On the Nose

Over an election night that brought big wins for Democrats across the country, Abdul El-Sayed comfortably won his Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers, despite prognostications that many Jewish Democrats would flip to Rogers because of El-Sayed’s unapologetic pro-Palestine stance and the eleventh-hour endorsement of Rogers by the staunchly pro-Israel Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the primary. Some heavily Jewish Michigan districts did post softer numbers for El-Sayed compared to the 2024 vote for Kamala Harris or this election’s vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, but the mass defection did not materialize, with El-Sayed garnering 60% of the Jewish vote, by some accounts. El-Sayed triumphed over around $42 million in AIPAC spending against him over the course of his campaign, as well as blatantly Islamophobic attacks by Rogers and Donald Trump claiming El-Sayed would implement sharia law. He also bested efforts from the Jewish establishment, which came together under the banner of a new organization called Nonnegotiable, threatening to withhold their votes unless El-Sayed changed his tune on Israel. He did not, and—buoyed by the Muslim, Black, and youth vote—he is heading to the US Senate. Our news desk has been reporting from the ground in Michigan this election cycle (sign up here to get their newsletter in your inbox!). On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents news director Josh Nathan-Kazis and senior reporter Alex Kane join Arielle Angel for an examination of the Michigan election, and the ways pro-Israel actors showed their weakness. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Links and Further Reading “In Michigan, the Pro-Palestine Movement Claims Its Biggest Prize Yet,” Mari Cohen and Alex Kane, Jewish Currents “The Election Cycle That Shattered the Pro-Israel Consensus,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents “Could Jewish Democrats Actually Cost Abdul El-Sayed a Senate Seat?,” Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, and Josh Nathan-Kazis, Jewish Currents “In the Michigan Senate Race, Mike Rogers Is Stoking Jewish Fear. Will It Work?,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents “Who Speaks for Black Voters?,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents “‘No, Sir!’ MS NOW Focus Group of Black Voters Says They’re Iffy on El-Sayed,” Morning Joe, MS NOW “Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed apologizes to Michigan Jewish Democrats,” Erum Salam and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, MS NOW ADL election night statements “These Michigan rabbis couldn’t move El-Sayed. Undeterred, they’re starting a national movement.,” Andrew Lapin, JTA “Mamdani Says He Will ‘Discourage’ the Term ‘Globalize the Intifada,’” Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Lauren Hirsch, The New York Times “El-Sayed distances himself from ad tying Gaza war to increased costs,” Teo Armus, The Washington Post “On the Michigan Synagogue Attack,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents “Trump Scrambles to Halt Military Aid to Israel to Deprive El-Sayed of a Talking Point,” Nick Turse, The Intercept “‘A decision of conscience’: Haley Stevens defends decision to endorse Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed,” Brandon Carr, Click On Detroit El-Sayed’s ad appealing to Republican voters Rebellion PAC ad Hasan Piker realizing 235,000 people were watching his election coverage “Why Haley Stevens Can’t Stop Talking About Abdul El-Sayed,” Reid J. Epstein, The New York Times Hannah Einbeinder’s Haley Stevens impression Transcript forthcoming.

From the Shoah to McCarthyism to the failures of the New Left, it has been a long 20th century for radical Jews. Each new iteration of the Jewish left finds itself building on a legacy that has been largely buried, learning from a history of defeat at the hands of much more powerful forces. Given those losses, what do we inherit from both our movement ancestors and our actual kin? How does their example shape the way we organize in the present? Are there models from which we might learn? Or must we create something new for every new moment? On this episode of On the Nose, recorded live from a panel at Jewish Currents Live on October 11th, Arielle Angel tackles these questions with artist and writer Molly Crabapple, author Harriet Clark, and poet and activist Irena Klepfisz. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Links and Further Reading “The Hill,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents “Here Where We Live Is Our Country,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents “For Eli Jacobson” by Kenneth Rexroth “Beyond Grievance,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents “The Work of Love in Recollecting One Who is Dead,” Sören Kierkegaard, Works of Love

Seasons of Fury, a new book by the journalist Rozina Ali, tells a sweeping history of American Islamophobia through narrative reporting on four American Muslim families with varied backgrounds. The book reveals that American Zionism is integral to the story of anti-Muslim bias in the US. The legal structures for surveilling and criminalizing Muslims originated in US officials’ preoccupation with Palestinian militants in the 20th century, and Zionist organizations have been key participants in a broad civil society ecosystem pushing Islamophobia in the American mainstream. In this episode of On the Nose, senior politics editor Mari Cohen guest hosts to interview Ali about the book and her findings. They discuss how the targeting of Arab activists morphed into anti-Muslim sentiment; how the definition of terrorism changed in the 20th century and came to be associated with Islam; how the Anti-Defamation League has abetted Islamophobia; and how antisemitism and Islamophobia are pitted against each other in American politics. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Links and Further Reading Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America by Rozina Ali Disciplining Terror by Lisa Stampnitzky “Painful memory for Muslims: Outrage over a proposed Islamic center in Manhattan,” Anne Barnard, New York Times The Feeling of Being Watched by Assia Boundaoui “How the ADL’s Anti-Palestinian Advocacy Helped Shape U.S. Terror Laws,” Darryl Li, The Intercept ADL amicus brief in Humanitarian Law Project vs. Holder “Jewish Communities Must Root Out Islamophobia,” Donna Nevel, Jewish Currents “When ‘Jewish Security’ Meets Muslim Surveillance,” Asad Dandia, Jewish Currents ADL changes its tune on mosques, Justin Elliott, Salon The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State by Emmaia Gelman

On July 9th, PEN America published an article called “A Silent Moratorium,” which asserts that Jewish and Israeli writers face “blatant hostility, discrimination, and hate” and attempts to chart the “impact on their freedom of expression.” The PEN article affirms a narrative advanced across Jewish media and mainstream press alike that—as the headline of a piece by James Kirchick in The New York Times put it—“a chill has fallen over Jews in publishing” amid the war on Gaza. The article has since been joined by other attempts to quantify the damage to Jewish letters: An article by the writer Meg Keene attempted to provide data to support the claim of a precipitous dropoff in Jewish books since 2023. The ADL recently added another report to the pile. Last week, we published a report written by Josh Lambert, director of Jewish studies at Wellesley College, and Dan Sinykin, director of graduate studies at Emory University—both researchers of publishing history, with expertise between them in contemporary Jewish literature and quantitative literary studies. The piece took on the claims of the PEN America article, about which they wrote, “Digging into its anecdotal reports of abandonment by agents and missing book deals, online harassment and review-bombing, we found that many of the claims were too vague to qualify as evidence, and that many accounts . . . turn out to be imprecise at best and entirely false at worst.” They also examined Keene’s data and ran some of their own; it turns out the picture of the number of Jewish titles being published looks very different with a more solid methodology. On this episode of On the Nose, Arielle Angel speaks with Lambert and Sinykin about what these accounts of anti-Jewish sentiment in publishing got wrong, and what it means about the current market for both Zionist and anti-Zionist books. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Links and Further Reading “What PEN America Got Wrong About Antisemitism in Publishing,” Josh Lambert and Dan Sinykin, Jewish Currents “A Silent Moratorium,” PEN America “I gathered the data on Jewish fiction publishing. The trends are alarming.,” Meg Keene, JTA ADL report on antisemitism in publishing Josh Lambert’s Jewish book column, “State of the Genre” Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi “I'm not happy about it, but I wrote about PEN.,” Josh Lambert’s Substack Chad Post and the 3% rule “A Bookshop Cancels an Event Over a Rabbi’s Zionism, Prompting Outrage,” Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times “Examining the ADL’s Antisemitism Audit,” Shane Burley and Naomi Bennet, Jewish Currents The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder Erasure by Percival Everett “Repetition and Solipsism in the ‘Israel Debate’ Play,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents “An Open Letter to the Jewish Book Council From a Concerned Group of Jewish Writers,” Literary Hub Register for JC Live! Register for the New Jewish Institutions Skill-building Boot Camp! Transcript forthcoming.

Naza, a film by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, features interviews with 24 members of elite intelligence units in the Israeli military describing the mechanics of carrying out remote, indiscriminate mass killing in Gaza. Since news spread of a 25-minute standing ovation for the film at the Venice Film Festival, it has provoked intense debate, with some Palestinians expressing criticism of the way that Israelis’ confessions have made the genocide more “real” in the West than Palestinians’ own testimony. Meanwhile, in Israel, the film has elicited disturbing incitement against the filmmakers (who currently remain abroad), and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship. What is the unique function of cinema focused on the perpetrators of genocide? How do we understand the concept of “evil” in listening to the voices of the murderers? And can these testimonies provoke a reckoning within global Jewry? To discuss these questions, Arielle Angel speaks with two filmmakers: Rami Younis, Palestinian journalist and co-director of the film Lyd, about the city in historic Palestine, now in the south of Israel; and Joshua Oppenheimer, director of the Oscar-nominated films The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, about the Indonesian genocide. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Links and Further Reading Naza, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and Anonymous Lyd, directed by Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland “Gaza before and after: New Google Maps imagery shows destruction of the Strip,” José A. Álvarez and Anna Navarro, El País Mosab Abu Toha’s post on X “‘NAZA’ is forcing Israelis to reflect. But we Palestinians are not your mirror,” Ayat Abou Shmeiss, +972 Magazine “The moment a human life becomes ‘collateral damage,’” Mahmoud Mushtaha, +972 Magazine Mairav Zonszein post on X “Palestinian Suffering Must Pass Through an Israeli Voice to Be Heard,” Hanin Majadli, Haaretz Rami Younis’s interview with Hany Abu Assad at Palestine Cinema “Watching 'NAZA' Shocked Me. So Did What Its Creators Left Out,” Raviv Drucker, Haaretz Raviv Drucker interviewing Yuval Abraham “'It hurts me' - Guardiola vows to speak up on conflicts,” Shamoon Hafez, BBC “‘Violent and baseless raid’: Human rights group demands probe of police over Umm el-Fahm wedding,” Yoav Etiel, The Jerusalem Post Register for JC Live! Register for the New Jewish Institutions Skill-building Boot Camp! Transcript forthcoming.