Join ACJ executive director Andy Kahn, Open Society fellow Dania Rajendra, and professor of multiethnic US literature at Indiana University, Benjamin Balthaser, for a timely conversation on Jewish radical history, anti-Zionism, and the roots of today’s Jewish uprising for Palestinian liberation.

Drawing on Balthaser’s recent book Citizens of the Whole World, we will discuss contemporary Jewish cultures, identities, and practices, tracing them back to the revolutionary traditions of the 1930s and beyond. Balthaser's book explores radical Jewish novels, memoirs, and oral histories to uncover a continuous lineage of Marxist internationalism, Jewish solidarity with Third World struggles, and deep connections between Jewish and Black radicals during the Civil Rights era.

The three will bring these histories into dialogue with the present moment, reflecting on what this legacy means for organizing today, for reimagining Judaism beyond nationalism, and for building movements capable of sustaining collective liberation. Together, they consider how past struggles can inform a diasporic Jewish traditions of solidarity and internationalism offer essential tools for the world we are fighting to build.

The Cultures of the American Jewish Left

with Benjamin Balthaser and Dania Rajendra