Articles

This essay argues that American Jews face a defining choice between a Judaism bound to nationalism and one rooted in ethical universalism and democratic freedom. Tracing its lineage to the early Reform movement, the American Council for Judaism reaffirms that Jewish life does not depend on a state but on Torah’s core teaching that every person is created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image of God. Rabbi Andrue Kahn denounces the recent “Rabbinic Call” attacking Zohran Mamdani as an authoritarian attempt to equate Jewish identity with loyalty to Israel and to silence dissent within Jewish and Democratic politics. Most Jews, he contends, reject such conflation and oppose Israel’s assault on Gaza, seeing Jewish safety in solidarity and justice at home, not in nationalism abroad. Reclaiming Judaism’s tradition of debate and conscience, Kahn calls for building diverse, democratic Jewish futures grounded in human dignity and collective liberation.

Qian Julie Wang reflects on how both American culture and American Judaism often define identity through victimhood, turning suffering into a kind of currency that fuels competition and vengeance rather than justice or healing. Drawing on the Binding of Isaac, she contrasts readings of Isaac as helpless victim or empowered adult to show that we can choose to live from agency instead of powerlessness. In this season of teshuvah, she calls us to reclaim power and privilege not as tainted words but as sacred responsibilities, reminding us that each of us is both David and Goliath, oppressed and oppressor. Our task is to embrace the perspective that empowers us to care for one another and to build a world where suffering is not the measure of worth.

Jerusalem Day has come to be a celebration of violent Jewish nationalism under the guise of religious unity. Drawing on the heterodox thinking of Isaiah Berlin and Rav Shagar, Shaul Magid explores two competing visions of liberation—and two Jerusalems: one that dominates its non-Jewish inhabitants, and one that could embrace them as full participants. Through close readings of Rav Shagar’s sermons, Magid uncovers the theological and political fault lines at the heart of contemporary Zionism.

Today, it is our duty to reach back to the sources of our traditions to seek out who they were built for—a search for who we are today in line with the question of 'who have we been'?