Rabbi @brant-rosen.bsky.social is showing real leadership in this trying moment. What I can’t quite wrap my head around is: Where are his colleagues? How can intelligent, otherwise morally-minded people continue to carry water for the State of Israel in 2025? rabbibrant.com/2025/06/04/i...

May the memory of all who are unjustly slain be a blessing rabbibrant.com/2025/05/23/m...

“There is every indication that Israel is beginning the process of engineering the wholesale destruction of Gaza – and the Palestinians who live there – by any means necessary.” rabbibrant.com/2025/05/09/t...

Ahmed Abu Artema: “Every path leads to death in Gaza.” www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/isra...

“Next Year in Jerusalem” must mean “Next Year in Jerusalem for all it’s inhabitants” rabbibrant.com/2025/04/11/n...

I’ve written many articles about Passover over the years, but I think this may be the most important one I’ve ever written. I hope you’ll read and share it widely. truthout.org/articles/thi...

“Just this week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new policy to monitor immigrants’ social media accounts for supposed ‘antisemitic’ content” truthout.org/articles/the...

With Passover starting Saturday evening, April 12, Tzedek Chicago is honored to present our annual seder supplement, “Passover as Collective Liberation.” rabbibrant.com/2025/04/04/t...

“The Palestinian struggle is the story of a people who refuse to be erased, exterminated or displaced simply because another party has the power to do so.” inthesetimes.com/article/pale...

“There is hope in the struggle… organizing is all about relationships, and that’s how communities are built, and that’s where the hope for me resides.” - @brant-rosen.bsky.social in this great interview with @edgeofsports.bsky.social on.soundcloud.com/WUe6NAMn8fTB...

“I’ll make it plain: collaborationist Jews will not help make Jews safer. Even more important, collaborating with fascism will not make anyone safer. It feels somehow ridiculous to have to say these words out loud, but here we are.” rabbibrant.com/2025/03/12/f...

"Can Jews who believe Israel is committing genocide coexist in community with those who are actively supporting it?" asks @brant-rosen.bsky.social. "If Jewish ethical values are the bedrock of our spiritual life, how do we truly bridge such a massive moral divide?" ow.ly/hpzp50V3AsN

Peter Beinart's new book expertly dismantles Israeli hasbara, but does it adequately reckon with the moral abyss in the Jewish community over Israel's genocide? religiondispatches.org/peter-beinar...

“I personally believe that national mythologies should not be literal oaths to be sworn to, but collective narratives to be interrogated deeply.” rabbibrant.com/2025/02/14/s...

Ahmed Abu Artema’s devastating, gutting report on the long walk home in Gaza. www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/my...

“The Israeli army is levelling residential blocks, mirroring essentially what they have been doing in Gaza, detonating homes and killing many Palestinians.” aje.io/f9ual6 aje.io/f9ual6

“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it out loud: it is appalling and sickening that a prominent synagogue welcomed – and in fact celebrated – a genocidal war criminal in their house of worship.” rabbibrant.com/2025/02/07/p...

“The most powerful shock and awe in the world could not break them. Let this be a lesson to us all.” rabbibrant.com/2025/01/30/f...

I wrote this a year ago on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Still very relevant a year later rabbibrant.com/2024/01/26/o...

“This just what Trump and his movement wants: They want us to feel breathless, paralyzed, despairing. We must not succumb. We must not accept that breathlessness is the new existential normal of our political age.” rabbibrant.com/2025/01/24/l...

This is a great piece. "As deportations ramp up again, we have a choice: We can watch as our neighbors disappear or we can build on these proven strategies to protect the diverse communities we've built together."

I offer some thoughts on yesterday's inauguration festivities, with a little assistance from a 1st century BCE rabbi: rabbibrant.com/2025/01/21/i...

“Let us have no illusions about the designs of all Pharoahs past and present. Like the Israelites in our Torah portion, the Palestinian people continue to cry out for liberation. Let us continue to heed their call.” rabbibrant.com/2025/01/17/t...

Highly, highly recommended:

“The road ahead will still be challenging, but for now, we hold onto the truth that even in our darkest hours, life finds a way to bloom once more.” truthout.org/articles/in-...

“In This Moment of Ceasefire” prayersforgaza.com/2025/01/15/i...

Some PhD student is going to write a terrific dissertation someday on how Trump's immigration ban and deportation policy will collide with the massive demand for construction labor in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires.

“While Liberal Zionist mythology attributes the curse of Shimon and Levi to “bad apple” Zionists, this kind of systemic, unrestrained violence has been central to the Zionist project from its very beginning.” rabbibrant.com/2025/01/10/y...

“On this final night of Hanukkah, let us reclaim this sacred message of our festival of light. Let us put our trust in a Power yet greater than the power of the mightiest empire.” www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/12/31/h...

“This Hanukkah, let us shine our lights to remind the world of what it would just as soon forget.” rabbibrant.com/2024/12/27/r...

“"We light these lights for the foundation that remains after all strength has ebbed away for the steadfast knowledge even as the bombs fall over and over from the sky that the impunity of the powerful cannot last forever." ynefesh.com/2023/12/07/h...

This Hanukkah, I choose heat. Free Palestine. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/o...

“‘If I must die,” wrote the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed early in the war on Gaza, ‘let it bring hope, let it be a tale.’ That hope is also in not allowing death to pass merely as a fact. If they must die, let it be a crime.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Aka: “The Sad Life of a Genocide Apologist”

As we light our Hanukkah lamps this year, let us honor their memories by rededicating ourselves to a Judaism beyond Zionism and Jewish supremacy; to a world beyond militarism and genocide. “The lamp of the Holy One is the Soul of Humanity.” So may it be. www.tzedekchicago.org/blog/rededic...

“ Let us live up to our inherited spiritual legacy as Israel/Godwrestlers. Let us lift up the Torah of struggle that leads to reconciliation and collective liberation.” rabbibrant.com/2024/12/13/l...

“But for ‘Security Concerns,’ a US synagogue would have been fine hosting a man accused of being a war criminal by the ICC.” www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Are some places in the world more inherently sacred than others? Or is the entire world itself a sacred place? These questions are at the heart of this week’s Torah portion, Parsahat Vayetze. rabbibrant.com/2024/12/06/w...

Chicago area friends:

Since Biden seems to be in a forgiving mood, please join me in urging him to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier: act.amnestyusa.org/page/96017/a...

From 2010, my thoughts on the International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People. Still standing by every word: rabbibrant.com/2010/11/29/a...

The essential oxymoron at the heart of “Liberal Zionism” 👇

“The ICC is talking about genocide. The UN is talking about genocide. Even the Pope is talking about genocide. Yet we’re not supposed to talk about this as genocide. Are you afraid to hear this, Germany?” www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

This winter, a combination of poor shelter, lack of drinking water, and abysmal sanitation will cause unknown numbers of preventable deaths in Gaza.

My weekly Shabbat message to members of my congregation, Tzedek Chicago: "Toward a Judaism of Love over Land, People over Profit" rabbibrant.com/2024/11/22/t...

For your enjoyment, the full 125 countries that are full members of the ICC and where Netanyahu & Gallant will not be able to travel without facing the risk of arrest. Some of these countries will likely not comply with the arrest warrants, but many will. Enjoy:

“A very large number of casualties has arrived, and there are still many bodies hanging on the walls, ceilings. It’s mostly children and women.” www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11...

The death toll from tonight’s massacres in Gaza is nearing 100 people.

“Fourteen Security Council members voted for the resolution, while only the United States voted against it.” www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/w...