Dear fellow liberal Zionists: The establishment doesn’t want us

By Abe Silberstein March 1, 2016

Three weeks ago, I attended a small lunch event at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House featuring spokespeople from the New Israel Fund and Breaking the Silence, as well as the Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard. Given the recent tension at my alma mater between student supporters of Israel and members of Students for Justice in…

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HaaretzQ addresses some questions; raises more

By Chloe Sobel December 16, 2015

Perhaps nothing characterizes the divisions I see in American and world Jewry better than the list of opening and closing keynote speakers at HaaretzQ, a conference on Israel hosted by Haaretz and the New Israel Fund in New York Sunday. The day kicked off with speeches from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, MK Tzipi Livni of…

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Brunch With Progressive MK Merav Michaeli and the American Jewish Left

By Derek M. Kwait December 16, 2014

Merav Michaeli, the Israeli journalist and women’s rights activist-turned-Knesset member for the Labor Party, is a sign of hope for a progressive future in Israel. Last Tuesday, she tried to convince an exclusive crowd of worried Jewish leftists gathered in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that there was hope for the upcoming elections…

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If Jewish Organizations Want to Secure the Jewish Future, They Need to Stop Alienating It

By Derek M. Kwait May 6, 2014

Hannah Silverfine’s experience with a Jewish education that taught only a very narrow definition of “pro Israel” is not only a problem in the Reform Movement.  I agree that a good argument can be made for teaching children why support of Israel is important first, then leave the messy stuff for when they’re old enough…

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The Future of Jewish Art And The Israel Vortex

By lcuen June 16, 2011

I could write a whole article just listing Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow’s achievements. Kaufman is the founder and former director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first, largest, and possibly the most prestigious Jewish film festival in the world. She has been on the boards of the California Council for the Humanities,…

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Defending Real Zionism

By Ben Sales February 2, 2010

The first time I heard about Im Tirtzu I was in a kosher Florida pizzeria that was selling the organization’s shirts in exchange of a substantial donation. I asked the cashier what the group was all about. “Tzionut,” she said. Zionism. Bu what kind of Zionism? She didn’t give any specifics. Last week, I found…

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