On the Nose

Jewish Currents
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On the Nose is a biweekly podcast by Jewish Currents, a magazine of the Jewish left founded in 1946. The editorial staff discusses the politics, culture, and questions that animate today’s Jewish left.

  1. 2 days ago

    Nadav Lapid Faces “No”

    Over the last couple weeks, there has been an enormous amount written—from The New York Times to Le Monde to Haaretz, among other places—about a controversy centered on Nadav Lapid, an Israeli filmmaker living in France. Lapid has made several critically acclaimed films, including Synonyms, Ahed’s Knee, and, most recently, Yes, and his work has taken home jury prizes at the Berlinale and Cannes. The recent controversy was focused on the FIDMarseille international film festival. There was a planned retrospective of Palestinian films at the festival this year. Meanwhile, Lapid was invited to head the jury. It was also decided that there would be an event honoring him, and that he would teach a master class. When a dozen filmmakers threatened to pull their films from the festival, Lapid withdrew as head of the jury. When that did not quell the protests, he decided to cancel the event and the master class, as well. The response from many in the film world has largely been to rally around Lapid, with two letters published in Le Monde, one of them garnering over 350 signatures of high-profile figures in the industry. The letters allege that Lapid is being boycotted solely because of his identity. One of them declares, “Nothing justifies the silencing of an artist . . . the cultural boycott is an intellectual dead end that we must collectively overcome.” Meanwhile, Film Workers for Palestine, allied with PACBI, which coordinates the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, published a translation of a statement by Palestine Will Save Cinema, pointing to the fact that Nadav Lapid’s latest film, Yes, received support from the Israeli Film Fund, was presented at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival as an Israeli co‑production, and competed for the Ophir Awards (akin to Israel’s Academy Awards). “States have always invested in cinema, literature, the arts, and festivals as instruments of influence and legitimacy. Cultural production does not circulate in a political vacuum. It contributes to the representation of nations, the construction of their international image, and the dissemination of their narratives,” they wrote. “This is precisely why cultural boycott exists. Not because artists are responsible for the crimes committed by their governments, nor because certain works should be prohibited, but because cultural institutions, funding systems, and distribution policies play a concrete role in states’ strategies of legitimation.” There can be no mistaking the content of Yes, which seeks to depict the depravity of Israeli society during the genocide. But it does open with the icon of Israel’s Ministry of Culture, due to the support it took from the Israeli Film Fund, which accounted for 13% of the film’s funding. On this episode of On the Nose, Arielle Angel talks to Nadav Lapid about the recent controversy, and the two hash out some of their disagreements about cultural boycott. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading “‘Guilty by Virtue of My Identity,’” Nirit Anderman, Haaretz Two letters in support of Nadav Lapid, published in Le Monde Film Workers for Palestine translation of Palestine Will Save Cinema statement on FID Marseillle Film Workers for Palestine Pledge to End Complicity “What the NY Knicks Mania Reveals About Israelis and Collective Blame for Gaza,” Libby Lenkinski, Haaretz “Thank You for Boycotting Me: As an Israeli Filmmaker, Here’s Why Global Pressure Amid Gaza Matters,” Avigail Sperber, Haaretz “Paul Simon’s Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage,” Robin Denselow, The Guardian “Non,” Catherine Haas, lundimatin “Is the cultural boycott of Israel an effective political tool for the Palestinian cause?” on Radio France “Israeli Grotesque,” Mitchell Abidor, Jewish Currents Transcript forthcoming.

    39 min

  2. 18 Jun

    Politics and the Jewish Body

    In the latest issue of Jewish Currents, we published a piece called “Does the Jewish Body Keep the Score?” by Jon Danforth-Appell, which looks at three recent left-wing books about the relationship between Jewish trauma and Zionism, and challenges the view that Zionism in Jewish communities constitutes a trauma response that will need to be healed in order to be fought. On this episode of On the Nose, Arielle Angel speaks with the author of one of those books, Wendy Elisheva Somerson, known as Wes, a somatic healer who helped found the Seattle chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and published An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing last year. Angel and Somerson discuss the risk of essentializing about “Jewish bodies,” whether implanted or prosthetic trauma still needs to be “healed,” and what it means to claim Jewish ritual as somatic practice. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing by Wendy Elisheva Somerson Ruach healing groups “Western Philosophy as White Supremacism,” Crispin Sartwell, The Philosophical Salon Power-Under: Trauma and Nonviolent Social Change by Steven Wineman “Prosthetic Trauma at the Nova Exhibition: Holocaust Memory, Reenactment, and the Affective Reproduction of Genocidal Nightmares,” Ben Ratskoff, Journal of Genocide Research “Picturing Power,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma by Tirzah Firestone Taking the State Out of the Body: A Guide to Embodied Resistance to Zionism by Eliana Rubin Transcript forthcoming.

    53 min

  3. 28 May

    Sally Rooney in Hebrew

    In 2021, famed Irish author Sally Rooney declined to publish her book in Israel because there was no BDS-compliant publisher. At the time, she said she would be “pleased and proud” to have her books translated into Hebrew, as long as it was done in a way that respected the principles of the boycott. Last week, Rooney announced that she was publishing a Hebrew translation of her latest book, Intermezzo, with November Books and +972 Magazine. The publishers had been vetted by PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and deemed BDS compliant. This means November Books does not operate in Israeli settlements, receives no state funding, and explicitly recognizes the Palestinian right of return. In The Guardian, Rooney said she “kept in touch with PACBI along the way to try to ensure that I was upholding both the letter and the spirit of the institutional boycott.” Immediately, there was backlash. Some Palestinian writers, including Mohammed El Kurd and Susan Abulhawa, questioned the decision to use this “loophole” in BDS guidelines to bring the book to Israeli audiences. Why now? And why this? Even if it adheres to the letter of the boycott, does it capture the spirit, as Rooney says? On this episode of On the Nose, Arielle Angel speaks with Ahmed Moor, a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace; Maya Rosen, assistant editor at Jewish Currents; and Muhammad Shehada, a writer from Gaza and a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, about this tempest in a teapot surrounding the Hebrew translation of Intermezzo. They discuss whether this action hit its strategic marks, and what the response says about the Palestine movement’s relationship to both the Israeli left and the prospect of changing Israeli society. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading BDS Guidelines “On +972 Magazine, Sally Rooney, and the centering of Israelis in an anti-colonial movement,” Susan Abulhawa, Mondoweiss The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé “Yuval Noah Harari on Donald Trump’s Core Delusion,” The Ezra Klein Show Perfect Victims by Mohammed El Kurd “We’re publishing Sally Rooney in Hebrew, in line with BDS. Here’s how and why,” Haggai Matar, +972 Magazine Salma Shawa discussing Hebrew on Instagram “In the Middle of Our Palestinian Neighborhood, My Daughter Started Yelling in Hebrew,” Sari Bashi, Haaretz PACBI’s Position on No Other Land “Did Zionism Go Wrong or Was It Always Wrong?,” Peter Beinart with Omer Bartov and Gideon Levy on the Beinart Notebook on Substack Transcript forthcoming.

    46 min

  4. 14 May

    The Wrong Way to Fight Antisemitism in Britain

    On April 29th in London, an attacker stabbed a Muslim acquaintance before traveling to the largely Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green and stabbing two Jewish men at random. This was only the latest in a string of attacks on Jews, synagogues, or other communal infrastructure in the UK since mid-March; other instances have included arson attacks on three synagogues as well as Hatzola ambulances. The British Jewish community—already on edge since the Yom Kippur attack on a Manchester synagogue that killed two and injured three—is in a state of rising alarm. Predictably, Jewish communal leaders, politicians, and the police have baselessly sought to tie the attacks to the Palestine solidarity movement, justifying crackdowns in civil liberties and proposing increased police budgets. The backdrop to these attacks is a local election cycle in which the two major parties, Conservative and Labour, lost substantial ground to tertiary parties on their wings: Reform on the right, and the Green Party on the left. Though newly elected members of the Reform Party include avowed racists and Holocaust deniers, much of the media attention has been on candidates whom the Green Party has removed from contention because of charges of antisemitism. There is particular focus on the head of the Green Party, 43-year-old Zack Polanski, whose Jewish identity and pro-Palestine stance has shattered some of the received wisdom about who British Jews are, announcing a new era in UK Jewish left politics. To discuss the London attacks and their political fallout, Arielle Angel speaks with Brendan McGeever, co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at the University of London, and Em Hilton, co-founder of Na’amod, an organization of British Jews opposing Israeli occupation and apartheid. They parse what we do and don’t know about these attacks, and critique the government’s response, which casts Jews as special wards of the state at the expense of civil liberties and the safety of other minority groups. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Articles Mentioned and Further Reading Brendan McGeever in the Jewish Currents newsletter Jewish Policy Research survey on UK Jews’ feelings about antisemitism, UK Jewish voters voting Green, and UK Jewish identification with Zionism “The present crisis,” editors of Vashti “Good Jews, Bad Jews,” Barnaby Raine interviewed by Gavin Jacobson, Equator “The difficult truth about antisemitism in the UK,” Brendan McGeever, Ben Gidley, David Feldman, Prospect “Anti-terrorist programme Prevent ‘outdated and inadequately prepared’, report finds,” Rajeev Syal, The Guardian David Cameron’s 2015 speech at the Community Security Trust Keir Starmer echoing Enoch Powell “U.K. Vows Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Protests After Latest Antisemitic Attack,” David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal “Five members of biggest British Jewish body suspended after Israel criticisms,” Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian “Processing the Attack at Bondi Beach,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents Ashok Kumar on Julia Hartley-Brewer “Over 2,000 U.K. Jews Sign Petition Against Nigel Farage Attending Antisemitism Rally,” Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz “How Palestine Action put the justice system on trial,” Rikki Blue, Declassified UK “Zack Polanski’s Jewish identity is being erased because he is leftwing,” Owen Jones, The Guardian Zack Polanski on Sky News “Green Party candidate arrested over antisemitic social media posts,” Athena...

    49 min

  5. 7 May

    The Hill

    Harriet Clark comes from a long line of radicals. Her ancestors were gun runners in Minsk. Her grandparents were active members of the Communist Party USA, and the family moved to Moscow for a time, where her grandfather wrote for the Daily Worker. Her mother is Judith Clark, a former member of the Weather Underground and the May 19th Communist Organization, who was given a life sentence for her participation in the Brinks robbery in 1981 that killed three people. (Judith was paroled in 2019.) Harriet Clark’s debut novel, The Hill, tells the story of a girl who vows to visit her mother every week in the upstate New York prison where she is being held. In this episode of On the Nose, Arielle Angel speaks with Harriet about her stunning new book, what comes after failure in radical movements, and the heroism of trying to keep families affected by incarceration together. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading The Hill by Harriet Clark “I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic “Photos of the migrant caravan and the Trump military response tell different stories,” Johnny Simon, Quartz Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey “Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation,” Tom Robbins, The New York Times House and Fire by Maria Hummel Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson “To a Student” by Diane Di Prima

    1hr 2min

  6. 30 Apr

    Exit Interview

    After more than ten years as the rabbi of the anti-Zionist synagogue Tzedek Chicago, Rabbi Brant Rosen is stepping down. On this episode of On the Nose, Rosen speaks with editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents, Arielle Angel—who after eight years is also leaving her post—about what has changed in the building of anti-Zionist institutions over the last decade, what it means to do Jewish left communal work in a time of crisis for Judaism, and whether we must believe we will win. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading Tzedek Chicago “We Need New Jewish Institutions,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents “Our Approach to Zionism,” Jewish Voice for Peace Mariame Kaba talking to Dean Spade about hope “Mailbag #3 — Live!,” On the Nose “Stay In,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents

    46 min

  7. 16 Apr

    Mailbag #3 — Live!

    On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, publisher Daniel May, editor-at-large Peter Beinart, and advisory board member Simone Zimmerman answered listener questions about what accountability looks like for US rabbinic leadership, how American Zionists will respond to Israel’s plummeting popularity, and more. For the very first time, this episode of On the Nose was recorded live in front of an audience, which gathered at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Thanks to the Littlefield staff for hosting and recording the event. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading “J Street says Israel should fund its own defense,” Jacob Kornbluh, The Forward “Democratic Senators Face Pressure on Israel Arms Sales Vote,” Josh Nathan-Kazis, Jewish Currents “Democratic Presidential Contenders Are Turning on Israel. Will They Convince Progressives?,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents “A Majority of Voters Support Senate Resolutions To Block Bombs and Bulldozers To Israel,” Common Dreams “The Many Equivocations of Curt Mills,” Will Alden, Jewish Currents Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple JFNA Survey of Jewish Life since October 7 – Zionism Findings “Rhetoric Without Reckoning,” Simone Zimmerman, Jewish Currents “At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over,” Eyal Press, The New Yorker “The Rabbinic Freak-Out About Zohran Mamdani,” On the Nose “Nostra Aetate” from the Second Vatican Council “MAGA Catholics in Revolt,” On the Nose “Do No Harm! Palestinian Call for Ethical Tourism/Pilgrimage” from the BDS movement Everything You Have Is Yours, film about Hadar Ahuvia “The Capitalist’s Kibbutz,” Sam Adler-Bell, Jewish Currents

    47 min

  8. 9 Apr

    The Right Is Capturing the Online Palestine Conversation

    As right-wing streamers like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have become more outspoken against Israel and against Zionist influence in American politics, their content has found new audiences online, even in a Palestine movement traditionally more associated with the left. Though the fracture on the right around Israel is a welcome development, the anti-Israel right’s racist, misogynist, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and antisemitic views raise questions about how the left should relate to this development, and what it can offer instead. On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Izz al-Din Mustafa, co-executive director of the Palestinian-led advocacy organization Adalah Justice Project, and Stefanie Fox, executive director at Jewish Voice for Peace, about whether the ubiquity of right-wing anti-Israel voices online was showing up in their face-to-face organizing. They discuss the perils and opportunities created by the growing popularity of conservative anti-Israel voices, the importance of IRL organizing, and how the left might reclaim the conversation. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Media Mentioned and Further Reading Adalah Justice Project Jewish Voice for Peace “The Bondi Memo’s Quiet Rewriting of Domestic Terrorism Rules,” Thomas E. Brzozowski, Lawfare “Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk,” David Ingram, NBC News “Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook,” Human Rights Watch “Joe Kent’s Resignation Was Brave. His Analysis Was Faulty,” Peter Beinart, Jewish Currents “American Evangelicals’ Declining Support for Israel,” Jonathan Kuttab, Arab Center Washington DC Christians for a Free Palestine “We need an exodus from Zionism,” Naomi Klein, The Guardian “MAGA Catholics In Revolt,” On the Nose “The Democratic Party debate over Hasan Piker is really a fight over Palestine’s new place in U.S. politics,” Walter Lucken IV, Mondoweiss “Why do elite Democrats fear Hasan Piker?” Bhaskar Sunkara, The Guardian

    43 min
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About

On the Nose is a biweekly podcast by Jewish Currents, a magazine of the Jewish left founded in 1946. The editorial staff discusses the politics, culture, and questions that animate today’s Jewish left.

Information

  • Creator
    Jewish Currents
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    148
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Jewish Currents

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