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Rabbi Brant

@brant-rosen.bsky.social

Rabbi at Tzedek Chicago, co-founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, tzedekchicago.org, rabbibrant.com

807 Followers  |  155 Following  |  46 Posts  |  Joined: 13.11.2024  |  2.0695

Latest posts by brant-rosen.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Israel is Burning the Children of Gaza: How Will We Respond? Five-year-old Ward Jalal al-Sheikh Khalil, trying to escape a burning classroom at the Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City, May 26, 2025 Warning: this post contains descriptions of extreme violenc…

Rabbi @brant-rosen.bsky.social is showing real leadership in this trying moment. What I can’t quite wrap my head around is: Where are his colleagues? How can intelligent, otherwise morally-minded people continue to carry water for the State of Israel in 2025? rabbibrant.com/2025/06/04/i...

05.06.2025 01:54 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Murder in DC: Toward a World Where All Lives are Grievable The shooting death of the two Israeli embassy workers in Washington DC this past Wednesday evening was tragic and horrific. All human life is precious – there can be no conceivable justification fo…

May the memory of all who are unjustly slain be a blessing

rabbibrant.com/2025/05/23/m...

23.05.2025 15:58 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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The Nakba Unfolds in Gaza as the World Watches (phot: Haitham Imad/EPA) In December 2023, just three months into Israel’s genocide on Gaza, Tzedek Chicago’s board released a public statement entitled, “In Gaza, Israel is Revealing the True Face…

“There is every indication that Israel is beginning the process of engineering the wholesale destruction of Gaza – and the Palestinians who live there – by any means necessary.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/05/09/t...

09.05.2025 19:23 — 👍 13    🔁 10    💬 3    📌 0
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All those who have stood by as Israel exterminates Gaza are guilty As Palestinians suffer, the world refuses to hold Israel accountable for violating international humanitarian law

Ahmed Abu Artema: “Every path leads to death in Gaza.”
www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/isra...

26.04.2025 12:50 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Next Year in Jerusalem? I’m sure I’m not the only anti-Zionist Jew who experiences cognitive dissonance when we get to the line that ends every Passover seder, “Next year in Jerusalem!” In the age of Zionism, what do thes…

“Next Year in Jerusalem” must mean “Next Year in Jerusalem for all it’s inhabitants”
rabbibrant.com/2025/04/11/n...

11.04.2025 20:32 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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This Passover, We Must Reckon With Israel’s Massacre of Children in Gaza The Passover story decries a ruler who inflicts atrocities on children. The Israeli military is doing that now in Gaza.

I’ve written many articles about Passover over the years, but I think this may be the most important one I’ve ever written. I hope you’ll read and share it widely. truthout.org/articles/thi...

11.04.2025 14:57 — 👍 151    🔁 71    💬 5    📌 8
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The State Department Has Revoked the Visas of Over 600 Students at more than 100 Schools Some students were forced to leave the country after being sent a text message saying that their visas were cancelled.

“Just this week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new policy to monitor immigrants’ social media accounts for supposed ‘antisemitic’ content”
truthout.org/articles/the...

11.04.2025 13:40 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Tzedek Chicago’s New Seder Supplement: “Passover as Collective Liberation” With Passover starting Saturday evening, April 12, Tzedek Chicago is honored to present our annual seder supplement, “Passover as Collective Liberation.” As we witness fascism growing in the US and…

With Passover starting Saturday evening, April 12, Tzedek Chicago is honored to present our annual seder supplement, “Passover as Collective Liberation.” rabbibrant.com/2025/04/04/t...

04.04.2025 17:32 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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"It Is Neither Death, Nor Suicide" Gaza’s Declaration of Life—and Living

“The Palestinian struggle is the story of a people who refuse to be erased, exterminated or displaced simply because another party has the power to do so.” inthesetimes.com/article/pale...

29.03.2025 21:32 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The New Generation of Rabbi SuperHeroes This week, we speak to Rabbi Brant Rosen of the Tzedek Chicago Synagogue, a synagogue that claims anti-Zionism as a core tenet of their beliefs. We talk about this perilous moment when an antisemitic

“There is hope in the struggle… organizing is all about relationships, and that’s how communities are built, and that’s where the hope for me resides.”

- @brant-rosen.bsky.social in this great interview with @edgeofsports.bsky.social

on.soundcloud.com/WUe6NAMn8fTB...

25.03.2025 22:15 — 👍 17    🔁 6    💬 1    📌 0
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First They Came for Mahmoud Khalil photo: Mary Altaffer/AP Yesterday I received a DM that read: “Evil, kapo, judenrat, self hating Jew.” (If you don’t know the meaning of some of those words, let’s just say that two of them are hist…

“I’ll make it plain: collaborationist Jews will not help make Jews safer. Even more important, collaborating with fascism will not make anyone safer. It feels somehow ridiculous to have to say these words out loud, but here we are.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/03/12/f...

12.03.2025 22:44 — 👍 71    🔁 32    💬 2    📌 2
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Peter Beinart's 'Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza' Expertly Dismantles Pro-Israel Propaganda — But Does it Adequately Reckon with the Genocide? The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Responding to the current moment, Beinart has written nothing ...

"Can Jews who believe Israel is committing genocide coexist in community with those who are actively supporting it?" asks @brant-rosen.bsky.social. "If Jewish ethical values are the bedrock of our spiritual life, how do we truly bridge such a massive moral divide?" ow.ly/hpzp50V3AsN

20.02.2025 15:47 — 👍 22    🔁 5    💬 4    📌 1
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Peter Beinart's 'Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza' Expertly Dismantles Pro-Israel Propaganda — But Does it Adequately Reckon with the Genocide? The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Responding to the current moment, Beinart has written nothing ...

Peter Beinart's new book expertly dismantles Israeli hasbara, but does it adequately reckon with the moral abyss in the Jewish community over Israel's genocide?

religiondispatches.org/peter-beinar...

19.02.2025 20:21 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Standing at Sinai: Interrogating our National Myths of Unity In the week’s Torah portion, Parashat Yitro, the Israelites stand at Mt. Sinai and collectively enter into a covenant with God. With a message conveyed through Moses, God says to the people: “(If) …

“I personally believe that national mythologies should not be literal oaths to be sworn to, but collective narratives to be interrogated deeply.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/02/14/s...

14.02.2025 23:20 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 1
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Eyes were wet with tears, children cried. The long walk home to northern Gaza Amid Gaza's destruction, I walked alongside displaced families returning home, observing their suffering, profound loss, and indomitable strength

Ahmed Abu Artema’s devastating, gutting report on the long walk home in Gaza.

www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/my...

14.02.2025 12:59 — 👍 16    🔁 9    💬 1    📌 0
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Photos: Israeli raids forcibly displace 26,000 Palestinians in West Bank Israeli military raids in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced thousands of Palestinian families since December.

“The Israeli army is levelling residential blocks, mirroring essentially what they have been doing in Gaza, detonating homes and killing many Palestinians.”

aje.io/f9ual6 aje.io/f9ual6

09.02.2025 13:03 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Palestine Solidarity from the Streets to the Statehouse From my Yom Kippur sermon this past October: (There) are plenty of Jewish congregations out there: why does the world need another? What do we have that’s unique to offer? As I think about it, this…

“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it out loud: it is appalling and sickening that a prominent synagogue welcomed – and in fact celebrated – a genocidal war criminal in their house of worship.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/02/07/p...

09.02.2025 12:52 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 1
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From Gaza to Chicago: the Resistance of Disposable Populations (Photo: Ramadan Abed/Reuters) It’s difficult to describe the feelings I experienced this past weekend, as I watched hundreds of thousands of Gazans in a long and seemingly endless line, headi…

“The most powerful shock and awe in the world could not break them. Let this be a lesson to us all.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/30/f...

31.01.2025 12:24 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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On Gaza, Genocide and International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Photo by Axel Koester/Los Angeles Daily News) It’s safe to day that International Holocaust Remembrance Day will arrive tomorrow at a deeply fraught moment for the Jewish community. Ju…

I wrote this a year ago on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Still very relevant a year later
rabbibrant.com/2024/01/26/o...

27.01.2025 15:40 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Learning How to Breathe in the Era of Trump (photo: Carl Juste/AP) In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Va’era, God’s tells Moses to return to Mitzrayim and say to the Israelites: “I am יהוה. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptian…

“This just what Trump and his movement wants: They want us to feel breathless, paralyzed, despairing. We must not succumb. We must not accept that breathlessness is the new existential normal of our political age.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/01/24/l...

24.01.2025 20:34 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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How to Keep Tabs on ICE Agents Who May Be Surveilling Your Neighborhood Here’s a step-by-step guide.

This is a great piece.

"As deportations ramp up again, we have a choice: We can watch as our neighbors disappear or we can build on these proven strategies to protect the diverse communities we've built together."

22.01.2025 20:29 — 👍 11570    🔁 5904    💬 318    📌 415
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Inauguration Day 2025: “Love Work, Hate Authority and Don’t Cozy Up to the Government” (Rabbi) Shemiah said, “Love work. Hate authority. Don’t get too friendly with the government.” Pirke Avot, 1:10 (translation, Jacob Neusner). This classical rabbinic saying comes from “Chapters of …

I offer some thoughts on yesterday's inauguration festivities, with a little assistance from a 1st century BCE rabbi:

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/21/i...

22.01.2025 00:57 — 👍 6    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 1
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The Gaza Ceasefire: Pharoah is Still Pharoah Benyamin Netanyahu and Steve Witkoff, January 11, 2025 My weekly email to Tzedek Chicago members: For Palestinians and those who stand in solidarity with them, the news of a ceasefire agreement bet…

“Let us have no illusions about the designs of all Pharoahs past and present. Like the Israelites in our Torah portion, the Palestinian people continue to cry out for liberation.

Let us continue to heed their call.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/17/t...

17.01.2025 17:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Highly, highly recommended:

16.01.2025 12:42 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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In Gaza, Ceasefire Will Be a Chance to Finally Breathe No longer fearing constant bombing, I can begin to mourn all I have lost in Gaza.

“The road ahead will still be challenging, but for now, we hold onto the truth that even in our darkest hours, life finds a way to bloom once more.”
truthout.org/articles/in-...

16.01.2025 12:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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In This Moment of Ceasefire In this moment of ceasefire, let our voices join with the shouts of joy and jubilationechoing through Khan Younis and Deir al Balah,through the tent cities and the rubbleof bombed and shattered hom…

“In This Moment of Ceasefire”

prayersforgaza.com/2025/01/15/i...

16.01.2025 01:03 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Some PhD student is going to write a terrific dissertation someday on how Trump's immigration ban and deportation policy will collide with the massive demand for construction labor in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires.

12.01.2025 15:05 — 👍 1209    🔁 254    💬 54    📌 24
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Yitzhak Rabin and the Violent Legacy of Shimon and Levi The Lyyda Death March, July 1948 My weekly email to Tzedek Chicago members: The centerpiece of this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Vayechi, is Jacob’s final soliloquy to his individual sons: a Bibli…

“While Liberal Zionist mythology attributes the curse of Shimon and Levi to “bad apple” Zionists, this kind of systemic, unrestrained violence has been central to the Zionist project from its very beginning.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/10/y...

11.01.2025 14:45 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Hanukkah invites us to bring light into the world - JVP Hanukkah invites us to bring light into the world, not through swords or bombs but through acts of enlightenment.

“On this final night of Hanukkah, let us reclaim this sacred message of our festival of light. Let us put our trust in a Power yet greater than the power of the mightiest empire.”
www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/12/31/h...

01.01.2025 22:20 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Remembering the Forgotten on Shabbat Hanukkah Mahmoud Al-Fasih holds the body of his three-week-old daughter, Sela, before laying her to rest. (Photo: CNN) My weekly email to Tzedek Chicago members: I’m sure there are many people who read what…

“This Hanukkah, let us shine our lights to remind the world of what it would just as soon forget.”

rabbibrant.com/2024/12/27/r...

27.12.2024 14:40 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

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