Dear Reader,

I’ve spent most of the last six months writing a book about Jewish identity after the destruction of Gaza. I took that time because it was clear to me that we’re in a moment of crisis and transformation. For Palestinians, this has been a year of unfathomable pain, suffering, and death. For Jews, it has been a year of tremendous loss as well—and of profound moral reckoning. I don’t think the American Jewish community will ever be the same.

What this community becomes is up to us, and our allies and friends. That’s why I’m so proud to invite you to join me at Jewish Currents Live: A Day of Politics and Culture, where we’ll have the opportunity to gather together, reflect on this year, and begin to chart a way forward. We’ll also raise much-needed resources for families displaced in Gaza and activists facing repression here in the United States.

I hope you’ll join me.

I’ve been part of planning Jewish Currents Live for much of the last year, and the agenda we have planned—two live podcast tapings, three performances, three lunch workshops, six session conversations, a comedy showcase and an afterparty with a brass band and DJs—is truly remarkable. I’m looking forward to participating in a conversation on the 2024 election with Rula Jebreal and others. And I’m especially eager for “Judaism and Jewishness Beyond Zionism” with an incredible group of scholars and activists:

• Shaul Magid, author of The Necessity of Exile, professor at Harvard Divinity School, and to my mind the most insightful American writer on the relationship between Judaism and Zionism

• Alissa Wise, lead organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire and one of the country’s most eloquent and inspiring non-Zionist rabbis forging an alternative Jewish future

• Mikhael Manekin, a creative and innovative Israeli activist as well as the author of End of Days, in which he wrestles with the degree to which, in Israel, commitment to Judaism has become inseparable from worship of the state

• Ariella Azoulay, a self-described “Palestinian Jew” whose pathbreaking scholarship on Israel’s regime transformed how many thought about the one- or two-state debate, and who has written powerfully about the challenge of separating Jewish identity from Jewish statehood

Those are just four of the dozens of incredible speakers, artists, and activists gathering together on September 15th. The full schedule will be posted online soon—and if you can’t make it in-person, virtual tickets are available as well.

I look forward to seeing you there,
Peter Beinart

P.S. Tickets to JC Live are just $18 for sustaining Jewish Currents members—and they come with an invite to an afterparty with Chaia, Seba Kayan, and Slavic Soul Party. If you aren’t already a sustaining member, you can join today for just $9/month!