Dear Reader,

I’m Kathleen Peratis, and over the past five years as co-chair of the board, Jewish Currents has been at the top of my agenda.

For many decades, I was—my community was—liberal Zionist. I hung in for a long time by studiously averting my gaze from the evidence that was right before my eyes. At first slowly and then suddenly, I could avert my gaze no longer. I stared the reality in the face: Israel is not a democracy; apartheid is entrenched. I might have despaired. But just as suddenly, also right before my eyes (like the burning bush!), appeared Jewish Currents.

I feel so fortunate to be a part of this project. With reporting and analysis that doesn’t exist anywhere else, Jewish Currents has become a home for hundreds of thousands of people looking for clear-eyed, morally honest writing and conversation on the most urgent questions of contemporary Jewish life and politics.

While our work has never felt more important, it is also facing extraordinary challenges. And that’s why I’m writing to you now. We know that in the coming year, the threats we face will only increase. And we know we’re going to need each other.

That’s why my co-chair Mark Egerman and I are matching every donation given during this last week of the calendar year, up through tonight at 12am EST.

Contribute today before the end of the year, and your gift will be doubled.

I have been a civil rights lawyer for 50 years, both at the ACLU and in private practice. In the past year in particular, I’ve been representing teachers and others facing adverse action for their support for justice for Palestinians. I do this work for the same reason I’m involved with Jewish Currents: We are amid the equivalent of the 20th century’s Red Scare. Justice for Palestine is one of the great civil rights issues of our time.

Jews and Palestinians have an outsized role to play in ending apartheid in Israel/Palestine. Jews’ moral future depends on justice for Palestinians. Our community needs transformation, and that requires, at long last, the rise of organizations that speak the truth, that reject group-think, that create space for debate about difficult and vexing questions, that expose those that uphold domination, and that bring together a community of conscience.

It is trite but true: It is an honor to be part of the community of Jewish Currents, a community of like-minded seekers who hungrily gather in the thousands not only online but in person—such as at Jewish Currents Live in New York City in September—to learn and give each other hope.

For the Jewish Currents community to thrive, we need to step up. Our strength is in our talented staff and our writers, who deserve and need adequate compensation for their labor. That’s why, if you contribute today, my co-chair and I will match your contribution dollar for dollar.

Make a gift today.

Thank you for joining me in making this organization possible.

Kathleen Peratis
Co-Chair, Jewish Currents Board of Directors