Rabbi Brant
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brant-rosen.bsky.social
Rabbi Brant
@brant-rosen.bsky.social
Rabbi at Tzedek Chicago, co-founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, tzedekchicago.org, rabbibrant.com
Reposted by Rabbi Brant
Rabbi @brant-rosen.bsky.social is showing real leadership in this trying moment. What I can’t quite wrap my head around is: Where are his colleagues? How can intelligent, otherwise morally-minded people continue to carry water for the State of Israel in 2025? rabbibrant.com/2025/06/04/i...
Israel is Burning the Children of Gaza: How Will We Respond?
Five-year-old Ward Jalal al-Sheikh Khalil, trying to escape a burning classroom at the Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City, May 26, 2025 Warning: this post contains descriptions of extreme violenc…
rabbibrant.com
June 5, 2025 at 1:54 AM
“There is every indication that Israel is beginning the process of engineering the wholesale destruction of Gaza – and the Palestinians who live there – by any means necessary.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/05/09/t...
The Nakba Unfolds in Gaza as the World Watches
(phot: Haitham Imad/EPA) In December 2023, just three months into Israel’s genocide on Gaza, Tzedek Chicago’s board released a public statement entitled, “In Gaza, Israel is Revealing the True Face…
rabbibrant.com
May 9, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Ahmed Abu Artema: “Every path leads to death in Gaza.”
www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/isra...
All those who have stood by as Israel exterminates Gaza are guilty
As Palestinians suffer, the world refuses to hold Israel accountable for violating international humanitarian law
www.middleeasteye.net
April 26, 2025 at 12:50 PM
“Next Year in Jerusalem” must mean “Next Year in Jerusalem for all it’s inhabitants”
rabbibrant.com/2025/04/11/n...
Next Year in Jerusalem?
I’m sure I’m not the only anti-Zionist Jew who experiences cognitive dissonance when we get to the line that ends every Passover seder, “Next year in Jerusalem!” In the age of Zionism, what do thes…
rabbibrant.com
April 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
I’ve written many articles about Passover over the years, but I think this may be the most important one I’ve ever written. I hope you’ll read and share it widely. truthout.org/articles/thi...
This Passover, We Must Reckon With Israel’s Massacre of Children in Gaza
The Passover story decries a ruler who inflicts atrocities on children. The Israeli military is doing that now in Gaza.
truthout.org
April 11, 2025 at 2:57 PM
“Just this week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new policy to monitor immigrants’ social media accounts for supposed ‘antisemitic’ content”
truthout.org/articles/the...
The State Department Has Revoked the Visas of Over 600 Students at more than 100 Schools
Some students were forced to leave the country after being sent a text message saying that their visas were cancelled.
truthout.org
April 11, 2025 at 1:40 PM
With Passover starting Saturday evening, April 12, Tzedek Chicago is honored to present our annual seder supplement, “Passover as Collective Liberation.” rabbibrant.com/2025/04/04/t...
Tzedek Chicago’s New Seder Supplement: “Passover as Collective Liberation”
With Passover starting Saturday evening, April 12, Tzedek Chicago is honored to present our annual seder supplement, “Passover as Collective Liberation.” As we witness fascism growing in the US and…
rabbibrant.com
April 4, 2025 at 5:32 PM
“The Palestinian struggle is the story of a people who refuse to be erased, exterminated or displaced simply because another party has the power to do so.” inthesetimes.com/article/pale...
"It Is Neither Death, Nor Suicide"
Gaza’s Declaration of Life—and Living
inthesetimes.com
March 29, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Rabbi Brant
“There is hope in the struggle… organizing is all about relationships, and that’s how communities are built, and that’s where the hope for me resides.”

- @brant-rosen.bsky.social in this great interview with @edgeofsports.bsky.social

on.soundcloud.com/WUe6NAMn8fTB...
The New Generation of Rabbi SuperHeroes
This week, we speak to Rabbi Brant Rosen of the Tzedek Chicago Synagogue, a synagogue that claims anti-Zionism as a core tenet of their beliefs. We talk about this perilous moment when an antisemitic
on.soundcloud.com
March 25, 2025 at 10:16 PM
“I’ll make it plain: collaborationist Jews will not help make Jews safer. Even more important, collaborating with fascism will not make anyone safer. It feels somehow ridiculous to have to say these words out loud, but here we are.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/03/12/f...
First They Came for Mahmoud Khalil
photo: Mary Altaffer/AP Yesterday I received a DM that read: “Evil, kapo, judenrat, self hating Jew.” (If you don’t know the meaning of some of those words, let’s just say that two of them are hist…
rabbibrant.com
March 12, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Rabbi Brant
"Can Jews who believe Israel is committing genocide coexist in community with those who are actively supporting it?" asks @brant-rosen.bsky.social. "If Jewish ethical values are the bedrock of our spiritual life, how do we truly bridge such a massive moral divide?" ow.ly/hpzp50V3AsN
Peter Beinart's 'Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza' Expertly Dismantles Pro-Israel Propaganda — But Does it Adequately Reckon with the Genocide?
The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Responding to the current moment, Beinart has written nothing ...
ow.ly
February 20, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Peter Beinart's new book expertly dismantles Israeli hasbara, but does it adequately reckon with the moral abyss in the Jewish community over Israel's genocide?

religiondispatches.org/peter-beinar...
Peter Beinart's 'Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza' Expertly Dismantles Pro-Israel Propaganda — But Does it Adequately Reckon with the Genocide?
The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Responding to the current moment, Beinart has written nothing ...
religiondispatches.org
February 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
“I personally believe that national mythologies should not be literal oaths to be sworn to, but collective narratives to be interrogated deeply.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/02/14/s...
Standing at Sinai: Interrogating our National Myths of Unity
In the week’s Torah portion, Parashat Yitro, the Israelites stand at Mt. Sinai and collectively enter into a covenant with God. With a message conveyed through Moses, God says to the people: “(If) …
rabbibrant.com
February 14, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Ahmed Abu Artema’s devastating, gutting report on the long walk home in Gaza.

www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/my...
Eyes were wet with tears, children cried. The long walk home to northern Gaza
Amid Gaza's destruction, I walked alongside displaced families returning home, observing their suffering, profound loss, and indomitable strength
www.middleeasteye.net
February 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
“The Israeli army is levelling residential blocks, mirroring essentially what they have been doing in Gaza, detonating homes and killing many Palestinians.”

aje.io/f9ual6 aje.io/f9ual6
Photos: Israeli raids forcibly displace 26,000 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli military raids in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced thousands of Palestinian families since December.
aje.io
February 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it out loud: it is appalling and sickening that a prominent synagogue welcomed – and in fact celebrated – a genocidal war criminal in their house of worship.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/02/07/p...
Palestine Solidarity from the Streets to the Statehouse
From my Yom Kippur sermon this past October: (There) are plenty of Jewish congregations out there: why does the world need another? What do we have that’s unique to offer? As I think about it, this…
rabbibrant.com
February 9, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“The most powerful shock and awe in the world could not break them. Let this be a lesson to us all.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/30/f...
From Gaza to Chicago: the Resistance of Disposable Populations
(Photo: Ramadan Abed/Reuters) It’s difficult to describe the feelings I experienced this past weekend, as I watched hundreds of thousands of Gazans in a long and seemingly endless line, headi…
rabbibrant.com
January 31, 2025 at 12:24 PM
I wrote this a year ago on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Still very relevant a year later
rabbibrant.com/2024/01/26/o...
On Gaza, Genocide and International Holocaust Remembrance Day
(Photo by Axel Koester/Los Angeles Daily News) It’s safe to day that International Holocaust Remembrance Day will arrive tomorrow at a deeply fraught moment for the Jewish community. Ju…
rabbibrant.com
January 27, 2025 at 3:40 PM
“This just what Trump and his movement wants: They want us to feel breathless, paralyzed, despairing. We must not succumb. We must not accept that breathlessness is the new existential normal of our political age.”
rabbibrant.com/2025/01/24/l...
Learning How to Breathe in the Era of Trump
(photo: Carl Juste/AP) In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Va’era, God’s tells Moses to return to Mitzrayim and say to the Israelites: “I am יהוה. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptian…
rabbibrant.com
January 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Rabbi Brant
This is a great piece.

"As deportations ramp up again, we have a choice: We can watch as our neighbors disappear or we can build on these proven strategies to protect the diverse communities we've built together."
How to Keep Tabs on ICE Agents Who May Be Surveilling Your Neighborhood
Here’s a step-by-step guide.
www.teenvogue.com
January 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I offer some thoughts on yesterday's inauguration festivities, with a little assistance from a 1st century BCE rabbi:

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/21/i...
Inauguration Day 2025: “Love Work, Hate Authority and Don’t Cozy Up to the Government”
(Rabbi) Shemiah said, “Love work. Hate authority. Don’t get too friendly with the government.” Pirke Avot, 1:10 (translation, Jacob Neusner). This classical rabbinic saying comes from “Chapters of …
rabbibrant.com
January 22, 2025 at 12:57 AM
“Let us have no illusions about the designs of all Pharoahs past and present. Like the Israelites in our Torah portion, the Palestinian people continue to cry out for liberation.

Let us continue to heed their call.”

rabbibrant.com/2025/01/17/t...
The Gaza Ceasefire: Pharoah is Still Pharoah
Benyamin Netanyahu and Steve Witkoff, January 11, 2025 My weekly email to Tzedek Chicago members: For Palestinians and those who stand in solidarity with them, the news of a ceasefire agreement bet…
rabbibrant.com
January 17, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Highly, highly recommended:
TUNE IN: Drop Site News Livestream on the Gaza “Ceasefire” Deal

Journalist and Drop Site co-founder Jeremy Scahill is joined by Sami Al-Arian, Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, and Muhammad Shehada, Journalist/Analyst from Gaza.

www.youtube.com/live/_qlsvPy...
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January 16, 2025 at 12:42 PM
“The road ahead will still be challenging, but for now, we hold onto the truth that even in our darkest hours, life finds a way to bloom once more.”
truthout.org/articles/in-...
In Gaza, Ceasefire Will Be a Chance to Finally Breathe
No longer fearing constant bombing, I can begin to mourn all I have lost in Gaza.
truthout.org
January 16, 2025 at 12:21 PM