The Jewish Left

New Publications: CURA’s Symposium on the Jewish Left

The Jewish left is having an intertwined renaissance and crisis. Organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow (INN) are among the most visible leaders of the campaign for a ceasefire in Gaza. Intellectuals like Peter Beinart, Judith Butler, Ezra Klein, and Shaul Magid are shaping international debates about identity, politics, and justice. And yet despite mass mobilization, intellectual influence, and generational change, the Jewish left’s influence on U.S. and Israeli government policy is marginal. What explains the renaissance of the Jewish left, now? Where are the possibilities for institution-building in this moment of renaissance and crisis? Why should scholars care?

On May 3rd, 2024, CURA organized a symposium on the Jewish left to tackle these questions. Bringing together activists and theorists, scholars and practitioners, grandparents and grandchildren, the event worked to theorize the past and present to map the Jewish left’s path forward. Speakers included some of the leading voices of the Jewish left and representatives of prominent international organizations. This inaugural event was a gathering space for scholars, students, and activists to examine the evolving role of the Jewish left in contemporary social movements and global affairs. This symposium is out now in the journal Critical Research on Religion:

Introduction to the Symposium in the Jewish Left by Jeremy Menchik
https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032241269655

“Beyond Zionism and Anti-Zionism: A Future of the American Jewish Left and the Negation of the ‘Negation of the Diaspora’” by Shaul Magid
https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032241267244

“Decolonizing religion and the practice of peace: Two case studies from the postcolonial world,” by Atalia Omer
https://doi.org/10.1177/2050303220924111

“The Invitation of Do’ikayt: Mystical anarchism and the Jewish Left” by Andy Izenson
https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032241269610

Together, the contributions to the symposium highlight the history, vivacity, and challenges facing the Jewish left at a moment of renaissance and crisis. Why should scholars care? Studying the Jewish left offers us an opportunity to map the political implications of demographic change, to observe political institutions adapt and respond to moments of crisis, and to see the recycling and refreshing of a religious and political tradition. For these reasons and more, CURA is excited to share this inaugural symposium on the Jewish left.

Shaul Magid Shaul Magid is Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and Visiting Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School. His recent books include The Bible, the Talmud (University of Pennslyvasian Press, 2019), The New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik’s Commentary to the Gospel (University of Pennslyvasian Press, 2019) and Piety and Rebellion: Essay in Hasidism (Academic Studies Press, 2019); Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical (Princeton University Press), and The Necessity of Exile (Ayin Press, 2023)

Daniel May Daniel May is publisher of Jewish Currents. He received his PhD in Religion from Princeton University, is an instructor at Hebrew Union College and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. His writing has appeared in Jewish Currents, Haaretz, The Nation, and other publications.

Andy Izenson Andy Izenson is the Senior Legal Director of the Chosen Family Law Center and the staff attorney at the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic at Harvard Law School. They have taught for many years on queer and trans family law, prison abolition and transformative community building, and communication skills for the revolution, including at Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Yale Divinity School, and have recently founded the teach-in series “The World That Is Coming: A Do’ikayt Teach-in” to unearth and explore a Jewish mystical anarchism. Andy has long served on the board of the NYC National Lawyers Guild, including serving as president from 2018 to 2021, and on the board of their Renewal synagogue, Kol Hai. Andy’s publications include the Advocate, the Queer Magic Anthology, the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, Listen To Your Skin: An Anthology of Queer and Self Love, the After Marriage Equality Collection, and the Brill Journal of Religion and the Arts, and they live on a trans commune on Lenape land in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Atalia Omer Atalia Omer is a Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Her research focuses on religion, violence, and peacebuilding as well as theories and methods in the study of religion. She was a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, resulting in Decolonizing Religion and Peacebuilding, published in June 2023 by Oxford University Press). She is the author of Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians (University of Chicago Press, 2019) and When Peace Is Not Enough: How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks about Religion, Nationalism, and Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2013). She is also a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2015) and a co-author (with Jason A. Springs) of Religious Nationalism: A Reference Handbook (ABC-CLIO, 2013). Omer has published articles in various peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Journal of Religious Ethics, Soundings, The Journal of Political Theology, The Study of Nationalism and Ethnicity, The International Journal of Peace Studies, Critical Research on Religion, and The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Irena Klepfisz Irena Klepfisz taught Jewish Women’s Studies at Barnard College for 22 years. She is the author of four books of poetry including A Few Words in the Mother Tongue, and a collection of essays Dreams of an Insomniac. She was a co-founder the literary Conditions magazine and co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology. She has been an advocate of the Yiddish language and active in its renaissance and her poetry (English and bilingual) and essays on Yiddish women writers and intellectuals have appeared in Jewish Currents, Bridges, In Geveb, Sinister Wisdom, The Manhattan Review, and The Georgia Review. Since the early 1980s, she has been politically active in working for peace between Jews and Palestinians. She was a member of the lesbian group Di vilde khayes (The Wild Beasts) and co-founded The Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation (JWCEO). She served as Executive Director of New Jewish Agenda (NJA) and later worked with Brit Tzedek. In 2023, her most recent poetry collection Her Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems, 1971-2021 was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award in poetry and winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry.