Zohran, the Jews, and Reckoning with Gaza (w/ Peter Beinart)

This episode isn't focused on a single topic or text, but rather just wanting to have a wide-ranging conversation with our guest, Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and author of the recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775348/being-jewi…). We start by discussing the appalling wave of Islamophobic attacks against Zohran Mamdani during the last weeks of his victorious mayoral campaign, the short-sighted embrace of such bigotry by too many American Jews and Jewish institutions, the current iterations of anti-semitism roiling the right, religious tradition and progressive politics, changing your mind, and more.
Listen again: "Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL (know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episod…)" (w/ Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart), Sept 26, 2023
Sources:
Zohran Mamdani, "My Message to Muslim New Yorkers—and Everyone Who Calls This City Home (youtube.com/watch?v=uGBQwCsIhn0)," YouTube, Oct 24, 2025
Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775348/being-jewi…) (2025)
Mark Mazower, On Antisemitism: A Word in History (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768066/on-antisem…), (2025)
Arwa Mahdawi, "Mamdani's Mayoral Race was Marred by Unhinged Islamophobia. It's Not Going Away Soon (theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/06/zohr…)," The Guardian, Nov 6, 2025
Romanus Cessario, O.P., "Non Possumus (firstthings.com/non-possumus)," First Things, Feb 1, 2018
George Washington, "To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-…)," August 18, 1790
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