Oct

10

2023

Our upcoming coverage, and some archival resources

Dear Reader,

Like so many of you, we at Jewish Currents have spent the past few days trying to find our bearings—checking on the safety of loved ones in Israel/Palestine, grieving the dead, and asking ourselves what comes next for our work and our movements.

As a magazine committed to deep and careful thinking, we are working on robust coverage that reports on, contextualizes, and analyzes the events unfolding on the ground, including an in-depth explainer answering your questions about Hamas’s actions, the American and international response, and the ongoing assault on Gaza. You will also hear from our editor-in-chief in our next newsletter and from members of our staff in a podcast this week.

We are in an unprecedented moment in the history of this ongoing catastrophe, and there will be no substitute for work that speaks to the sum of what we have witnessed in the last four days. In the meantime, however, we wanted to send you some initial resources from our archive that situate the present moment within a longer history. The pieces collected here speak, among other things, to the unlivable conditions in which Israel has trapped the people of Gaza over a 16-year siege; the Israeli policies that have delegitimized nonviolent Palestinian resistance and increased Palestinian support for armed struggle; the expulsionist forces within Israel’s government that have pushed us toward the current juncture; and the need for Jews to confront thorny questions about tribalism, belonging, and collective responsibility in the context of their communities’ deep investment in Israeli apartheid.

Best,
The Editors