what way exactly??
They wont even publish a female face without blurring it!
A face!
They are about as open minded as wearing a bourka is.
Attn Liberals: “Open minded” is not synonymous with “agrees with me.”
Open minded in that they constantly have articles on proud members of the frum workforce (doctors, lawyers, judges) even though it got them banned in Israel for being ‘pro-parnassa’.
They highlight chassidim and yeshivos and sfardim and YU and Chabad and anyone else , not just satmar and Lakewood.
Their fiction deals with real charedi social ills (abuse etc)
+1
They talk about spousal abuse, parental abuse, people who don’t want to learn, etc.
The problem is frum magazines are a niche product so they’ve got to be more expensive.
A Chabad family? Get them a subscription to Bais Moshiach Magazine.
http://beismoshiach.org
Because not all of us are meshichist
Heshy, it gets even worse if you live outside of the US. We paid a huge premium for them to ship to us here on the west coast of Canada, and then after a few months they said that they wouldn’t ship to us. It then took another 3+ months to get them to refund our subscription cost.
Where do they sell these magazines? I haven’t seen them in any newsstands. Are they only available by subscription?
Maybe they don’t like Chabad? Tell them it’s for kiruv purposes and see if the price changes. (Technically it’s true, we have to save those poor, misguided Chabad souls too).