Jewish Currents

Would Buffer Zone Bills Give New York Police More Power? Mainstream Jewish groups say yes. The NYPD says no.

This week, the New York City Council discussed bills to regulate protests outside of synagogues and educational institutions. Mainstream Jewish groups said the bill would increase police power. But the NYPD disagreed. Read the report from @alexbkane.bsky.social jewishcurrents.org/would-buffer...

Rival House bills show fractures between Jewish anti-occupation groups, @joshnathankazis.bsky.social reports. jewishcurrents.org/as-americans...

Elaine Mokhtefi “There was a current of confidence and warmth between all of us who were in Algiers working with liberation movements.”

“The Black Panther team in Algiers worked like a military organization; they wrote down everything they did. They all had roles to play and knew what their roles were. It was amazing."

Elaine Mokhtefi “There was a current of confidence and warmth between all of us who were in Algiers working with liberation movements.”

The organizer and writer Elaine Mokhtefi, who helped transform Algeria into an epicenter of anti-colonial liberation, in conversation with Ari Brostoff

Now online from our fall 2025 issue.
jewishcurrents.org/elaine-mokht...

Wow this goes hard, in the best way. But it is NOT for the faint of nuance, fam. I really love the fearlessness of @jewishcurrents.bsky.social - not afraid to wade on into the tough stuff. 🙏

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

Epstein's Jewish Cohort: @davidklion.bsky.social in @jewishcurrents.bsky.social examines how Jeffrey Epstein exploited networks of Jewish elites through "affinity fraud," relying on shared cultural background and clannishness to facilitate his crimes.
jewishcurrents.org/the-line-bet...

New polling suggests American Jews don’t know what the word “Zionism” means. Should it change the way the Jewish left organizes? Arielle Angel speaks with Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, @dovekent.bsky.social, and @fadiqu.bsky.social on the JC podcast.
jewishcurrents.org/whos-afraid-...

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

This is a fucking amazing piece by @davidklion.bsky.social for @jewishcurrents.bsky.social, and I wish everyone would read it

"Epstein’s humble Coney Island youth comes up frequently in his inbox. Hot dogs, boardwalks, amusement park rides … everyone who wrote Epstein seemed to understand that they were part of his whole schtick."

New essay from @davidklion.bsky.social jewishcurrents.org/the-line-bet...

A must read

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

"The Times assiduously charts how Epstein relied on his talents as a networker and schmoozer to win over one person, who in turn he would convince to introduce him to the next, working his way higher and higher into a particular segment of the ruling class."

jewishcurrents.org/the-line-bet...

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

This was a good read: "For all the moral panic about resurgent antisemitism over the past several years, much of it aimed at Palestine solidarity activists on the left, nothing has encouraged the real thing quite like the Epstein files."

jewishcurrents.org/the-line-bet...

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

In the Epstein emails, "one can recognize a nostalgic, almost kitschy relationship to Jewish identity that plenty of ordinary Jews tend to indulge in," @davidklion.bsky.social writes in his new essay.

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

For @jewishcurrents.bsky.social, I wrote about Epstein and the Jews

The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes.

New essay from @davidklion.bsky.social on the line between affinity and conspiracy

How Can We Care for Our Neighbors? With institutions capitulating to the ICE invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

my other read this morning was this piece in Jewish Currents by a MPLS urgent care worker. worth your time
jewishcurrents.org/how-can-we-c...

How Can We Care for Our Neighbors? With institutions capitulating to the ICE invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

"How can we, as individual providers within larger healthcare systems, protect our patients when our institutional policies do not?"

How Can We Care for Our Neighbors? With institutions capitulating to the ICE invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

"As ICE invades other cities, we will all need to ask what we can do—and what we are willing to risk—to stand in the way of our country’s descent into unadulterated fascism."

How Can We Care for Our Neighbors? With institutions capitulating to the ICE invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

"Did I do enough? Should I have done more? Did I do too much? Would I lose my job? Could I have lived with myself if I’d followed my employer’s policies?"

For @jewishcurrents.bsky.social, I write about Brecht, Vivian Gornick, the menorah, the labor theory of value, and commodity fetishism: jewishcurrents.org/parshah/febr...

How Can We Care for Our Neighbors? With institutions capitulating to the ICE invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

As a healthcare worker, what do you do if ICE agents bring someone they've abducted into your workplace for treatment? With institutions capitulating to the federal invasion, a Twin Cities medical provider reflects on avenues for resistance.

This is exclusive to our new newsletter. Sign up here: jewishcurrents.org/newsletter

I shared some thoughts with @jewishcurrents.bsky.social on the “coalition” that’s pushing a war with Iran.

Leslie Wexner's foundation trained generations of rabbis and top Jewish professionals. Now some of them are demanding accountability from its leadership regarding Wexner's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

jewishcurrents.org/a-new-focus-...

The early 20th century saw a flurry of left activism by Sephardic Jews in the US. This year’s winter gift is a deep dive into that history by Devin E. Naar, alongside six selections from a 1919 Ladino Socialist Songbook. Subscribe this week to get it in your mailbox: jewishcurrents.org/subscribe

“Education Cannot Wait” Gaza’s decimated universities are trying to build an improvised academic life under siege.

After Israel's systematic erasure of an entire academic ecosystem, Gaza's students and teachers are taking extraordinary steps to reclaim their right to learning. Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi reports jewishcurrents.org/education-ca...

As the Board of Peace meets for the first time, read @alexbkane.bsky.social's interview with Robert Malley on what Trump's vision means for Gaza.
jewishcurrents.org/trump-wants-...

New York City’s Synagogue Protest Bill is the First Jewish Showdown… A hearing on the bill scheduled for next Wednesday puts the City Council’s large progressive bloc in a tight spot.

Synagogue Protest: @jewishcurrents.bsky.social examines New York City's proposed synagogue protest bill as the first major Jewish community showdown of the Mamdani era on the City Council.
jewishcurrents.org/new-york-cit...
#JewishStudies #NYC #ReligiousFreedom

Trump’s Imperial Fantasy Begins With Gaza As his Board of Peace bids to become an alternative United Nations, the president plans to rule the Strip and reap the profits.

'Trump’s Imperial Fantasy Begins With Gaza', by @peterbeinart.bsky.social, for @jewishcurrents.bsky.social.

House of Words, Ibau , Where’s Your Story? "Speed, which once killed us on the streets, becomes a chest sinking to the bottom of the sea. We walk together while making a night full of stories. But…

"Create a president who [. . .] incinerates the centers of learning for the blaze of politics. Then ships off the city’s corpse, shatters the instruments of power to save himself. Not noticing that the children’s mouths no longer smell of milk."