Jewish Currents

Slow Burn: Quarantine Edition

Exodus: Ki Tissa

For Jews, divine forgiveness is a hard bargain.

Isaac Brosilow September 25, 2020

Dispatch

A Strike Against Despair

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, a University of Michigan undergrad reflects on the sense of possibility unleashed by the grad student strike.

Miriam Saperstein September 18, 2020

Poetry

Strike

“I want a giant strike, / that extends even to love.”

Gioconda Belli September 18, 2020

Review

Shaping the Neo-Hasidic Canon

A New Hasidism, a recent two-volume anthology, offers a compelling alternative to mainstream Jewish spirituality, but fails to fully confront the tradition’s consequences in the world.

Daniel Kraft September 17, 2020

Analysis

Restoring the Bipartisan Consensus

Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris, who has always toed the AIPAC line on Israel/Palestine, is part of the campaign’s pitch that polarization can be undone.

Joshua Leifer September 15, 2020

Essay

New York Socialists in the Legislature—and Out

Five socialists are headed to the New York state legislature. The story of the five socialists elected in 1919 provides a sobering warning.

Joshua B. Freeman September 11, 2020

Conversation

Depatriarchalizing Judaism

On the 30th anniversary of her groundbreaking book Standing Again at Sinai, feminist theologian Judith Plaskow discusses the choice to remain within a patriarchal religious framework.

Susan Reimer-Torn September 10, 2020

Conversation

American Anti-Communism Abroad

Vincent Bevins, author of The Jakarta Method, discusses the legacy of US intervention in Indonesia and Brazil.

Noah Kulwin September 9, 2020

Comic

The Only Protest They’d Accept

Discussions over brunch.

Eli Valley September 8, 2020

Poetry

We went through days . . .

“We went through days as if we went through wind-blown gardens.”

Anna Margolin September 4, 2020

Conversation

Inheriting the Impossible

Historian Beshara Doumani, who holds the first endowed faculty chair in Palestinian studies at an American university, discusses his work and the shifting campus climate on Palestine.

Gabi Kirk September 3, 2020

Report

When Torture Is a Health Precaution

Across the country, prisons are using solitary confinement as a quarantine measure, at great cost to prisoners.

Christopher Blackwell September 1, 2020

Conversation

Q&A with Mara Wilson

An interview with the former child star about her Jewish upbringing and being a lefty millennial Jew in Hollywood.

David Klion August 28, 2020

Conversation

Beyond Good Intentions

Organizers of the Not Free to Desist campaign discuss their efforts to push Jewish institutions to embrace anti-racism.

Rebecca Pierce August 27, 2020

Conversation

The Future of Jewish News

The new millennial editor of The Detroit Jewish News discusses his plans to revitalize the paper for a new era.

Mari Cohen August 25, 2020

Poetry

The Only Conversation

“look how the tide / lifts the boat by / consoling it”

Ben Purkert August 21, 2020

Report

California Compromises on Ethnic Studies

Following pressure from Israel-advocacy groups regarding a model ethnic studies curriculum, the state plans to retain some material on Arab Americans while excising references to Palestine.

Gabi Kirk August 21, 2020

Analysis

Israel-Advocacy Groups Urge Facebook to Label Criticism of Israel as Hate Speech

Pressuring social media platforms to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism is the latest strategy to silence critics of Israel.

Lara Friedman August 19, 2020

Analysis

Compassionate Politics Over Compassionate Gestures

Any sustainable peace between Israel and its immediate neighbors will still require ending the occupation and resolving the Palestinian refugee issue.

Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud August 18, 2020