Afleveringen
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On this special episode of On the Noseârecorded live on November 4th at McNally Jackson Books in ManhattanâJewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane hosts a discussion about foreign policy and the 2024 presidential election. Historian Stephen Wertheim, Arab American Institute executive director Maya Berry, and national security reporter Spencer Ackerman discuss Donald Trumpâs and Kamala Harrisâs foreign policy visions, regional war in the Middle East, and the bipartisan consensus on upholding US empire.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Further Reading:
âSome Muslim Americans moving to Jill Stein in potential blow to Kamala Harris,â Andrea Shalal, Reuters
âNew Poll Finds Arab American Voters Evenly Divided in the 2024 Presidential Election,â Arab American Institute
Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman
âHow Kamala Harris Should Put America First â for Real,â Stephen Werheim, The New York Times
âAmericaâs Foreign Policy Inertia,â Stephen Wertheim and Christopher S. Chivvis, Foreign Affairs
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In 2003, a group of Indian Americans deeply involved in India's Hindu supremacist, or Hindutva, movement established the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), an organization explicitly modeled on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Just as the ADL has long insisted that fighting American antisemitism requires bolstering support for Israel, the HAF committed itself to lobbying for Hindutva in the name of protecting Hindu Americansâ civil rights, an approach that helped the group's rightwing politics find a foothold in liberal, anti-racist circles. The HAF is not the only organization that has drawn inspiration from the ADL. In 2021, the Asian American Foundation (TAAF) was formed in direct partnership with the ADL as a way to address growing anti-Asian racism. While lacking connection to a single ethnonationalist movement, TAAF nevertheless drew on the ADLâs and HAFâs approaches in positioning anti-Asian racism as a unique problem requiring carceral solutions instead of solidaristic organizing. As such, TAAF debuted with ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt as the only non-Asian person on its board, and Hindu nationalist Sonal Shah as its founding president.
The HAF and TAAFâs use of the ADL model has thus far helped them achieve support and legitimacy. However, as the ADL itself faces an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy in the wake of October 7th, affiliation with it now risks becoming a liability. For instance, following membersâ criticism over its ties to an increasingly repressive Greenblatt, TAAF removed him from his board this July (while still affirming its âstrategic relationshipâ with the ADL). As dissent continues to grow in Asian and South Asian American communitiesâwith reporters and activists questioning ties of anti-racist groups in the US to injustices abroadâit is not just ties to the ADL but the power of the ADL model of antiracism that stands to come into question. To discuss these developments, Jewish Currents news editor Aparna Gopalan spoke to associate editor Mari Cohen, New Yorker contributing writer E. Tammy Kim, and Savera coalition activist Prachi Patankar about the similarities and differences between the ADL, the HAF, and TAAF; their embrace of a âhate crimesâ approach to anti-racism and what it leaves out; their ties to supremacist movements; and their shifting fortunes in the wake of the pressures over the past year.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
âHow the ADLâs Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work,â Alex Kane and Jacob Hutt, Jewish Currents
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of the most celebrated American political writers of our time, devotes much of his new book, The Message, to a withering and deeply personal critique of Israelâs oppression of Palestinians. On this bonus episode of On the Noseâa recording of an online event for Jewish Currents members, co-sponsored by the Beinart Notebook and the Foundation for Middle East Peaceâeditor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks with Coates about his time in Israel and the West Bank, the silencing of Palestinians in American media, and what it means when nationalismâs victims become its adherents.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
âBeyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,â Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our American Israel by Amy Kaplan
The Riot Report, directed by Michelle Ferrari
âThe Case for Reparations,â Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
âOne Year of War in the Middle East,â Pod Save the World
The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
âObama on his criticism of Israeli settlements: âIâm basically a liberal Jew,ââ Avery Anopol, The Hill
âUS media talks a lot about Palestiniansâjust without Palestinians,â Maha Nassar, +972 Magazine
Ta-Nehisi Coates interview on CBS
Black Panther graphic novels by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Makdisi Street podcast
âTa-Nehisi Coates: I Was Told Palestine Was Complicated. Visiting Revealed a Simple, Brutal Truth,â Democracy Now!
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On this episode of On the Noseârecorded live at Jewish Currentsâs daylong event on September 15thâeditor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with a panel of authors, scholars, and activists about the movement for Palestinian freedom in the wake of Israelâs genocide. Noura Erakat, Fadi Quran, Dana El Kurd, Amjad Iraqi, and Ahmed Moor discuss the challenge of Palestinian unity under Israelâs program of fragmentation, the resurgence of the two-state solution and decline of the coexistence paradigm, American Jewsâ role in organizing their communities against Zionism, and the task of imagining a liberated future.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine by Dana El Kurd
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat
After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine, edited by Anthony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor
Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi
Polling by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
âZionism Killed the Jewish-Muslim World,â Ariella AĂŻsha Azoulay, Jacobin
Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions
1968 Palestinian National Charter
âHow Durham, North Carolina, became the first US city to ban police exchanges with Israel,â Zaina Alsous and Sammy Hanf, Scalawag
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For this live taping of the literary podcast Between the Coversârecorded at Jewish Currentsâs daylong event on September 15th and presented in partnership with On the Noseâhost David Naimon convened a conversation with renowned writers Dionne Brand and Adania Shibli about contesting colonial narratives. Rooted in their long-standing literary practice and in the demands of this moment of genocide, they discuss the vexed meanings of home, how to recover the everydayness of life erased by empire, and what it means to imagine togetherness beyond the nation-state.
This episode was produced by David Naimon, with music by Alicia Jo Rabins. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Additional Resources:
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne Brand
Civil Service by Claire Schwartz
The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand
Adania Shibli in conversation with Hisham Matar at the 2024 Hay Festival
Adania Shibli in conversation with Madeleine Thien and Layli Long Soldier at the Barnard Center for Research on Women
âWriting Against Tyranny and Toward Liberation,â Dionne Brand
âDionne Brand: Nomenclature â New and Collected Poems,â Between the Covers
âAdania Shibli: Minor Detail,â Between the Covers
âprologue for now - Gaza,â Dionne Brand, Jewish Currents
âDuty,â Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review of Books
âA Lesson in Arabic Grammar by Toni Morrison,â Adania Shibli, Jewish Currents
Inventory by Dionne Brand
Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad
âIsabella Hammad: Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative,â Between the...
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In this live taping of Jacobinâs podcast The Digârecorded at Jewish Currentsâs recent daylong event and presented in partnership with On the Noseâhost Daniel Denvir convened a conversation with scholars Aslı BĂąli and Aziz Rana on the past and present of left internationalism. Placing the current eruption of solidarity with Palestine in the context of the rise and fall of Third Worldism, they discuss the history and legacy of that project, the lasting structures of neocolonialism, and the challenge of contesting empire from the heart of empire.
This episode was produced by Alex Lewis and Jackson Roach, with music by Jeffrey Brodsky. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
âLeft Internationalism in the Heart of Empire,â Aziz Rana, Dissent
âReviving the Language of Empire,â Aziz Rana in conversation with Nora Caplan-Bricker, Jewish Currents
âThe Disastrous Relationship Among Israel, Palestinians and the U.N.,â Aslı BĂąli on The Ezra Klein Show, The New York Times
Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah
âWhat We Did: How the Jewish Communist Left Failed the Palestinian Cause,â Dorothy M. Zellner, Jewish Currents
Empire As a Way of Life by William Appleman Williams
Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire
âFrom Minneapolis to Jerusalem,â Hannah Black, Jewish Currents
âCharging Israel with Genocide,â On the Nose, Jewish Currents
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Recently, far-right figures like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have hitched their anti-Israel politics to blatant antisemitism, platforming Holocaust denial and using decontextualized passages from religious texts like the Talmud to argue for the fundamental immorality of Judaism; in some cases their rhetoric has migrated beyond the right-wing echo chamber. Meanwhile, following a cheeky tweet by conspiracy-minded Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal that attributed the congressional losses of Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush to the âZionist occupied government,â or âZOG,â debates raged online about the supposed accuracy or usefulness of the term, which has clear origins in the neo-Nazi movement. In this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel interviews Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, authors of the new book Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, about these trends and how we confront them. They examine the real difficulties of talking about antisemitismâand assessing actual riskâin an alarmist environment where antisemitism is frequently weaponized against Palestinians and their allies, and discuss what it means to build principled movements rooted in mutual self-interest and collective liberation.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism by Shane Burley and Ben Lorber
âThe Rightâs Anti-Israel Insurgents,â Ben Lorber, Jewish Currents
âExamining the ADLâs Antisemitism Audit,â Shane Burley and Jonah ben Avraham, Jewish Currents
The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance by Shaul Magid
Zioness event about campus antisemitism
âJewish settlers stole my house. Itâs not my fault theyâre Jewish,â Mohammed El Kurd, Mondoweiss
Rafael Shimunovâs thread about talking about antisemitism on the left
âWhat Comes Next for the Palestinian Youth Movement,â Mohammed Nabulsi, Hammer & Hope
Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
Study on the correlation between antisemitism and Israeli violence against Palestinians
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On July 31st, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamasâs top political leader, was killed in Iran. Haniyeh came to the capital city of Tehran for the presidential inauguration; an explosive device went off in the guest house where he was staying. Just hours before, Haniyeh had met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel hasnât taken responsibility for the attack, but theyâre widely believed to be responsibleâespecially given their history of targeted political assassinations. Indeed, Haniyehâs killing followed Israel assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon one day earlier.
Haniyeh was killed in the middle of ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel. With the death toll in Gaza nearing 40,000, and the family members of Israeli hostages desperately calling for a prisoner exchange, the pressure to come to an agreement has been mounting. But Haniyeh was a chief negotiator in those talks, and now, the chances of arriving at a deal seem further than ever.
Meanwhile, Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel for the attack on their soil. As of Thursday, August 8th, that hasnât happened yet, but many now fear that tensions could lead to a wider regional war.
In this collaboration between Unsettled Podcast and On the Nose, Unsettled producer Ilana Levinson interviews Tareq Baconi, author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, to make sense of these developments and what Haniyehâs assassination means for the future of the region.
This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson with Emily Bell. Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Further Reading:
âHamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance,â Tareq Baconi
âHamas: Gaza (Ep 3),â Unsettled Podcast
âTareq Baconi: âThereâs no going back,ââ Unsettled Podcast
âRegional War: An Explainer,â Alex Kane and Jonathan Shamir, Jewish Currents
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Since October 7th, a low-grade regional war has played out across the Middle East, pitting Israel and its Western allies against various Iran-backed forces. The Yemeni Houthi faction has targeted ships in the Red Sea in response to Israelâs war on Gaza, prompting a wave of US and British airstrikes on Yemen. Meanwhile, Iraqi militias have repeatedly fired rockets at US forces in their country. Hezbollah and Israel have also traded deadly fire on the LebanonâIsrael border, leading to mass displacement on both sides.
Now, with Israelâs recent assassinations of a senior Hezbollah commander in a Beirut suburb, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, these relatively-limited conflicts threaten to turn into a far-bloodier conflagration. On this episode of On the Nose, senior reporter Alex Kane interviews regional expert Trita Parsi and scholar Karim Makdisi about these assassinations, the strategies and interests of Iran and Hezbollah, and the Biden administrationâs response to the prospect of a full-scale regional war.
Thanks to guest producer Will Smith and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
ARTICLES MENTIONED AND FURTHER READING
âRegional War: An Explainer,â Alex Kane and Jonathan Shamir, Jewish Currents
âThe Middle East Is Inching Toward Another War,â Trita Parsi, TIME
âBiden Warns Netanyahu Against Escalation As Risk Of Regional War Grows,â Barak Ravid, Axios
âBomb Smuggled Into Tehran Guesthouse Months Ago Killed Hamas Leader,â Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti, and Farnaz Fassihi, The New York Times
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Should leftists vote for the Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential election? Many have balked at supporting an administration that has funded and armed Israelâs genocidal war on Gaza: Some are refusing to vote outright, while others are conditioning their vote on a dramatic shift in policy. Although President Joe Biden has now dropped out of the race, and will almost certainly be replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris, this question remains live for many.
American leftists have long debated our relationship to electoral politics, and to the Democratic Party in particular. Do we choose the lesser of two evils, hold our nose, and âvote blue no matter whoâ in order to avert the catastrophes that would result from a Republican presidency? Or are there acts that are too morally outrageous to permit such a utilitarian calculus? And regardless of what we choose, are there ways to think about the meaning of voting that go beyond the pieties of mainstream liberal discourse?
In this episode, Jewish Currents contributing writer Raphael Magarik explores these questions with Rania Batrice, a first-generation Palestinian American and political strategist who has devoted her career to electoral work, including as Bernie Sandersâs 2016 deputy campaign manager. The conversationârecorded while Biden was still runningâexamines a legal responsum by Rabbi Menashe Klein, the spiritual leader of the Ungvar Hasidic community in Brooklyn, about whether one is responsible for the actions of a candidate one votes for. Through engagement with Kleinâs responsum, Magarik and Batrice turn over their own ambivalences, grappling with competing ways of thinking about voting.
This podcast is part of our chevruta column, named for the traditional method of Jewish study, in which a pair of students analyzes a religious text together. In each installment, Jewish Currents matches leftist thinkers and organizers with a rabbi or Torah scholar. The activists bring an urgent question that arises in their own work; the Torah scholar leads them in exploring their question through Jewish text. By routing contemporary political questions through traditional religious sources, we aim to address the most urgent ethical and spiritual problems confronting the left. Each column includes a written conversation, podcast, and study guide. You can find the column based on this conversation and a study guide here.
Thanks to Ilana Levinson for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
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Donald Trumpâs decision to tap Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate marks the culmination of a Republican foreign policy transformation. While some aspects of Trumpâs foreign policy choices in his first term alienated neoconservatives, other elements aligned with their viewsâand his previous vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, hailed from the interventionist wing of the party. By contrast, Vance has stridently denounced the Iraq War and criticized US funding for Ukraine. His selection suggests that a second Trump term could represent a sharper break from GOP orthodoxy on foreign policy and heralds the rise of a realist nationalist vision for how the US should conduct itself around the world.
On this episode of On the Nose, senior reporter Alex Kane speaks with historian Suzanne Schneider and political analyst Matt Duss about the ideology driving Vanceâs agenda, his argument that âAmerica Firstâ foreign policy must include US support for Israel, and how a second Trump administration would differ from the Biden administration on international affairs.
Thanks to guest producer Will Smith and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Articles Mentioned and Further Reading:
âLight Among The Nations,â Suzanne Schneider, Jewish Currents
âVance on Iran: âIf Youâre Going to Punch the Iranians, You Punch Them Hard,ââ Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider
Vanceâs Keynote Speech at Quincy Institute/The American Conservative Conference
âTrump taps Vance as Running Mate, Anointing Ideological Successor,â Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider
"Leaked Memo Shows J.D. Vance's Anti-Woke Ideology on Foreign Affairs," John Hudson, The Washington Post
âHarris Candidacy Gives Democrats a Chance to Pivot on Gaza,â Matt Duss, Foreign Policy
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Until 1948, around 800,000 Jews lived as an organic and inseparable part of the Arab Middle East and North Africa. But political shifts in the mid-20th century upended this reality. The violent creation of the State of Israel, and the rise of an increasingly exclusivist Arab nationalism, fueled anti-Jewish hostility that led to the exodus of all but a few thousand Jews from the region. The rich Arab-Jewish life that had characterized prior centuries was lost, and the vast majority of Arab Jews ended up in Israel, becoming active participants in the countryâs regime of domination over Palestinians. But neither Mizrahi Jewsâ enthusiastic embrace of Zionism nor the collapse of Jewish life in the broader Middle East were historical inevitabilitiesâand these processes did not go unchallenged. Instead, Arab-Jewish thinkers throughout the 20th century drew on their own experiences to offer alternatives to Zionism as well as other kinds of ethnonationalism.
In June, Jewish Currents fellow Jonathan Shamir attended a first-of-its-kind retreat for Arab Jews organized by activist Hadar Cohen and historian Avi Shlaim, where contemporary thinkers came together to figure out how to build on these past efforts. In the latest episode of On the Nose, Shamir speaks with three scholars from the retreatâHana Morgenstern, a professor of Middle Eastern literature; YaĂ«l Mizrahi-Arnaud, a co-founder of the diaspora anti-Zionist group Shoresh; and Moshe Behar, a senior lecturer in Israel/Palestine studies and co-founder of the Mizrahi Civic Collectiveâabout the history of Arab-Jewish political thought and organizing, and its possibilities and limits for our time.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading and Listening:
On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings by Ella Shohat
The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity by Yehouda Shenhav
Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Politics, & Culture, 1893-1958, edited by Moshe Behar and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim
Iraqi Jewish Writers (Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature), Shimon Ballas, Sami Michael, Samir Naqqash, et al.
"An Archive of Literary Reconstruction after the Palestinian Nakba," Hana Morgenstern, MERIP
âWere Thereâand Can There BeâArab Jews? (With Afterthoughts on the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism and Palestinian Jews),â Moshe Behar
âWeeping for Babylon,â Zvi Ben-Dor Benite and Avi Shlaim, Jewish Currents
âToward a Democratic State in Palestine,â Palestine National Liberation Movement
"The 'Friends of the IDF' Gala Was Like a Rich Kidâs Bar MitzvahâUntil the Protest Started," Sophie Hurwitz, The Nation
âA Democratic Mizrahi Vision,â the Mizrahi Civic Collective
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On June 25th, New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman lost his primary election to George Latimer, a longtime Democratic Westchester County politician. The race attracted national attention because of the unprecedented role played by the Israel-advocacy group AIPAC: The lobbyâs super PAC spent $14.5 million on television ads attacking Bowman, while AIPAC donors contributed about $2.5 million to Latimerâs campaign. Bowmanâs loss marked a blow for the project of electing leftists to federal office, and the result particularly stung for the pro-Palestine movement; one of the most outspoken Democratic critics of Israelâs war on Gaza will now be replaced by someone who wonât even rebuke Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which puts him well to the right of Joe Biden.
On this episode of On the Nose, senior reporter Alex Kane is joined by Intercept DC bureau chief Ryan Grim and former Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid to discuss the meaning of Bowmanâs loss, AIPACâs electoral strategy, and the future of the movement to elect leftist Democrats.
Thanks to guest producer Will Smith and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Articles Mentioned and Further Reading:
âThe Road Not Taken: Hard Truths about Jamaal Bowmanâs Loss,â Micah Sifry, The Connector
âWhat the Left Can Learn From Jamaal Bowmanâs Loss,â Waleed Shahid, The Nation
âA Trip to Israel Changed Jamaal Bowmanâs WorldviewâAnd Could Cost Him His Re-election,â Calder McHugh, Politico
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In May 2021, Palestinian American poet, physician, translator, and essayist Fady Joudah wrote two poems engaged with the violence of Israeli apartheid. Reflecting on the conundrum of where and how to publish them, he explained: âIâve long been aware of the crushing weight that reduces Palestine in English to a product with limited features . . . This sickening delimitation mimics physical entrapment. The silken compassion toward Palestinians in mainstream English thinks the language of the oppressed is brilliant mostly when it teaches us about surviving massacres and enduring the degradation of checkpoints.â His sixth collection of poetry, [...]âwritten in the first three months of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and published in Marchâindicts precisely such forms of entrapment. In these lucid yet idiosyncratic poems, Joudah turns his attention to that which exceeds the narrow place of the Western gaze, spurning the market forces that reward the performance of perpetual Palestinian victimhood.
On this episode of On the Nose, culture editor Claire Schwartz speaks with Joudah about publishing [...] in this long moment of anti-Palestinian racism, the dangerous desires of denying our own not-knowing, and the generative capacities of silence.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Texts Mentioned, and Further Reading and Listening:
âMy Palestinian Poem that âThe New Yorkerâ Wouldnât Publish,â Fady Joudah, Los Angeles Review of Books
âA Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation,â Fady Joudah, Lit Hub
âFady Joudah: The poet on how the war in Gaza changed his work,â Aria Aber, The Yale Review
ââUnspeakableâ: Dr. Fady Joudah Grieves 50+ Family Members Killed in Gaza & Slams U.S. Media Coverage,â Democracy Now!
âAesthetics of Return: Palestinian Poetry with Fady Joudah,â Jadaliyya
âHabibi Yamma,â Fady Joudah, Protean
âDear [...],â Fady Joudah, Prairie Schooner
â[...],â Fady Joudah, Lit Hub
â[...],â Fady Joudah, Jewish Currents
âMaqam for a Green Silence,â Fady Joudah, Jewish Currents
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Since October 7th, American Jews have been sharply divided over Israelâs war on Gazaâa fracture that has been manifest within all manner of institutions, including synagogues. Many leftist Jews do not participate in synagogue life at all, in part because most congregations are explicitly or tacitly Zionist. But for those who are affiliated with a synagogue community that doesnât completely align with their politics, this moment has raised or reasserted pressing and difficult questions: Should we do political work within these institutions, and if so, how? What is gained and lost by organizing in these spaces, or by withdrawing from them? What kinds of communities can we ethically be part of? On this episode of On the Nose, managing editor Nathan Goldman, managing director Cynthia Friedman, contributing writer Raphael Magarik, and contributor Devin E. Naar discuss their varying approaches to synagogue life in this moment.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
âJewish Americans in 2020,â Pew Research Center
âStatement on Israel/Palestine by Scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studiesâ from 2021
âHow a Leading Definition of Antisemitism Has Been Weaponized Against Israelâs Critics,â Jonathan Hafetz and Sahar Aziz, The Nation
Making Mensches
âAle Brider,â Yiddish folk song
âHayim Katsmanâs Vision of Struggle,â Hayim Katsman, Jewish Currents
Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early 20th Century Palestine by Michelle U. Campos
Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine by Abigail Jacobson and Moshe Naor
âA Democratic Mizrahi Vision,â the Mizrahi Civic Collective
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On March 29th, Jewish Currents began publishing a short commentary on the parshahâthe portion of the Torah that Jews traditionally read each weekâin the Shabbat Reading List newsletter. A note introducing this new feature situated it in the context of mainstream Jewish communal support for Israelâs war on Gaza: âWhile it might seem strange for a historically secular magazine to embark on such a project . . . we are trying this now because many in our community have expressed an unprecedented alienation from most Jewish institutions, alongside an urgent need for spiritual fortification.â While many readers have written in to express their gratitude and enthusiasm for the series, some people with long histories of close involvement with Jewish Currents have been upset by the inclusion of religious content. The range of reactions highlights an enduring dispute over the place of religion at Jewish Currents. The magazine was founded by a stridently secularist American Jewish left, which was forged in opposition to the reactionary constraints of religion and in alignment with the Communist Party. But this has given way to a movement thatâs more interested in religious texts and ritual as generative elements of Jewish identity, and as politically meaningful tools.
On this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, managing editor Nathan Goldman, JC councilmember Judee Rosenbaum, and contributing writer Mitch Abidor argue about the parshah commentaries, the meaning of secularism at Jewish Currents, and the evolving role of religion on the Jewish left.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Articles Mentioned and Further Reading:
âComplex Inheritances,â Joy Ladin, Jewish Currents
âYiddish Anarchistsâ Break Over Palestine,â introduced and translated by Eyshe Beirich, Jewish Currents
âCamp Kinderland at 100,â On the Nose, Jewish Currents
âZhitlovsky: Philosopher of Jewish Secularism,â Max Rosenfeld, Cultural and Secular Jewish Organization (previously in Jewish Currents)
âSecularism,â Daniel May, Sources
Letter to the editor on religious coverage at Jewish Currents, with editorsâ response
âSecular Jewish Education, A Critique,â Bennett Muraskin, Jewish Currents
âWhy Iâm Not a Jewish Secularist,â Mitch Abidor, Jewish Currents
âWhy Iâm Not a Jewish Secularist: A Response to the Responses,â
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On April 7th, Larry Davidâs sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasmâwhich debuted in 2000 and ran on and off for 24 yearsâconcluded its twelfth and final season. For many critics, the finale marked not only the completion of a beloved show that sometimes seemed like it would run forever, but also the end of an era of American Jewish comedy, embodied by David and other comics of his generation. Curb follows the everyday antics of a fictionalized version of David, living a posh life in Los Angeles following the success of the iconic â90s sitcom Seinfeld, which he co-created with Jerry Seinfeld. Davidâs avatar is an over-the-top archetype of a Brooklyn Jew raised in the mid-century, and the show is animated by the characterâs dry affect and hyperbolic intransigence, which often put him at odds with reigning social mores, fueling absurd interactions with strangers, friends, and foes. Over the course of Curbâs long run, itâs had a profound impact on the shape of modern American comedy, while the caricature at its core has emerged as one of the defining representations of American Jewishness.
On this episode of On the Nose, managing editor Nathan Goldman, executive editor Nora Caplan-Bricker, contributing editor Ari M. Brostoff, and contributing writer Rebecca Pierce discuss Curbâs depictions of Jewishness, Blacknessâand, in one famous episode, Palestiniannessâand share their thoughts on the showâs final season and Davidâs comedic legacy.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Articles, Episodes, and Films Mentioned:
âThe Ski Lift,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âThe End,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âAmerican Jewish Comedy Sings a Swan Song,â P.E. Moskowitz, Vulture
âMeet the Blacks,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
âAtlanta,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âThe Lawn Jockey,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âThe N Word,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âPalestinian Chicken,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âNo Lessons Learned,â Curb Your Enthusiasm
âThe Finale,â Seinfeld
âJerry Seinfeld Admits He âSometimesâ Regrets the Seinfeld Finale,â Corinna Burford, Vulture
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The recent wave of anti-Zionist Gaza solidarity protest encampments on college campuses has reignited a longstanding public debate over how to define âZionist.â On May 8th, a week after the Columbia University encampment was dismantled by the NYPD, more than 500 Jewish students at the school who identify as Zionists published an open letter in which they laid out their perspective. âA large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism, and consequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish People,â they argued, positing that Zionism and Judaism are fundamentally intertwined. The claims echoed a common mainstream Jewish talking point, that the student movementâs stance against Zionism and its adherents is a de facto rejection of Jewsâa discourse that plays out against the backdrop of a yearslong Israel advocacy effort to redefine Zionism not as a political ideology but as a protected ethnic identity under US civil rights law. Yet anti-Zionists, Jewish and otherwise, maintain that their position is simply a rejection of the political structure of Jewish supremacy that undergirds the State of Israel.
On this episode, Jewish Currents staff members discuss how they describe their politics in relation to the term âZionistâ and why. They reflect on the comparative advantages and limits of using the labels âanti-Zionist,â ânon-Zionist,â and âcultural Zionistâ to articulate opposition to a state project of Jewish supremacy and support of Palestinian liberation and right of return, and consider how those identifications impact relationships within the Jewish community and with the broader solidarity movement.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
BOOKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED AND FURTHER READING:
Excerpt from âZionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims,â Edward Said
2021 Study of Jewish LA
âHow âZionistâ became a slur on the US left,â Jonathan Guyer, The Guardian
âA plan to save Israel â by getting rid of Zionism,â Emily Tamkin, The Forward, on Shaul Magidâs new book exploring a âcounter-Zionistâ future
Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel, Omri Boehm
Address by Max Nordau at the First Zionist Congress, 1897
âThe Suppressed Lineage of American Jewish Dissent on Zionism,â Emma Saltzberg, Jewish Currents, on the historical evolution of the meaning of the term âZionismâ
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Last fall, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco put out an open call for artists to apply for the California Jewish Open. Some of the artists that were accepted into the show identified themselves openly in the application as anti-Zionist, and submitted work that contained content that straightforwardly advocated for Palestinian liberation.
But in April, seven of the artists withdrew from the show. A statement released by a group calling themselves California Artists for Palestine cited an âinability to meet artistsâ demands, including transparency around funding and a commitment to BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions].â The artists demanded to be able to have final say on wall text about the works, and to be able to pull or alter their works at any time. They were also concerned about potential âcuratorial both-sidesism,â referring to an email they received on March 22nd which asked artists to sign off on the fact that their work would be âpresented in proximity to artwork(s) by other Jewish artists which may convey views and beliefs that conflict with [their] own.â The museum has decided to leave blank the wall space designated for this work, âto honor the perspective that would have been shared through these works, and to authentically reflect the struggle for dialogue that is illustrated by the artistsâ decisions to withdraw.â
This week, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks to two anti-Zionist multidisciplinary artists who made divergent decisions about whether to stay in the group show: Amy Trachtenberg, who opted to remain, and Liat Berdugo, who has pulled out. The trio discuss the perils and possibility of Jewish institutional lifeâin the art world and beyondâat this moment, the applicability of BDS in this case, and the uses and limitations of âdialogue.â
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
ARTICLES MENTIONED AND FURTHER READING:
âJewish Anti-Zionist Artists Withdraw From Contemporary Jewish Museum Show,â Matt Stromberg, Hyperallergic
âAnti-Zionist Jewish artists pull out of CJM exhibit when demands are not met,â Andrew Esensten, J Weekly
âCJM visitors wonder: Does the Palestinian flag belong on the museumâs walls?,â Andrew Esensten, J Weekly
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) guidelines
âCampus Politics Takes the Stage in The Ally,â On the Nose, Jewish Currents
Jewish Voice for Peace/IfNotNow Passover Campaign
âBiting the Hand,â The Editors, e-flux
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Chevruta is a column named for the traditional method of Jewish study, in which a pair of students analyzes a religious text together. In each installment, Jewish Currents will match leftist thinkers and organizers with a rabbi or Torah scholar. The activists will bring an urgent question that arises in their own work; the Torah scholar will lead them in exploring their question through Jewish text. By routing contemporary political questions through traditional religious sources, we aim to address the most urgent ethical and spiritual problems confronting the left. Each column will include a column, podcast, and study guide.
On February 25th, Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty member of the US Air Force, self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. âI will no longer be complicit in genocide,â Bushnell said in a livestreamed video, broadcasting what he declared an âan extreme act of protestââthough, he added, âcompared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, itâs not extreme at all.â Bushnell, who was dressed in his army uniform, then doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire, shouting âFree Palestineâ until he collapsed. He died later that day. While some were quick to dismiss Bushnellâs action as a manifestation of mental illness, many on the left expressed admiration for his sacrificeâwhich, as intended, drew global attention to US complicity in Israelâs brutal, ongoing assault on Gaza.
In this chevruta, Rabbi Lexi Botzum and Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel engage with Jewish texts that examine the concepts of martyrdom, sacrifice, and public spectacle, considering how our tradition might help us to engage with Aaron Bushnellâs act, and the question of how much we must sacrifice for justice.
You can find the column based on this conversation and a study guide here.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song âVIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).â
Articles Mentioned:
All Jewish sources are cited in the study guide, linked above
âAaron Bushnellâs Act of Political Despair,â Masha Gessen, The New Yorker
âThe Work of the Witness,â Sarah Aziza, Jewish Currents
âThe Nature of Mass Demonstrations,â John Berger, International Socialism
âBurnt Offerings,â Erik Baker, n+1
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