Responsa

Responsa is an editorial column written by members of the Jewish Currents staff and reflects a collective discussion.
Responsa
More Truth
To truly oppose the right’s attacks on education, Jewish communities must face Palestinian history.
Responsa
Bad Memory
Germany is acclaimed for its efforts to atone for the Holocaust. But its method of repudiating the past has become a tool of exclusion.
Responsa
Bad Memory
Die Welt rühmt Deutschland für seine Aufarbeitung des Holocaust. Aber aus Vergangenheitsbewältigung ist ein Instrument der Ausgrenzung geworden.
Responsa
Days of Rest
On anti-work politics and the meaning of Shabbat
The Editors January 17, 2023
Responsa
Beyond Grievance
Though it may be a potent political tool, grievance can also maintain our investment in our own oppression.
Arielle Angel September 6, 2022
Responsa
On Loving Jews
For Jews engaged in Palestine solidarity work, what might be gained by refusing excommunication from our own communities?
Arielle Angel September 13, 2021
Responsa
How Not to Fight Antisemitism
By appropriating the right’s strategy on antisemitism, the Jewish left has trapped itself in an empty discourse—and a counterproductive pose of victimhood.
The Editors April 5, 2021
Responsa
Democrats Can’t Win Without the Left
Leftists recognize the need to work in coalition with liberals to fight the right. It’s time for liberals to reciprocate.
Mari Cohen November 13, 2020
Responsa
Justice You Shall Pursue
The religious tenor of public mourning for RBG reveals a conflation of Jewishness with American liberalism, which forecloses the possibility of reckoning with either.
The Editors October 9, 2020
Responsa
The Struggle Begins at Home
Reimagining housing as the ground shifts under our feet
The Editors September 29, 2020
Responsa
No One Is Well
To respond to the coronavirus crisis, we must fight to replace the logics of capitalism with the logics of care.
Arielle Angel March 18, 2020
Menorah Lighting
Responsa
Envisioning Solidarity
What would a meaningful response to the recent spate of attacks on Orthodox Jews look like?
The Editors January 6, 2020
Responsa
Meditations in an Emergency
On climate change, the Holocaust, and messianic time
Ari M. Brostoff November 7, 2019
Responsa
Dual Disloyalty
Who do Jewish institutions actually serve?
Jacob Plitman August 13, 2019
Responsa
Toward a Candid Confrontation
On the Women’s March, antisemitism, and accountability.
Jewish Currents Editorial Board January 14, 2019
Responsa
On an Emerging Diasporism
The simultaneous crises of the Trump presidency in America and the ongoing rightward radicalization of Israel are fueling a Diasporic revival. Where might it take us?
Jacob Plitman April 16, 2018