"Overall, American capital put $60 billion into Israel in 2025. That dwarfs the $20 billion that the American government gave Israel since October 7th, 2023 to pursue the war." jewishcurrents.org/is-israels-e...

Labor historian Joel Beinin argues that narratives of Israel's imminent economic demise overlook sources of resilience—and the work needed to challenge them jewishcurrents.org/is-israels-e...

When states and international institutions legitimize Israel’s war against its latest bogeyman, they accelerate the creation of a "might makes right" world order jewishcurrents.org/the-iran-war...

"The Iran war once again reveals Israel’s most fundamental interest, which has remained unchanged for decades: to prosecute the question of Palestine on its own terms, whether through the continued system of apartheid or outright genocide." jewishcurrents.org/the-iran-war...

By helping Israel demolish what’s left of international legal constraint, the Iran war is hastening the dissolution of the Palestinian question. jewishcurrents.org/the-iran-war...

On the Nose spoke to Narges Bajoghli and Manijeh Moradian about the fractures roiling the Iranian diaspora, the nuances of the anti-war position in the face of a repressive regime, and the need to build an anti-imperialism for the 21st century. jewishcurrents.org/the-fault-li...

Joe Kent’s resignation was brave, but his analysis is faulty, writes @peterbeinart.bsky.social. Israel was not responsible for US wars in Iraq and Syria; to say so despite evidence to the contrary speaks to a dangerously conspiratorial worldview. jewishcurrents.org/joe-kents-re...

“SCENES FROM THE DIVIDE explores the story behind the story, uncovering a fraught struggle within a rapidly transforming community.” — @jewishcurrents.bsky.social mailchi.mp/docnyc.net/w...

I and others were asked by @jewishcurrents.bsky.social for Haggadah recommendations; here was my slightly curmudgeonly answer.

A poem by Birhan Keskin, translated from the Turkish by Öykü Tekten. Now online from our Fall 2025 issue with an introduction by Claire Schwartz. jewishcurrents.org/fish

"[Nicola and his comrades] dreamed of literary organizations that would contribute to rebuilding an Arab social imaginary—a popular anti-Zionist movement made increasingly thinkable by what they called “Adab al-Sha’b” ('A People’s Literature')."

"Israel’s new international college programs offer American students an escape from campus activism while training them as state cheerleaders." Maya Rosen for @jewishcurrents.bsky.social: jewishcurrents.org/degrees-of-s...

Israeli courts had halted a military plan to wall off an area of the Jordan Valley. Since the war, it’s back on. jewishcurrents.org/under-cover-...

On this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief @arielleangel.bsky.social, publisher Daniel May, news director @joshnathankazis.bsky.social, and advisory board member @simonerzim.bsky.social parse the Michigan synagogue attack—and the missed opportunity for American Jewish reckoning.

"As they worked to rebuild the landscape of literature and culture, Nicola and his comrades remained committed to an ethos of communist internationalism grounded in the possibilities of a shared struggle against capitalism and empire."

On the new episode of our podcast, On the Nose, Jewish Currents discusses the Michigan synagogue attack and examines how an anti-antisemitism strategy focused primarily on protecting Israel has endangered diaspora Jews.

In the wake of the Nakba, Jabra Nicola and his cohort of Arab communists created a vibrant anti-Zionist literary landscape. The scholar Hana Morgenstern engages this rich history in a new essay. jewishcurrents.org/writing-amid...

Our winter gift for subscribers—now online for all readers—includes six selections from a 1919 Ladino Socialist Songbook, two of which have been brought to life with new recordings by Daniel Elias, Simone Salmon, and Lu Coy. Read and listen here:

"Despite their radical politics, certain leftist songs seamlessly entered the canon of Ladino popular music." Selections from a 1919 Ladino Socialist songbook:

"The recuperation of the figure of the Ladino-speaking Jew also offers an additional possibility of bridge-building in the American context, particularly to Spanish-speaking immigrant communities currently under attack by the federal government."

"Though the Ladino Left must be reclaimed for its own sake, si kere el Dio, if it can also help strengthen the Jewish left, zay gezunt. There are other radical Jewish American histories waiting to be reclaimed, too. . ." jewishcurrents.org/reclaiming-t...

Whew, spicy stuff in Jewish Currents' Reclaiming the Ladino Left: "Anti-Black violence also prompted La Bos del Pueblo (The Voice of the People) [...] to declare that 'America is not a democracy either,' obliquely comparing its 'massacres' to the Armenian genocide undertaken by the Ottoman Empire."

As if with perfect timing, this arrived in the mail

"We can look to the profound hybridity of Ladino—long met with suspicion or confusion—as a generative resource for articulating a Jewish horizon beyond political Zionism."

INTERNATIONALE ALERT

This really cool! Contemporaneous with the early editions of The Little Red Songbook.

"To insist that Sephardic and Mizrahi histories should be understood as reflecting any single worldview or ideology is to flatten once-dynamic Jewish communities animated by a range of political perspectives, including vibrant left-wing movements."

The early 20th century saw a flurry of left activism by Sephardic Jews in the US. Our winter gift for subscribers—a deep dive into that history by contributing writer Devin E. Naar—is now online for all readers.

"they would say genocide is too strong a term, and everyone would half-agree. today, they've decided we don't exist enough to bother. they tell us through prizes. they tell us through papers. they tell us through cops that this is the best possible world"

"the rich keep telling us this is the best possible world. they kill and we die” Read this new poem by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera: jewishcurrents.org/about-the-ri...

Read an excerpt from Hannah Lillith Assadi's novel Paradiso 17—and listen to an excerpt from the audiobook, read by Noor Hamdi:

Appreciated the opportunity to join Arielle and Julie in conversation on Catholicism, antisemitism, and (anti)Zionism. The times may be weird but, as always, there’s a history that helps us make sense of it all.

Many prominent “America First” Israel skeptics are rooting their critiques in their Catholic faith. In this episode of On the Nose, experts Matthew Cressler and Julie Schumacher Cohen explore the theology behind the politics. jewishcurrents.org/maga-catholi...

"It’s not the first time that JPPI has produced data that conveniently proves that American Jews agree with the leaders of the American Jewish establishment." jewishcurrents.org/a-poll-muddl...

AIPAC's attack ads against Daniel Biss, who is running for Congress in Illinois, resurface the question of why the lobby is targeting liberal Zionists, particularly in races where they face opponents farther to their left, @alexbkane.bsky.social reports. jewishcurrents.org/aipacs-attac...

An Israeli think tank surveys “connected” American Jews. What does that mean? jewishcurrents.org/a-poll-muddl...

“He held her and she pissed in his arms, moaning, begging for him to relieve her of this misery, and at the same time the Israeli forces had taken al-Quds.” Fiction by Hannah Lilith Assadi:

“He lost at chess, card games, he lost with women, and most of all, he lost with money. Now he knew that without a doubt he was on the losing side of the most important historical conflict of the twentieth century.” Fiction by Hannah Lilith Assadi:

TOMORROW: Join us for 'Gaza Speaks', an In Context Briefing featuring voices from Gaza alongside international legal, humanitarian, and policy analysts. @theimeu.bsky.social @jewishcurrents.bsky.social @mohamhawish.bsky.social us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

“That day, or its rain, Sufien hardly remembered, but the world would tear itself in two for a hundred years or more over it, and this simple, awful image: a people lost because of a people lost.” Fiction by Hannah Lilith Assadi: jewishcurrents.org/siamo-rovinati

Highly recommended conversation between @peterbeinart.bsky.social and Yale Law professor Aslı Ü. Bâli for @jewishcurrents.bsky.social. Professor Bâli is incredibly sharp, nuanced and insightful jewishcurrents.org/americas-thr...

"As Collins makes plain, this attempt at revalorizing the norms of Western conquest should make us hesitant about the heroic gestures of any nascent nationalist enterprise."

AIPAC backed Trump’s attack on Iran. The Illinois Democrats the group is backing in the March primaries, however, have opposed it, while omitting Israel’s role. It's a sign of the predicament the unpopular war has created for AIPAC, @alexbkane.bsky.social reports. jewishcurrents.org/in-illinois-...

This @jewishcurrents.bsky.social podcast featuring @AsliUBali from Yale Law blew my mind. She is so so smart and packs in all the things. Give it a listen and wow your brain will be bigger. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Please listen to this. It’s very worth it.

Look what just came in the mail! “Reclaiming the Ladino Left” by my UW colleague Devin Naar — as a winter gift for subscribers of @jewishcurrents.bsky.social. Can’t wait to read (and trying singing, too)

This was the best, most insightful, smartest thing I’ve consumed this week. Strongly recommend. The Mark Carney analysis was spot on. #cdnpoli

Tehran has merely challenged Israel’s dominance in the region, not its survival. Yet the claim that Iran existentially threatens the Jewish state is rarely disputed in mainstream American debate, even by politicians who oppose war, @peterbeinart.bsky.social writes. jewishcurrents.org/iran-is-not-...

In The Upper Room, the artist Coleman Collins turns to the colonization of Liberia to consider how attempts at making a new world risk reproducing the cruelties of the old. Introduced by Joseph Earl Thomas. Now online from our fall issue. jewishcurrents.org/the-upper-room

This week on On the Nose, @peterbeinart.bsky.social speaks with Aslı Bâli about whether the war in Iran represents rupture or continuity in the history of US imperialism, and what it means for the stability of the Middle East and the world. jewishcurrents.org/americas-thr...