Program
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Optimism of the Will: Arielle Angel on 8 years of Jewish Currents
A conversation with Rabbi Andy Kahn on what eight years in the work has taught her, and what she wants us to know now.
After eight years as editor in chief of Jewish Currents, Arielle Angel has stepped down. Under her leadership, the magazine has become one of the most influential voices on the Jewish left, shaping how a generation thinks about Jewish life, Zionism, Palestine, and the failure of mainstream Jewish institutions.
This conversation is a chance to hear what she has learned as she has spent nearly a decade in the trenches of Jewish public life, writing and editing through Gaza 2014, the Trump years, October 7th and its aftermath, and the slow unraveling of American Jewish institutional consensus on Israel. She has highlighted both grief and rage without blunting either, and she has held to the conviction that honesty is itself a catalyst.
Rabbi Andy Kahn sits down with Arielle to ask what eight years in the work have taught her, and what she can teach us. We'll learn what she has come to know about hope, despair, the Jewish landscape now, and what she wants us to carry forward.
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Global Shavuot Teach-in "From the US to Palestine: Solidarity is Holy"
On May 21st-22nd, the American Council for Judaism and Rabbis for Ceasefire will be hosting our third annual Global Shavuot Teach-in
Under the theme “From the U.S. to Palestine: Solidarity is Holy” we will demonstrate global Jewish solidarity with Palestine, deepen relationships across continents, and develop shared analyses, songs, interpretations of texts and beyond that guide our way to liberation.
This teach-in will be wide ranging including short films and discussions, traditional Jewish text studies, skill shares, song shares, history lessons, political discussions, art making workshops and beyond!
We look forward to seeing you there!
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Keeping the Score: Jewish Trauma, Memory, and Healing with Jon Danforth-Appell
What if the dominant progressive Jewish explanation for Zionist attachment, that our bodies carry the accumulated trauma of generations, is itself a kind of myth?
In his just-published essay for @jewishcurrents, "Does the Jewish Body Keep the Score?", writer Jon Danforth-Appell traces how the language of embodied, intergenerational trauma has come to saturate Jewish organizing spaces over the past decade. He argues that this framework treats Zionism, a political project, as a pathology, and in the process flattens a wildly diverse community into a single wounded body, relieving us of agency in the process.
Join Rabbi Andy Kahn in conversation with Jon on Tuesday, April 28 at 3:30 PM EST for a public education conversation exploring the history, theory, and politics of "Jewish trauma" as a concept. We'll talk about where these ideas come from, what they do inside our institutions, and what becomes possible when we accept agency as creators of Judaism.
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- Midtown, NYC
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Upside-Down Love: A Conversation with Sari Bashi
The American Council for Judaism, Community Church of New York, Jewish Currents, Rabbis for Ceasefire and 15th Street Monthly Meeting (Quakers), invite you to an evening with author and human rights lawyer Sari Bashi, in conversation with Rabbi Andy Kahn, discussing her memoir Upside-Down Love.
Upside-Down Love tells the story of Sari and her partner Osama, a Palestinian professor originally from Gaza, and the life they have built together in the West Bank under the apartheid conditions of restricted movement, legal uncertainty, and enforced separation. The memoir speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction.
Together, Sari Bashi and Rabbi Kahn will explore how personal story, law, and Jewish ethical frameworks can illuminate paths toward a more humane future.
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