TOMORROW: Antizionism is "more kosher than you think"

I just wanted to drop a quick line to let you know I’m moderating a virtual discussion tomorrow (Wednesday 5/29) at 1pm ET about the dangers of equating antizionism with antisemitism and how we handle this harmful equivalency. It’s going to be a fascinating discussion between Jewish religion scholars Shaul Magid and Seth Sanders, and I really hope you’ll join us.

If you can’t make it Wednesday, don’t fret! Religion Dispatches, the host of the event, will be sharing the discussion in podcast form. I’ll be sure to pass that along.

Full discussion description and panelist bios:

As the death toll in Gaza continues to climb, thousands of Jews have participated in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, with increasing numbers embracing anti-Zionism. High profile Jewish voices, along with much of the institutional Jewish world, argue that anti-Zionism = antisemitism, while Israel itself has long sought to draw an equivalency between Jews and what is often referred to as “the Jewish State.” 

Underlying both of these contentions is an assumption that Zionism has always been the mainstream, orthodox position among Jews. But, not only have Jews long understood the dangers of equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, at one time anti-Zionism was “more kosher than you think.”

Seth L. Sanders is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies at UC Davis and a Guggenheim Fellow, author or editor of five books including Ancient Jewish Sciences, Cuneiform in Canaan, and the Invention of Hebrew. The grandchild of Ukrainian Jewish refugees who fled pogroms in the early 1900s, his bar mitzvah study with Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf and his postdoctoral studies of Jewish history and theology at Hebrew University continue to shape his thinking about the ideas and realities of Israel.

Shaul Magid is Visiting Professor of Modern Judaism at Harvard University where he is also a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions. His rabbinical ordination is from Jerusalem in 1984. He is the author of many books and essays most recently The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Commentary to the New Testament.