Shows / On the Nose
On the Nose
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.
Episodes
- On the Nose
The Inheritance of Defeat
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…
- On the Nose
The Impact of American Zionism on American Islamophobia
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…
- On the Nose
Fact Versus Fiction in Claims About Antisemitism in Publishing
On July 9th, PEN America published an article called “A Silent Moratorium,” which asserts that Jewish and Israeli writers face “blatant hostility…
- On the Nose
Naza and the Function of Perpetrator Cinema
Naza, a film by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, features interviews with 24 members of elite intelligence units in the Israeli military…
- On the Nose
Slam Frank's Hall of Mirrors
Slam Frank—the satirical play about a Latina “Anita Franco” stuck in the attic with a colorblind cast (à la Hamilton) of daft identitarians—reopened last week…
- On the Nose
Kol Nidre's Sacred Border Crossings
As we make our way through the Days of Awe, On the Nose is turning over our feed to an episode of Ways of Awe, an exploration of the high holiday liturgy…
- On the Nose
UK Sanctions Settlements
On September 8th, the UK announced sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including an import trade ban, sanctions on companies and…
- On the Nose
Fighting the Politics of Powerlessness
Organizing is hard, not just for the ways we are knocked down by our opponents, but also for the ways we often turn on our comrades in anger and despair. In…
- On the Nose
TEASER: The Myth of the “Good Guy at the Checkpoint”
This episode of On the Nose is for subscribers and members only. Subscribe for $4/month here. If you’re already a subscriber, check your email for instructions…
- On the Nose
Repetition and Solipsism in the “Israel Debate” Play
After a few years of seeing Jewish plays “debating” Israel/Palestine, Jewish Currents editor-at-large Arielle Angel and theater critic Alisa Solomon explored…
- On the Nose
Who Speaks for Black Voters?
Progressive outsider candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly prevailed over establishment pick Haley Stevens to win the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open…
- On the Nose
Genocide Studies Departments Still Can’t Name Genocide in Gaza
In early June 2024, the Holocaust historian Raz Segal was offered a job directing the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota…
- On the Nose
Here Where We Live Is Our Country
The resounding success of Here Where We Live Is Our Country, Molly Crabapple’s vividly told and extensively researched history of the Jewish Labor Bund—a…
- On the Nose
The Event
A strange fire has consumed the land between the river and the sea. Fiction by Henry Bean from our Fall 2025 issue. "The Event" was written by Henry Bean and…
- On the Nose
TEASER: The Hazing of Scott Wiener
This episode of On the Nose is for subscribers and members only. Subscribe for $4/month here. If you're already a subscriber, check your email for instructions…
- On the Nose
“Democracy and Asylum Rise and Fall Together”
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled on several issues related to immigration policy. While the court narrowly preserved birthright citizenship, it issued other…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
The Israel Day Parade Debacle
Last Sunday, New York City officials took part in the annual Israel Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. Mayor Zohran Mamdani was notably absent, insisting that this…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
Hasan Piker’s Politics of Appeal
Over the last eight years, streamer and leftist political commentator Hasan Piker has built a following of millions on Twitch, where he streams seven to ten…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
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…
- On the Nose
The Fault Lines Shattering the Iranian Diaspora
The US and Israel began a joint strike on Iran on February 28th, with the US immediately striking a girls’ elementary school, killing more than 180, the vast…
- On the Nose
On the Michigan Synagogue Attack
On March 12th, 41-year-old Ayman Ghazali rammed his car into the front of Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He engaged in a shootout…
- On the Nose
MAGA Catholics in Revolt
In early February, clips began circulating from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission hearing, where the former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller challenged…
- On the Nose
America’s Threat to the World
Last weekend, the United States and Israel started a war with Iran. The Trump administration has offered no real or convincing reason why they have dragged the…
- On the Nose
Who’s Afraid of the Z-Word
Recently, the Jewish Federation of North America released a poll they conducted last year that shows that while 88% of respondents said they “believe Israel…
- On the Nose
Epstein and the Capitalist Conspiracy
Recently, the Department of Justice released millions of files from disgraced financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Since their release, part of the…
- On the Nose
Fighting the ICE Occupation of Minnesota
In December, ICE agents began arriving in Minneapolis under the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” As of late January, 3,000 agents are on the…
- On the Nose
What Makes Marty Run?
On Christmas, director Josh Safdie released his new film, Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as a young table-tennis player bent on global recognition…
- On the Nose
The Imperial History Behind the Raid on Venezuela
On Saturday, January 3rd, President Trump announced that a military raid on Caracas had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and brought him back to the…
- On the Nose
Processing the Attack at Bondi Beach
On December 14th, two gunmen opened fire on a celebration marking the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 and injuring more…
- On the Nose
Writing the Palestinian Diaspora
This year saw the release of two memoirs concerned with the Palestinian diasporic experience. Tareq Baconi’s Fire in Every Direction is a story of queer…
- On the Nose
Debating the “Palestine Laboratory”
In spring 2023, journalist and filmmaker Antony Loewenstein published The Palestine Laboratory, a book tracing the way that Israeli military technology and…
- On the Nose
On Jeffrey Epstein
“Real life conspiracies pose a certain challenge for political analysis,” wrote Jewish Currents contributors Noah Kulwin and Ari Brostoff in their 2019 piece…
- On the Nose
What the Soldiers Did in Gaza
On November 11th, Israeli soldiers who had admitted to raping a Palestinian detainee at the now infamous detention camp Sde Teiman were met with applause and a…
- On the Nose
Confronting the Anti-Zionist Right
Last week, the Holocaust-denying, white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes sat down with former Fox News host turned podcaster Tucker Carlson on The Tucker…
- On the Nose
The Rabbinic Freak-Out About Zohran Mamdani
Last week, a group calling itself The Jewish Majority published a “Rabbinic Call to Action” aimed at New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the last…
- On the Nose
Yizkor in the Streets
For the second year in a row, Rabbis for Ceasefire held a Yizkor service on the streets of Brooklyn, using the traditional Yom Kippur memorial service as a…
- On the Nose
The Ins and Outs of Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire
Last week, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire deal. A series of momentous events followed the announcement: First…
- On the Nose
The Media Goes MAGA
As media figures reacted to the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk last month, a movement to purge those critical of President Trump and his…
- On the Nose
Charlie Kirk and American Innocence
Charlie Kirk, influential right-wing commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated on September 10th. Since then, he has been made into a…
- On the Nose
What a Lifetime of Struggle Taught Angela Davis
In this episode, Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart interviews the philosopher, activist, author, and educator Angela Davis, whose writing and…
- On the Nose
Mailbag #2
In this episode, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, editor-at-large Peter Beinart, associate editor Mari Cohen, and senior editor Nathan Goldman…
- On the Nose
Familiar Touch and the Feminist Politics of Aging
In this episode, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and feminist scholar and activist Lynne Segal about aging through a…
- On the Nose
Ms. Rachel Stands Up for the Littles of Gaza
In this episode, editor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks to children’s television star Rachel Griffin Accurso, better known to her fans as Ms. Rachel, about her…
- On the Nose
Sephardi/Mizrahi Therapy
In 2020, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and University of Washington professor of Sephardic studies Devin Naar, both descendants of Ladino…
- On the Nose
Making “Safety Through Solidarity” More Than a Slogan
In May, a project called the Community Safety Campaign released a 134-page guide for Jewish organizers seeking to push their synagogues and communities towards…
- On the Nose
Brad Lander’s Campaign of Solidarity
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander—a longtime fixture of the city’s progressive Jewish life—got 11% of the vote in the Democratic mayoral primary, but his…
- On the Nose
Mamdani Bests the Pro-Israel Machine
On Tuesday, Democratic New Yorkers went to the polls and elected a democratic socialist as their candidate for the November general election for mayor. Zohran…
- On the Nose
Netanyahu Gets His War on Iran
On Friday, June 13th, just days before the sixth scheduled round of US–Iran talks over the country's nuclear energy program, Israel carried out a series of…
- On the Nose
The Return of the American Council for Judaism
This episode of On the Nose comes from a live Zoom conversation between associate editor Mari Cohen and Rabbi Andrue Kahn in February, in which they discussed…
- On the Nose
Kneecap and the Politics of Language Reclamation
Last year saw the release of Kneecap, a fictionalized account of the real-life West Belfast-based Irish language rap group of the same name. The group is know…
- On the Nose
After the DC Shooting
On Wednesday night, two Israeli embassy aides—30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky and 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim—were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish…
- On the Nose
Chabad’s Extremist Turn
In April, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the United States in his first-ever trip to the country as a government official. Many…
- On the Nose
Chevruta: The Risk of Justice Work
In September 2024, an Israeli sniper shot and killed Turkish American human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi outside of Nablus in the northern West Bank. Her…