Monitin (Magazine)

Monitin was one of the most distinctive and innovative Israeli magazines of the late twentieth century. Founded in 1978 and published until 1993, it brought together current affairs and commentary with broad coverage of architecture, fashion, music, food, and leisure culture. Within a few years, it had become more than a commercial magazine: it was an important platform for personal journalism, adventurous graphic design, and a modern Israeli cultural conversation.

Founding a New Kind of Magazine

Monitin was founded by a group of businesspeople that included Rafi and Teddy Shauli, Shuki Ben-Porat, Michael Albin, David Moshovitz, Yoram Mushkat, and Haim Bar-On. Its first editor was Adam Baruch, who established the magazine’s editorial and visual policy. Under his direction, Monitin developed a publication that moved away from the partisan and mobilizing styles found in parts of the Israeli press and made room for a sharper, more personal, and more deliberately designed voice.

Baruch drew inspiration from American magazines such as Esquire, New York Magazine, and Rolling Stone. Monitin, however, was not simply an imitation of American journalism. It adapted those influences to Israeli society, the Hebrew language, and a country undergoing rapid change after the Yom Kippur War. In doing so, it helped establish a new model for the Israeli magazine: more individualistic, highly conscious of design, open to international culture, and firmly rooted in local life.

A Journalistic Language That Influenced a Generation

One of Monitin’s most important contributions was its cultivation of a personal and precise journalistic style. Adam Baruch’s writing and editing were marked by lean, concise, polished prose, enriched by allusions, metaphors, and associations drawn from Western intellectual culture, as well as by a close knowledge of Jewish and Israeli society and culture. This approach presented the writer as an interpreter and personality, rather than merely an anonymous transmitter of information.

Oz Almog described the journalistic style Baruch developed in his articles and edited essays as innovative and pioneering. Ron Maiberg, one of the writers who further developed this new journalistic Hebrew, described it as a language that could move from the normative to the descriptive, from detail to general principle, and from story to doctrine, addressing both ordinary readers and intellectuals in the same syntax. This way of writing influenced Israeli journalists and writers in the generations that followed.

Editors, Writers, Photographers, and Artists

Over the course of its publication, Monitin’s editors, in chronological order, were Adam Baruch, Ron Maiberg, Giora Shemesh, Ran Edelist, Nahum Donitza, and Natan Zahavi. Its regular contributors included Yaron London, Dan Ben-Amotz, Nahum Barnea, Yaakov Rotblit, Meir Shalev, Rino Tzror, Yoram Kaniuk, Yona Wallach, Amnon Abramovich, Dudu Halevi, a film critic, economist Amir Geva, David Shalit, psychologist David Rudi, Danny Dothan, and others.

This range of voices was part of Monitin’s strength. Alongside current affairs, it published writing about culture, society, and style, creating space for journalists, authors, and intellectuals working in different fields. Much of its current-affairs writing expressed criticism of the authorities, particularly the Likud and right-wing parties, and the magazine consequently acquired a reputation as left-leaning.

When Design Became Part of the Content

Monitin was printed on glossy color paper and placed strong emphasis on graphic aesthetics, prominent photography and illustration, and carefully structured visual presentation. These choices sometimes came at the expense of the amount of text, but they gave the magazine a luxurious and distinctive appearance. It was regarded as elitist, while also broadening the boundaries of Israeli journalism by treating architecture, fashion, music, food, and leisure culture as subjects worthy of serious attention.

The magazine’s graphic designer was Yaki Molcho. Its photographers and illustrators included Uri Hofmekler, Galas Dor, and Micha Kirshner. Their work reinforced the idea that a magazine is not merely a collection of articles, but an integrated creation of text, image, typography, and reading rhythm. In this respect, Monitin contributed to the development of magazine culture and editorial design in Israel.

The Final Years

By the end of the 1980s, the magazine had lost a substantial part of its circulation. It was sold to businesswoman Galia Albin, who also published the Hebrew edition of Penthouse. The two magazines were merged into a single publication called Monitin-Penthouse, whose first editor was Nahum Donitza. The new venture did not survive for long. In 1991, Albin sold the magazine to Amos Lavi, who had served as its managing director, and Giora Shemesh, who had been its editor. They were also unable to stabilize the publication, and it closed in 1993.

Why Monitin Belongs in Moreshet

Monitin merits a place in the heritage record because it documents and embodies a significant transformation in Israeli journalism: the movement toward personal, visual, and multidisciplinary magazine writing that brought not only politics and current affairs but also culture, design, and leisure into the center of public discussion. The work of its editors, writers, and artists influenced how Israelis read, wrote, and thought about the society around them.

The magazine also matters as a meeting place for journalists, authors, artists, and cultural figures, and as a record of the language, tastes, and arguments that shaped Israel during its years of publication. For Moreshet, preserving the story of Monitin means preserving not only the name of a magazine that has closed, but also the ideas, voices, and visual choices that influenced Israeli culture. Moreshet.com presents it as part of the broader history of journalism, culture, and public life in Israel.