In this episode, we are joined by Zevi Slavin, the creater of the YouTube project Seekers of Unity. We talk about the etymology of Chasidism, with its roots in Chesed — loving kindness — and how Zevi’s own journey has brought him to a diasporist understanding of the unity at the heart of both Jewish and non-Jewish mysticism.

Zevi joins Ben and Jordan Yanowitz as they together paint a picture of the role that love, community, and dialogue together play in shaping Jewish life. Chesed and Chasidism are diasporically interfused in this discussion with Seekers of Unity.

Check out Zevi's work with Seekers of Unity on Youtube

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

YouTube: youtube.com/@JewishDiasporistMakingMensches

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/

Endless Gratitude to Aly Halpert for allowing us to use her song I'm Not Alone

(Recorded 1/30/2024)

In this episode, we are joined by Rivka, Andrey, Roman and Meir from Kompass Media, a critical Russian-language media and activist collective based in Israel-Palestine!

We talk about the trials of two diasporas, parallels between Palestine and Ukraine, the connection to Eastern European homelands, as well as future of leftist organising - in their local communal context and the general fight against imperialism, nationalism and militarism.

Follow Kompass Media on their Instagram and join their Telegram channels here!

instagram.com/kompass.media

t.me/kompass_media

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

YouTube: youtube.com/@JewishDiasporistMakingMensches

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/

Endless Gratitude to Aly Halpert for the intro music: open.spotify.com/artist/5ilJZ0nHG41CYddwNuP3f6?si=EH0Uy2JATLK0w-x-IAIIRA

Thank you to our editor Jacob!

(Interview Recorded January 27th)

After months of genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza, hope for a better future for the people of Palestine/Israel has never seemed further from reach, but what is the place of diaspora in all this? Friend of the show, Habeeb, once again joins us to explore the impact of the current crisis on Palestinian society, and to put current events in their wider socio-political context.

While some listeners may be bothered by parts of this conversation, we believe that dialogues such as this one, have a crucial place in disentangling Zionism from Jewishness. A world of universal love, justice and equality, will only be possible when we listen to others, and understand how our interests coincide with theirs. Only through mutual understanding can we plot a course toward total human liberation.

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

YouTube: youtube.com/@JewishDiasporistMakingMensches

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/

Thank you to Sol Weiss’s and Molly Bajgot for allowing us to use their timely song: Cross the Sea.

https://m.soundcloud.com/sol-yael/cross-the-sea

Ben Rogaly, a Professor of Human Geography at the Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, joins Zach today to speak about urban geography, music, migration and diaspora, as well as the recent and ongoing Jewish left organising in Britain!

Notes:

Prof. Ben Rogaly: profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p28173-ben-rogaly

Moushumi Bhowmik: thetravellingarchive.org

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moushumi_Bhowmik

Ben and Moushumi's article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380261231152039#fn1-00380261231152039

"Workers": creativeinterruptions.net/commissions/workers/

Jewish Solidarity with Palestine Webinar w/ Prof. Rogaly: youtu.be/UCHB4hG-YYs?si=jetQeAKm6iah8qLw

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

YouTube: youtube.com/@JewishDiasporistMakingMensches

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/

Endless Gratitude to Joe Dobkin for allowing us to use his song "Falndike Vent":

youtube.com/watch?v=BCBELp1ZG7E

[REUPLOAD: ORIGINALLY UPLOADED 25.11.23]

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist YouTube: / @jewishdiasporistmakingmensches Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/ Endless Gratitude to Aly Halpert for the intro music: open.spotify.com/artist/5ilJZ0nHG41CYddwNuP3f6?si=EH0Uy2JATLK0w-x-IAIIRA Noodnik, the Magazine of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students: noodnik.at

Our next stop in our travels across the diaspora, with its rich Jewish past, present and future, is Vienna! To tell us about it we have Eidel, member of the JÖH (Austrian Union of Jewish Students) board, an editor of it's Noodnik magazine, a Stadttempel synagogue tour guide, and organiser of the Likrat dialogue project.

Patreon: patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

YouTube: youtube.com/@JewishDiasporistMakingMensches

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/

Endless Gratitude to Aly Halpert for the intro music: open.spotify.com/artist/5ilJZ0nHG41CYddwNuP3f6?si=EH0Uy2JATLK0w-x-IAIIRA

Noodnik, the Magazine of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (noodnik.at)

This is the second part of our collaboration with Jessie and Elana from Making Mensches! This time, we exploree the roots of their politics and development as explicitly anti-Zionist Jewish educators. We wish to connect this to a broader discussion: How should diasporists relate to Zionism? How does it differ from Anti-Zionism?

As mainstream discourse has become hyper-polarised, we are excited to continue and expand this collaboration in the hope of modelling and fostering a culture of critical and constructive dialogue.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to Jessie for editing this episode for us - it would have been very difficult to get out on time otherwise!

Endless gratitude to Aly Halpert for continuing to let us use her music for our intro and outro, check her out: open.spotify.com/artist/5ilJZ0nHG41CYddwNuP3f6?si=EH0Uy2JATLK0w-x-IAIIRA

Support our work on Patreon with as little as 1$ a month! patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

Youtube: / @thejewishdiasporist

Instagram: instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/?hl=en

How can Jewish identity inform labor organizing and what might a Jewish labour movement look like in the 21st century? This week we spoke to Laura Jaffee and Ely Flores, two Jewish labour organizers with the SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, who are based in Syracuse New York. With our guests we explore the strategy and structure of the historical and present labour movement to better understand how the movement can become more intersectional and socially-transformative.

Support our work on Patreon with as little as 1$ a month: https://www.patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJewishDiasporist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejewishdiasporistpod/?hl=en

Making Mensches Presents: Diasporism as Action. This is the first episode of a collaboration between our two podcasts which in the spirit of building a united Jewish left, we are hoping to eventually develop into a wider partnership.

As they interviewed us: "We talk about how The Jewish Diasporist podcast started and what it means to identify as a "diasporist," a bit about the founders personal backgrounds, and how they conceive of the connection between anti-zionism and diasporism. Stay tuned for future collaboration with them, and as usual, free Palestine, by any means necessary.

Some things of note:

-DONATE to help Tzion Kaukira provide copies of the torah in Luganda in the 12 synagogues across Uganda

-Zach, one of the founders of The Jewish Diasporist, is from Poland and is eager to help other folks with lineage there discover family history. If you want to take him up on this, feel free to reach out to him by emailing [email protected]

-Jordan talks more about the ecology of love on this episode of The Jewish Diasporist

-Zach wrote this piece for Forward about the Polish parliament Hanukkah incident, we encourage folks to give it a read if they don't know about the incident"

--- Support the Making Mensches podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makingmensches/support

Today, many on the Jewish left see Jewish politics and Labor politics as fundamentally distinct; however, for decades beginning in the mid 19th century, specifically Jewish labor movements thrived across the diaspora. Due to a variety of factors, these were largely integrated into their national movements, and ceased to have an identity of their own by the mid-20th century. Nevertheless, Jews continue to play an active role in Labor struggles around the world. Is there a place for a new Jewish labor movement in the 21st century?

To start exploring this question, we spoke with Laurie Debeni, a Jewish Labor organizer active in Poland. This is the first episode in a (at least) two-part series about the intersection of Jewish diasporist and labor politics. As we dream of and work toward building a better world, we believe that re-integrating these disparate fields of progressive politics can mutually strengthen the movements as they struggle for social transformation. As socialists, we cannot forget that "the cause of labor is the hope of the world."

We'd like to once again thank Dan Nichols for allowing us to use his music for our intro and outro. Check out his work here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gkNgLMQGE2fM2pFHlrzTy?si=_WykDF0rRHK8YEokhVeXAQ

If you like what we're doing and would like to support our work, consider becoming a monthly donor on Patreon: http://patreon.com/TheJewishDiasporist