In October 2024, Zohran Mamdani launched his New York City mayoral campaign in relative obscurity. Half a year later, excitement about the state assemblymember from Queens is palpable. Mamdani, whose campaign is focused on housing justice and transit affordability, is the first in the race to hit its fundraising cap, raising $8 million dollars from more than 17,000 donors. A member of the Democratic Socialist of America, he boasts over 15,000 volunteer canvassers. Mamadani is now polling in second place, behind Andrew Cuomo, former New York governor who resigned in disgrace following sexual harassment allegations. 

Meanwhile, Cuomo, who began a lackluster second act in Israel advocacy following his resignation from office, is attempting to make Israel and antisemitism central issues in the campaign. In a speech earlier this month at a Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he blasted Mamdani, as well as fellow competitors Brad Lander and Adrienne Adams, for being insufficiently supportive of Israel, while asserting that anti-Zionism is unequivocally antisemitism. He also zeroed in on Mamdani’s “Not On Our Dime” legislation, which targets charities funding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Mamdani has continued to stress an adherence to international law, and a commitment to the principle of the equality of all human life. 

As the mayoral race enters its final months, Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart interviewed Mamdani in a conversation that first appeared in the Beinart Notebook on Substack. They discussed how Israel/Palestine is making its way into New York politics, how Mamdani would stand up to President Trump, and his detailed plan for public safety. Jewish Currents is a non-profit organization and does not endorse candidates for office. We hope that our listeners in New York City will vote in the primary on June 24th.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” 

FURTHER READING:

“Cuomo’s ‘most important issue,’” Jeff Coltin, Nick Reisman, and Emily Ngo, Politico

“Cuomo and Mamdani gain ground as Democratic primary turns into two-person race,” Adam Daly, amNY

“Socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani Wants to End Columbia and NYU’s Tax-Exempt Status,” Sarah Wexler, Jacobin

“Feds seized $80 million in FEMA funds given to NYC to house migrants, city comptroller says,” Jennifer Bisram, CBS News

“Migrant family swept up by ICE allowed to return home,” Brian Mann, NPR

Zohran Mamdani’s public safety plan

In a recent article in Jewish Currents, Jon Danforth-Appell proposes that the Jewish left is operating under a paradigm of what he calls “Zionist realism.” This idea draws on theorist Mark Fisher’s notion of “capitalist realism,” which describes the way capitalism makes it impossible to imagine alternative world structures; Zionist realism, in Danforth-Appell’s conception, similarly makes it difficult for Jews to separate from a received sense of Jewish collectivity, and imagine alternative futures. Danforth-Appell writes that particularist Jewish organizing, typified by the slogan “Not in Our Name,” reinforces a picture of Jews as a monolith, while contributing to an overemphasis on Jewish culpability for Israel’s actions. This approach may underemphasize “material processes of capital and geopolitics,” like the weapons industry’s bottom line and American interests in the Middle East. “What ultimately matters is not an abstract notion of Zionism as a totalizing spiritual contaminant upon the Jewish people,” he writes, “but the ways in which American Jews, alongside all other Americans, hold multiple kinds of material relationships to Israel.”

In the episode, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and associate editor Mari Cohen talk with Danforth-Appell about his article and the questions it raises. Even given the diversity among Jews, can we abandon collective complicity while so many Jews materially support Zionism? Why aren’t we seeing more mass anti-war organizing, where people can show up as Americans? And what are the limits of a Jewish politics of collective complicity? 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:

“Against Zionist Realism,” Jon Danforth-Appell, Jewish Currents

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

“Canary Mission’s Newest Funders,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents

The Cultural Politics of Emotion by Sarah Ahmed

“Can Genocide Studies Survive a Genocide in Gaza?,” Mari Cohen, Jewish Currents

Last week, Columbia capitulated to Trump’s extensive demands on the university, in hopes of recovering $400 million in government funding that was revoked by the Trump administration. Almost a week later, there is still no indication that Columbia will get the money back. The university has agreed to a long list of changes, among them the creation of a new 36-officer campus police force with the power to arrest students; the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates anti-Zionism and antisemitism; broad commitments to disciplinary action for student protesters; and even the advancement of Columbia’s Tel Aviv Center. Strikingly, the university has placed the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department into what the Trump administration is referring to as “receivership,” appointing a new senior vice provost to exert control over the teaching of Israel/Palestine in particular, starting with the Center for Palestine Studies. Meanwhile, the university committed to “the expansion of intellectual diversity among faculty,” indicating that they are going to hire more Zionists to teach in the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and in the School for International and Public Affairs. All of this follows the targeting and abduction of Columbia students, including Palestinian green card holder and student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in ICE detention, and Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian student who was not significantly involved in protests and who fled to Canada to avoid detention after her visa was revoked. 

It’s hard to overstate the significance of Columbia’s surrender, at a moment when the US appears to be in democratic freefall, and when academic freedom and the fundamental right to free speech hangs in the balance. Editor-at-large Peter Beinart and Columbia professor Nadia Abu El-Haj, who also serves as the co-director of the Center for Palestine Studies, spoke just hours before this shocking development, but their conversation probes what’s been happening at Columbia and Barnard, and what’s at stake—both for the study of Israel/Palestine and for the future of higher ed. This conversation first appeared in the Beinart Notebook on Substack.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” 

ARTICLES MENTIONED AND FURTHER READING: 

“‘Mahmoud Is Not Safe,’” Nadia Abu El-Haj, New York Review of Books

“The Columbia Network Pushing Behind the Scenes to Deport and Arrest Student Protesters,” Natasha Lennard and Akela Lacy, The Intercept

Letter from Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention in Louisiana

“The Perils of Universities’ Unscholarly Antisemitism Reports,” Peter Beinart, Jewish Currents

“The new definition of antisemitism is transforming America – and serving a Christian nationalist plan,” Itamar Mann and Lihi Yona, The Guardian

“The Fight for the Future of Israel Studies,” Mari Cohen, Jewish Currents

“The Civil Rights Law Shutting Down Pro-Palestine Speech,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents

Letters from Columbia journalism alumni and from Columbia law faculty 

American Association of University Professors sues the Trump administration

Noor Abdalla, wife of Mahmoud Khalil, on NPR’s Morning Edition

On March 8th, federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Palestinian student activist at Columbia University, in his New York home and moved him to a detention facility in Louisiana. Khalil, a recent graduate from Columbia’s public affairs masters program and a prominent leader in the school’s movement to pressure the university to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide, is a legal permanent resident, and is not accused of any crime. The Trump administration has pointed to his political activism as the reason for why he should be deported, invoking a rarely-used Cold War-era law to argue that Khalil’s presence in the US is contrary to US foreign policy interests. Jewish American organizations are split over the administration’s reactions: The Anti-Defamation League has praised it, other mainstream groups have remained silent, and liberal Zionist and anti-Zionist Jewish organizations have sharply condemned it.

On this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, associate editor Mari Cohen, and senior reporter Alex Kane discuss the Jewish political reaction to the arrest and detention of Khalil. They talk about how the mainstream Jewish establishment paved the way for this authoritarian act, whether liberal Jewish opposition to the arrest could portend new political alignments, and the rise of new reactionary Jewish groups such as Betar and Mothers Against College Antisemitism. 

Note: When this podcast was recorded, the American Jewish Committee had not yet made a statement on Khalil. On March 12th, the AJC released a statement condemning Khalil’s political speech but calling for “due process” in deportation proceedings against him. 

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“A growing number of Jewish groups are condemning Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest,” Ben Sales, Jewish Telegraphic Agency 

“The Push to ‘Deactivate’ Students for Justice in Palestine,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents

“Why the ADL is encouraging Jews to invest in Tesla,” Arno Rosenfeld, The Forward

“Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL,” Know Your Enemy podcast

“Campus protest crackdowns claim to be about antisemitism – but they’re part of a rightwing plan,” Arielle Angel, The Guardian

“The Boomerang Comes Back,” Noura Erakat, Boston Review

“In leaked messages, members of ‘Columbia Alumni for Israel’ group chat work to identify, punish pro-Palestinian protesters,” Sarah Huddleston, Columbia Spectator

“The Astroturf “Civil Rights” Groups Fueling Trump’s Deportation Attacks,” Emmaia Gelman, Academe

“Trump Administration Seeks to Expel a Green-Card Holder Over Student Protests,” Edward Wong, Charlie Savage, Hamed Aleaziz, and Luis Ferré-Sadurní, The New York Times

On February 4th, President Donald Trump said that all Palestinians in Gaza should leave the coastal enclave and go to other Arab countries such as Egypt or Jordan—a move that, if actualized, would mark a drastic chapter in the Palestinians’ history of being ethnically cleansed. Israel immediately embraced the idea, with the country’s war minister ordering the military to draft plans to facilitate a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza. Palestinian groups as well as Egypt, Jordan, and many other countries have roundly rejected the idea, but Trump and his foreign policy team continue to insist that they will carry out the plan which would end in a US takeover of Gaza.

On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke to Mouin Rabbani, a co-editor of Jadaliyya, and Tariq Kenney-Shawa, US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, about situating this moment in the long history of Palestinians displacement, whether and how a Trump ethnic cleansing plan is likely to unfold, and how it will impact the ceasefire in Gaza.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Further Reading

“With No Buy-in From Egypt or Jordan, Trump Appears to Back Away From His Gaza Plan,” Michael Shear, The New York Times

“‘Trump Gaza is finally here!’: US president promotes Gaza plan in AI video,” Mick Krever and Mostafa Salem, CNN

“Palestinians in Paraguay,” Hadeel Assali, London Review of Books

“Trump Revives Biden's Failed Proposal To Remove Palestinians From Gaza,” Matthew Petti, Reason

“Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: ‘Thin’ Population ‘to a Minimum,’” Ryan Grim, The Intercept

“WikiLeaks: Israel Intentionally Kept Gaza on Brink of Economic Collapse,” Joshua Norman, CBS News

“​​Exclusive: Egypt's alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera' aims to sideline Hamas,” Andrew Mills, Reuters

“Trump wants Palestinians out of Gaza. Here are Egypt's plans to keep them there,” Aya Batrawy, NPR 

“Israel has cut off all supplies to Gaza. Here’s what that means,” Cara Anna, Associated Press

Brady Corbet’s epic Academy Award-nominated film, The Brutalist, traces the career and personal life of fictional architect and Holocaust survivor László Toth, played by Adrien Brody, as he seeks to find his place in the United States after World War II. In this episode of On the Nose, contributing writer Rebecca Pierce, associate editor Mari Cohen, contributing editor Siddhartha Mahanta, and contributor Noah Kulwin unpack the film’s symbolic use of Israel and Zionism as an apparent solution to the racialized antisemitism faced by its Jewish characters upon their arrival in the US. The conversation delves into the film’s explorations of post-Holocaust Jewish life and American racialized white supremacy, as well as the contrast between its clear artistic vision and ambiguous politics. This episode includes spoilers for the film and discussions of its onscreen depictions of sexual violence.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:

“About the Destination: The Brutalist and Israel,” Noah Kulwin, Screen Slate

“Adrien Brody Addresses Backlash Over Halle Berry Oscars Kiss—but Stops Short Of Apologizing,” Kelby Vera, Huffington Post

“The Suppressed Lineage of American Jewish Dissent on Israel,” Emma Saltzberg, Jewish Currents

The Tribes of America by Paul Cowan

Israeli warplanes have stopped dropping bombs on Gaza, at least for now, but there’s no ceasefire in the occupied West Bank. Since October 2023, and especially since this January, the intensity of Israeli military operations in the West Bank has escalated to a degree unseen since the Second Intifada. On January 21st, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “Operation Iron Wall”—a bombing campaign and ground invasion centered on the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Jenin houses a large Palestinian refugee camp populated by families expelled by Israeli forces in 1948. As such, it has long been an epicenter of Palestinian militancy, and has faced waves of Israeli ground invasions and sieges for decades. Now, Israel’s defense minister has said that the army is returning to Jenin to apply the “lessons” it learned in Gaza—which have included the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, the siege of a hospital, and, in a particularly brazen act, the simultaneous blowing up of 23 buildings on February 2nd. 

To discuss Israel’s application of the “Gaza model” in the West Bank and its impact on Palestinians, Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke with journalist Azmat Khan and analyst Tahani Mustafa. 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“Israeli military operation turns Jenin refugee camp into 'ghost town,'” Ali Sawafta, Reuters

“Demolitions in Jenin signal Israel’s new approach in the West Bank,” Marcus Walker, The Wall Street Journal

“In West Bank raids, Palestinians see echoes of Israel’s Gaza war,” Raja Abdulrahim and Azmat Khan, The New York Times

“Two young children were getting ready for school. An IDF drone killed them,” Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz

“The civilian casualty files,” The New York Times

“Palestinian Authority’s raid on Jenin appeals to Israeli, Western interests,” Mat Nashed, Al Jazeera English

“Palestinian gunman kills Israeli soldiers as UN warns over W Bank operation,” David Gritten, BBC News

“The settler strategy accelerating Palestinian dispossession,” Dalia Hatuqa, Jewish Currents

On Sunday, Israel and Hamas entered into the first phase of what could become a permanent ceasefire. Under the agreement that led to the pause, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinians, many held without charge or trial, from its prisons in exchange for the release of 98 Israeli hostages by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The deal also allows Palestinians forcibly displaced from the north of Gaza to return to that area, promises a surge in humanitarian aid to a Palestinian population that was starving as a result of Israel’s siege, and leaves open the door for further negotiations resulting in a permanent ceasefire. But significant questions remain about the deal—foremost of which is whether it will lead to the permanent end of Israel’s bombardment and hermetic siege of Gaza, an assault experts have termed a genocide. To discuss why Israel agreed to stop its bombing after 15 months, whether the ceasefire is likely to last, and the future of Gaza’s governance, Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke to analysts Yousef Munayyer and Zaha Hassan.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Further Reading

“A long-awaited ceasefire has finally begun in Gaza. Here’s what we know,” Sophie Tanno, Lauren Kent and Christian Edwards, CNN

“Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable,’” Patrick Wintour, The Guardian

“Ben Gvir says he repeatedly foiled hostage deals, urges Smotrich to help him stop this one,” Times of Israel staff, Times of Israel

“UNRWA said preparing to shutter Gaza, West Bank operations ahead of Israeli ban,” Times of Israel staff, Times of Israel

“Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say,” Claire Parker, Loveday Morris, Hajar Harb, Miriam Berger and Hazem Balousha, The Washington Post

“The Pro-Israel Donor With a $100 Million Plan to Elect Trump,” Theodore Schleifer, The New York Times

On this episode of On the Nose—a recording of an online event for Jewish Currents members, co-sponsored by the Beinart Notebook—editor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks with Mahmoud Muna, Matthew Teller, and Juliette Touma, three of the editors of the new anthology Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture. This volume includes nearly 100 stories from people in Gaza, recorded both before and amidst Israel’s ongoing assault. In this conversation, the editors discuss the collection and the process of compiling it, and read some of the powerful testimonies it contains.

Thanks to Daniel Kaufman and Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).

Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:

Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture, ed. Mahmoud Muna and Matthew Teller with Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia

“Letter from Gaza” by Ghassan Kanafani, Marxists Internet Archive

“The Only Refuge I Could Offer” by Anonymous, Jewish Currents

“Exile from Gaza” by Zak Hania, Safa Al-Majdalawi, Amal Al-Majdalawi, and Mohammed Ghalayni (as told to Jonathan Shamir), Jewish Currents

“The Scenes in Rafah Are Straight From a Nightmare” by Zak Hania, Ahmed Totah, and Sameera Wafi (as told to Jonathan Shamir), Jewish Currents

“Even as We Are Trying to Help, We Are Being Attacked” by Jameel, Juliette Touma, and Mohammed Al Khatib (as told to Jonathan Shamir and Aparna Gopalan), Jewish Currents

“We Have Lost the Ability to Provide True Care” by Hammam Alloh, Yousef Al-Akkad, and Reda Abu Assi (as told to Maya Rosen), Jewish Currents

“Dispatches from Gaza” by Mohammed Zraiy, Khalil Abuy Yahia, and Rania Hussein (as told to Alain Alameddine, Maya Rosen, and Julia), Jewish Currents

Since October 2023, Palestine solidarity activists have faced a climate of McCarthyist repression, and all signs point to the incoming Trump administration escalating that campaign to silence the anti-genocide movement. Trump’s cabinet appointees and supporters have embraced plans to revoke visas of pro-Palestine student organizers, sue colleges to ensure they crack down on protesters, subject anti-Zionist students to FBI questioning, and more—all in the name of fighting antisemitism. 

In this episode, associate editor Mari Cohen and senior reporter Alex Kane join Emma Saltzberg, US strategic campaigns director for Diaspora Alliance, and Dylan Saba, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal and a contributing writer at Jewish Currents, to discuss the possible shape of the Trump repression regime. We discuss the use of civil rights law to quash student protest, the Heritage Foundation’s unnerving “Project Esther” blueprint for suppressing the Palestine solidarity movement, and Congressional attempts to attack the nonprofit status of anti-Zionist groups. We also analyze the multiple right-wing approaches at play—including the distinct but sometimes overlapping “anti-discrimination” and “anti-terrorism” paradigms—and consider possibilities for mobilizing a broader liberal-left coalition to oppose these strategies.  

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:

“Trump DOJ civil rights pick blasted campus protests, opposed Antisemitism Awareness Act,” Marc Rod, Jewish Insider 

“The Biden-Harris administration has failed to combat campus antisemitism,” Jonathan Pidluzny, America First Policy Institute

“Trump attorney general pick Pam Bondi: 5 things Jews should know,” Lauren Markoe, Forward 

“The civil rights law shutting down pro-Palestine speech,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents

“Linda McMahon meets with Senators, addresses approach to fighting antisemitism,” Emily Jacobs, Jewish Insider

“Project Esther,” The Heritage Foundation 

“Evangelical Christians are politicizing the Jewish story of Esther,” Jane Eisner, The Washington Post

“Congressional Republicans launch 'fishing expedition' against progressive, Jewish, and Palestinian nonprofits,” Matthew Petti, Reason

“Virginia judge denies pro-Palestinian group’s bid to limit attorney general’s demand for documents,” Dean Mirshahi, WRIC ABC 8News