From Generation Journal to The Fiftieth Gate

I worked at Generation Journal with Mark for the last five of its 11-year existence. For those who are not familiar with it, its full title was “A Journal of Australian Jewish Life, Thought, and Community”, later shortened to, simply, “Jewish Life”. It is available online thanks to Mark’s superhuman efforts before his death.

From the outset, Working at Generation was, like working on anything with Mark, exhilarating.

I started off doing admin, which I took over slowly from the incomparable Selma Seknow.I slowly began editing and organising, hence my title in later issues as Managing Editor.

The Generation office was firstly located at Beth Weitzman, then, because Mark found that too stuffy, we moved to rooms above the Classic Cinema, and finally to Carlisle Street, above where Dorevitch pathology is.

I was the only non-Jew working at these offices, amongst the incredible Executive Editors the Journal had during my time: Yvonne Fein, Sidra Kranz Moshinsky, Gaby Wenig; the ever-reliable Ros Loff as Subscriptions Manager, Eva Migdal as Arts Manager, and countless others like Kerryn Baker, who was brilliant at sourcing artists for us.

There were so many others, too numerous to mention here; and so many writers, poets, artists, cartoonists, photographers, whose brilliance Mark saw and nurtured, and who today are well known, some even famous.

There were also the graphic designers Mark picked up on his travels over Melbourne – you can tell how they varied with the changing look of Generation over the years.

Mark loved beautiful things, and by the end of its life, Generation was a work of art in and of itself. It had evolved from its aesthetic limitations as a desk-top published journal in its early years, to a stunningly produced visual feast by its end.