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Resisting Zionism’s Erasure: Molly Crabapple and the Jewish Bund

By Richard Kuper

Molly Crabapple’s account of an 11-year journey in search of the past , Here Where We Live Is Our Country, will be published next week by One World/Random House.

She describes how she was set on her journey by coming across a watercolour by her great-grandfather, the post-Impressionist artist Sam Rothbort, captioned “Itka the Bundist, Breaking Windows”.

It led her on a long voyage discovering what Bundism was and to the imminent publication of her latest book, an epic history of the Jewish movement that refused Zionism’s pressure to colonize and subjugate another people.

Taking stock on the war on Iran

By Richard Kuper

Through the nonsensical miasma of illogical, ahistorical, untrue and self-contradictory utterances by the American president and his administration about their war on Iran, each one more ridiculous than the last, a few things are starting to stand out with some degree of clarity. They are pointers of a kind to today, tomorrow and after that. … Continued

Biggest protest in U.S. history. Now what?

By Richard Kuper

Jewish Voice for Peace reports on the extraordinary national No Kings demonstration which saw the biggest protest mobilisation in US history.

The recognise the despair so many feel, but also the anger.

“As organizers,” they affirm, we need to know how to harness that outrage and transform it into sustained, collective action.”

A Bundist liberatory seder supplement

By Richard Kuper

“Even if we’re clear-eyed about the politics of the story, as Bundists we don’t wait for plagues to fall from the sky to bring liberation. We know it only comes from organizing and fighting (and drinking and singing along the way). And we know that our only true wins are the ones we can fight to protect.”

Jewish Bloc for Palestine Statement on Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham’s conviction

By Richard Kuper

The Jewish Bloc is appalled at the conviction of Ben Jamal of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Chris Nineham of Stop the War, two incredible individuals within the Palestine solidarity movement, who we as a bloc have had the pleasure of working with for many years.

The arrests were inappropriate and the decision to proceed to charge and trial an abuse. This is a shocking miscarriage of ‘justice’.

It is happening under current law; the Crime and Policing Bill which has almost completed its passage through parliament will further exacerbate the situation by giving police sweeping new powers to disrupt public protest.

‘The rope is for Arabs only’

By Richard Kuper

Palestinian academic Abdaljawad Omar puts Israel’s new death penalty law in context.

First, it “legalizes an already existing policy of executions” but now sets a clearer timetable for them.

Second, it is a British invention and custom, through and through. This was how Britain executed its mandate…

US Jewish Establishment excels itself in stupidity

By Richard Kuper

MJ Rosenberg is justifiably outraged about the warped political culture that now passes for “Jewish communal leadership”.

For them, the gravest threat today “isn’t authoritarianism, isn’t rising right-wing antisemitism, isn’t a president demanding lists of Jewish students—but a Muslim mayor showing up at a seder”.

Passover: Liberation and collective punishment

By Leah Levane

The recitation of the Ten Plagues, writes Rabbi Brant Rosen, “is one of the signature moments of the Passover seder – and for many, one the most morally problematic.”

The risks inherent in the Passover story are that people may feel vindicated in considering only the importance of the victory and not the suffering of the vanquished or the horrors of the methods used.

As we go to our various Seders this year, Rabbi Rosen’s essay gives us much to consider.

Chag sameach! Gut yontif!

The attack on the right to protest in the UK is not just about Palestine

By Richard Kuper

Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Chris Nineham, vice chair of Stop the War Coalition, were both found guilty today of breaching the Public Order Act 1986.

It is a shocking decision and will be appealed. But, in the meantime, it is another nail in the coffin of the right to freedom of expression and assembly.

In this article published shortly before the verdict was announced, Feyzi Ismail summarises the growing efforts by successive British governments to roll back our rights.

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