Jewish Currents

Poetry

The Store

“the floors we cleaned, / the money we made to pay off / ownable things”

Mario Chard February 3, 2023

Newsletter

“My Body Lives in History”

The author Aleksandar Hemon on writing the body at war and his Sarajevan Jewish protagonist.

Sasha Senderovich February 2, 2023

Report

J Street’s Balancing Act Comes Under Pressure

The liberal Zionist organization is proving too critical of Israel for the mainstream Democratic establishment it courts—and not critical enough for its own constituency.

Alex Kane February 1, 2023

Newsletter

Planting a Palestinian Flag at Israel’s Anti-Government Protests

A group of activists are pushing weekly pro-democracy protesters to stop ignoring the occupation.

Alex Kane January 31, 2023

Dispatch

Shmita Means Total Destroy

A manifesto from the threatened Atlanta forest

Fayer Collective January 30, 2023

Newsletter

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Anti-Palestinian Bias

The elite institution reversed course on refusing a fellowship to a prominent Israel critic, but for students, its suppression of Palestine speech is ongoing.

Joseph Leone January 26, 2023

Report

How a Giant of Responsible Investing Agreed to an Israel Exception

After a multi-year campaign by Jewish groups, Morningstar—a major firm known for socially responsible investing—is softening its approach to Israeli human rights abuses.

Mari Cohen January 25, 2023

Newsletter

Biden’s Education Department Delays Defining Campus Antisemitism

To the relief of Palestinian-rights advocates, the department’s Office for Civil Rights did not adopt the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism this past December.

Alex Kane January 24, 2023

Poetry

Song of the Scent of the Beloved

“No one sensory mode sufficed. No / one / sense was enough.”

Nathaniel Mackey January 20, 2023

Newsletter

The State of Antisemitism Reporting

How America’s major newspapers have stumbled in covering a serious phenomenon

Mari Cohen January 19, 2023

Newsletter

The Nationalist Heresy of Temple Mount Activism

For Israel’s right-wing religious Zionists, ethnonationalism has overwhelmed the commitment to Jewish law.

Joshua Leifer January 18, 2023

Responsa

Days of Rest

On anti-work politics and the meaning of Shabbat

The Editors January 17, 2023

Newsletter

“We Don’t Want Bad. We Don’t Want Worse.”

Historian Lior Sternfeld discusses the Iranian Jewish community’s response to the ongoing political protests in Iran.

Sophie Levy January 12, 2023

Chevruta

What Is Debt and When Can We Refuse to Pay?

An investigation through Jewish text.

Allen Lipson January 11, 2023

Newsletter

Israel’s Populist Judicial Revolution

A series of reforms proposed by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin will effectively neutralize the judiciary, eliminating the only backstop to legislative overreach.

Elisheva Goldberg January 10, 2023

Analysis

Antisemitic Zionists Aren’t a Contradiction in Terms

Pundits express surprise when antisemitism and Zionism overlap, but the ideologies share much in common—and many adherents.

Peter Beinart January 10, 2023

Poetry

As:

“the light of beginning which hasn’t yet been / in rivers of letters running through words”

Peter Cole January 6, 2023

Newsletter

Yiddishland at the Venice Biennale

Yevgeniy Fiks and Maria Veits discuss the Yiddishland Pavilion, which brought transnational diasporic Jewish art—and anti-nationalist politics—to the Venice Biennale.

Stanislaw Welbel January 5, 2023