Issue: Liberal ZionismRSS feed

We should be astounded and saddened by this headline at the website of New York’s Jewish Week: Dem. Primary Could Split Jews Over Israel (with this descriptive subhead: “Cuomo-Nixon race will likely force debate over West Bank policy”).  Cynthia Nixon, the actress and liberal political activist who is challenging New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo for the […]

Fathom is a British journal dedicated to examining and largely celebrating Israel from a centrist or moderately liberal point of view.  We thank our TTN colleague, Prof. Cary Nelson, for advising us of this new issue, freely accessible at its website, along with its archive and other features:     FATHOM HIGHLIGHT | ISRAEL70 SPECIAL ISSUE […]

The Jewish Workers’ Bund, once a proud progressive current in the Jewish world, was defeated by Leninism in Russia and destroyed by Hitler in Poland. But in taking a seminar recently at the YIVO Institute in New York, I found that it remains an inspiration for anti-Zionists.  This is from my Jewish Currents article, “The Bund Is […]

On March 21st, New York public radio (WNYC) talk show host Brian Lehrer, interviewed  Jonathan Weisman, deputy Washington editor of The New York Times, on his new book, (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump (St. Martin’s Press, 2018).  A couple of days before, he was interviewed by Terry Gross on her NPR program, “Fresh Air”: Attacked By […]

I first heard and saw Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli writer and left political activist, on a panel at a J Street conference.  She is both brilliant and acerbic, albeit generally too strident for my taste. Her XMas gift to us this year is another sharp and anguishing article about the occupation, “Nabi Saleh is Where I Lost My […]

I’m a subscriber to The Forward, where I used to be published with some frequency. An opinion piece that’s gotten my notice the other day is “No, You Can’t Be a Feminist and a Zionist” by one Mariam Barghouti, identified as a writer based in Ramallah. This provocative title was the subject head for a Forward email […]

The Struggle for the Heart of the Left: Israel, Palestine and BDS It’s no surprise that the Democratic Socialists of America, endorsed a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy at its recent membership convention. Disheartening, yes, but today’s DSA, though calling itself the ‘largest socialist organization in America’ is not the DSA that was founded […]