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Now it’s time to review the 75-writer anthology called ‘On Being Jewish Now’
Perhaps the woman behind the book On Being Jewish Now is a bit like Philip Roth after all.
It was a whole lot easier to be a post-parochialism Jew prior to Oct. 7. Zibby Owens, a leading American bookfluencer—and author, and publisher, and more—had not “disproportionately” sought out Jewish books. So she explains in the introduction to the anthology she just edited, which she is promoting this week in Toronto with a Holy Blossom Temple event featuring Indigo CEO Heather Reisman.
Back then, as far as Owens was concerned, “A book was a book was a book.”
And then Oct. 7 happened and she was moved to action. She edited an anthology which benefits a non-profit she started, Artists Against Antisemitism. I say Owens did this but there are teams credited alongside. This is a group effort. There is staff. It is a book. It is also, in a sense, a fundraising pamphlet that happens to exist in book form, which means that to review it is also to take that into account. This is more complicated than you might think.
I like to do book reviews with an open mind. If you’re someone I have a close personal relationship with or, conversely, had some kind of falling out with (though no one is coming to mind for the latter), I’m not reviewing your book. But I’m not a robot, and will often have a pre-existing conception of an author and their work. Maybe I like their writing generally, or don’t. Maybe we’ve had nice interactions online, maybe less-nice. But I will just pick the thing up and see what it is.
This was put to the test by my having already angered one contributor to On Being Jewish Now enough that I received the first-to-my-knowledge video-format criticism of something I’d written. Or at least the only one that included a face-powder-application interlude before cutting to the chase.
It was bad form, you see, to write a book review of a book I hadn’t even read. I suppose it would have been… which is why I did nothing of the kind. I do review books for The Canadian Jewish News, plenty of ‘em, but that essay wasn’t a book review. It was a lengthy essay about Jewish literature in which I briefly mentioned the existence of On Being Jewish Now, as a thing that exists in the world. This is an extremely normal thing to do, but tell that to Instagram.
Well. Face-powder-gate—paired with the offer of a galley—brought it right up to the top of the pile. My curiosity was piqued.
Here’s another important angle, at least I think it is: This could be a case of biases cancelling each other out, as I am, like the contributors, a Jew who’s troubled by post-Oct. 7 antisemitism, and who cares about the continued existence of Israel. I am an author and essayist (“artist” might be pushing it) with skin in the game, as well as an opinion writer and podcaster with a pretty decent track record if I may say so of covering incidents of literary antisemitism specifically. It was a bit jarring to find that I had become enemy du jour of a bunch of people with give or take my own views on the issue at hand. It had an element of, you got the wrong guy!
So, without further ado: I have read every page of On Being Jewish Now. Hadn’t then, have now. What I wrote previously was not a review of it. What follows is one—even if it may not be the kind of write-up that my detractors were wishing for.
***
As the title suggests, On Being Jewish Now prompted contributors—American, for the most part—to write essays foregrounding not just the Jewish aspects of their lives, but the way this shifted after Oct. 7. There are, one presumes, Jews who felt plenty Jewish prior, and still do. Also Jews who were exclusively thinking about sports betting or nail art or differential equations in the beforetimes and who have not changed their routines. But Jewishness is now more central for many of us, in ways that are hard to articulate. The book is an effort to articulate those, and to tell Jews who feel weird at the moment that they—we—are not alone.
A lot of it was relatable: the anxieties over public pronouncements of Jewishness, ones that would not have occurred to me on Oct. 6. If my kid wore Hanukkah pyjamas on pyjama day, what would happen? (Nothing happens when my kids wear these outside, which they do, often, and in a neighbourhood pretty darn committed to the freeing of Palestine.) There is something maddening, in the sense of insanity-inducing, about anxiety that feels simultaneously founded and unfounded.
It is also about the ambiguity of Jewish visibility, for Jews who are not in observant garb. The star-of-David necklace—whether someone would or would not feel comfortable wearing one, how one feels when spotting one on someone else—figures prominently. In her essay, Rabbi Rebecca Keren Eisenstadt Jablonski mentions some Jews responding to Oct. 7 by putting up a mezuzah, others by taking theirs down. This succinctly sums up the weirdness of our moment.
A range of religious observance levels and trajectories on that front are represented, but this is not—a la the recent child-sized essay book What Jewish Looks Like—a collection that gives the impression that the typical North American Jew is member of a visible (unambiguously non-white) minority group. There are nods to geographic and racial diversity (socioeconomic, not so much; getting to this), but it is for the most part stories of Ashkenazi Jews in parts of the United States where many Jews live. This seems entirely appropriate.
It nevertheless borrows from the language of ‘woke’—“trauma” used to describe things that did not happen to you personally, Jewish joy, holding space, things of that nature. It positions Jewish literature in the same way that Palestinian literature is positioned now, and that various other groups’ literatures have at moments where their oppression was the current news story. Someone I was discussing the book with described it—not derisively, just descriptively—as right-wing, and I had to say I wasn’t sure if that’s it. It defies that kind of categorization.
A lot is about online life, both because that’s how we live now, and because of how recent lockdowns were. Former Real Housewife of New York Jill Zarin explains that she “lost about 30,000 followers” on social media for posting about antisemitism. It’s unclear how she knows this—people don’t generally send you a note when they unfollow, which is assuming we’re talking people, not bots, to begin with—but, maybe?
The aforementioned Aliza Licht’s essay, “Being a Jewish Activist Wasn’t on Brand for Me,” describes a different experience: “People warned me that I would lose followers by [posting pro-Israel and anti-antisemitism content]. I’ve more than doubled my following.” Licht, whose three-paragraph bio explains that she is, among other things, “a personal branding expert,” is, without a question, an expert on personal branding. Points for self-awareness.
On Being Jewish Now is a remarkably polished and well-packaged effort, given the time frame. But the writing quality varies tremendously. American-Israeli author Ilana Kurshan’s moving essay about a pre-school world travel game in wartime Israel sits alongside the serious-topic-addressing but not particularly insightful musings of a writer whose job is “Chief Grief Officer®,” the registered-trademark symbol a part of her title.
The essays are grouped into thematic sections, with one on humour called, “You Have to Laugh.” While I’m sure the writers therein have made people laugh elsewhere, it’s a mix of essays that don’t appear to be going for comedy (a sweet remembrance of New York Jewish garment-industry and discount-shopping of yore ends with an it-can-happen-here epiphany) and ones that gesture at Jewish-humour tropes without really landing, like a joke about observing the Sabbath “except” if “[t]here’s a sale at Bergdorf’s.”
Some of the essays themselves read like ad copy. “American Girl Dolls and Jewish Joy,” by a co-creator of the dolls ($161 USD a doll) with a 1990s Jewish theme. And it’s like, I’m not mad at the dolls, I don’t object to their existence, but I suppose I do object to the idea that to properly fight antisemitism I am to read about how wonderful they are.
The well-known writer Daphne Merkin’s description of her stance regarding the Middle East itself made sense, and is the unspoken undercurrent to many of the essays. In effect, to oppose anti-Jewish hatred locally, you don’t need to have any particular stance or comprehension level where Israel’s military actions are concerned. Being awful to Jews locally isn’t just wrong on its own, but does not make life better for Palestinians. A point that cannot be repeated enough.
***
The format is unusual in that the bios are quite lengthy (as in, a third of the essay may be its bio), and appear immediately after each one, rather than in a separate author-bios section at the end. Amy Ephron (sister of the late Nora) manages hers in two sentences, a rare exception. The ratio of bio to essay is remarkable and therefore a reviewer would be remiss to not remark on it.
The bios are not particularly connected with the On Being Jewish Now theme, apart from the fact that they are about people who are being Jewish now. Some read like longform LinkedIn profiles, including not just comprehensively detailed accolades but info like where a seasoned professional went to college.
Others involve cozy asides, often featuring rambunctious canines: “When not writing, she is making art, listening to lo-fi on vinyl, fangirling theater, and otherwise being grateful for her life with her husband, two grown daughters, and too spoiled dogs.” Or: “When not working, she enjoys playing tennis and pickleball and spending time with family and friends, including her adorable Pomeranian, Bossi.” Another “is a proud single mom to two incredible kids, one poorly trained dog, and two cats.” Another: “She lives in Westchester, New York, with her husband, four children, and two very bossy dogs.”
Having owned and loved a bossy dog, as a reader, I get it. As a book reviewer, however, I need to make sense of the function this sort of information is serving.
An ungenerous read would be that this is an unpaid effort and the extended bio was a kind of compensation—a chance to self-promote, or self-indulge.
A more generous one: this is about emphasizing the humanity of Jews. See, Jews are just normal people who love their pets! (Something I would not dispute.)
The bios explain that these are not ordinary Jews but ones with standing in mainstream society. They bios say, in effect, it might feel like everyone in a position of cultural influence is posting Free Palestine, but not everyone-everyone! Look at all these bestselling authors, who are proudly Team Jews! The bios serve, collectively, as a point about American Jewish achievement.
Whatever the reason or reasons for the long and prominently placed bios, they have the effect of making what might otherwise have read like an essay collection read instead like a Rolodex.
***
On Being Jewish Now is not merely an attempt at capturing what it’s like to be Jewish these days. It’s raising money for a new non-profit, a 501(c)(3), the tax code for a type of American good-works endeavour, one with the hard-to-argue-with moniker, Artists Against Antisemitism. I spent a while on its website trying to figure out what Artists Against Antisemitism are offering, and the publicly available offerings seem primarily to consist of outbound links to other organizations and the recommendation that people read books such as David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, and information on how to donate to or volunteer for Artists Against Antisemitism, as well as an auction with money going to Artists Against Antisemitism. Per the description on its own website, “The money we raise through donations goes to running our organization and developing projects like awareness-raising campaigns, resource guides, community arts projects, celebrations, etc.”
I spent a good long while on this website and could not figure out what the organization does-does, if that makes sense, so I emailed Owens to ask more about the organization’s initiatives. I got a response from Jill Santopolo, a founding member of Artists Against Antisemitism, pointing me to, among other things, a virtual (online) art gallery hosted by TheArtistsAgainstAntisemitism.com, and an Instagram-hosted (online) event promoting Jewish romance authors.
As best as I can understand, Artists Against Antisemitism thus far consists mainly in the realm of content creation and aggregation, with an awareness-raising component. It is not literary-award-allotting organization a la the Giller Prize, but rather the sort of charity that auctions off an acrylic painting of Ruth Bader Ginsburg or some online face time with Mayim Bialik.
Here is where a point must be made—one with uh broader applicability—about the need to look critically even at charitable endeavours whose names and missions we agree with. In some cases, this means investigating flows of funds. In this case, however, it’s about questioning whether awareness-raising initiatives have the intended impact. How has the bureaucratic apparatus established in recent years to address other forms of bigotry worked out? At a moment when other forms of DEI are coming under “scrutiny,” is extending DEI to the Jewish cause the best path forward?
I read through the handbook for bookstores looking to avoid antisemitism, and while it contains useful practical information about Jewish holidays and what to do if aggressive sorts are going to lose their minds because your bookstore dared platform A Zionist, it mostly reads like DEI but inclusive of Jews. Bookstores are asked to “Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month in May” and then “Celebrate Jewish Book Month the month before Chanukah” and also to “Promote Jewish authors in intersectional displays (i.e. Women’s History Month).”
Along the same lines, Project Shema, an Artists Against Antisemitism-recommended—and auction-supported—“training and support organization” that was “built by progressive Jews,” operates under the assumption that bringing in educators will deprogram antisemites in a workplace or campus, and is the best use of finite resources. But it is not the role of journalists to say, well, they clearly mean well, and leave it at that.
The CJN’s opinion editor Phoebe Maltz Bovy can be reached at pbovy@thecjn.ca, not to mention @phoebebovy on Bluesky, and @bovymaltz on X. She is also on The CJN’s weekly podcast Bonjour Chai. For more opinions about Jewish culture wars, subscribe to the free Bonjour Chai newsletter on Substack.
The post Now it’s time to review the 75-writer anthology called ‘On Being Jewish Now’ appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Columbia University Newspaper Endorses Mamdani for New York City Mayor
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s flagship newspaper, The Columbia Daily Spectator, has endorsed a far-left New York City mayoral candidate who has been accused of antisemitism and made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career.
The Spectator’s editorial board issued the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani, a representative in the New York State Assembly, in a rare moment of summer activity, as most of the university’s student body is on holiday. It comes as the university’s leadership is reportedly taking steps to deal with a surge of campus antisemitism that captured national attention and led the Trump administration to pull federal funding over the school’s alleged failure to combat the crisis.
“Our endorsements reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board, but we recognize that voters may weigh these issues differently,” the paper said on Tuesday. “As Spectator‘s editorial board, we endorse Zohran Mamdani as our top choice for New York City Mayor. Currently ranked second in most polls, the New York State Assembly member and his campaign have resonated with New Yorkers who have been repeatedly disappointed by the current administration.”
It added, “The Democratic Socialist has grounded his campaign in bread-and-butter issues such as universal child care, free public transportation, and affordable housing, echoing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ brand of economic populism.”
The paper’s choice of Mamdani prompted a slew of responses on social media. A native of Uganda born to parents from India, one of whom is an Oscar nominated filmmaker, Mamdani has refused to recognize the Jewish state of Israel, advocated adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and suggested that New York City — home to the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel — will divest from the country if he is elected.
Earlier this month, he refused to distance himself from the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that is believed to have inspired a wave of anti-Jewish violence which culminated in the murder of two young Israeli diplomats outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC in May. The Democratic mayoral candidate went as far as comparing the phrase to the motivations behind the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, prompting a rebuke from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“I think what’s difficult is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” Mamdani said on the Bulwark podcast. “And as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an effort by Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland to fight back as they were set to be deported to concentration camps and killed during the Holocaust. In contrast, the slogan “globalize the intifada” references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels known as intifadas, or uprisings.
On another occasion, years before he emerged as a candidate for mayor, Mamdani appeared to threaten that a “third intifada” was forthcoming.
Following the Spectator’s declaration of support for his campaign, Columbia University professor Shai Davidai charged that the paper had violated laws which prevent nonprofit entities, such as the Spectator, from entering the fray of electoral politics.
“The Columbia Spectator has just breached its non-profit status by endorsing a political candidate,” Davidai said. “Please join me in filing a formal complaint with the IRS against the Spectator Publishing Company. It’s time to make our colleges a partisan-free space for education.”
Elisha Baker, who studies Middle East History at Columbia University, said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner and other outlets that the Spectator is essentially throwing its support behind a surge of antisemitic violence called for by anti-Zionists of Mamdani’s mold.
“Zohran Mamdani is a threat to Jews in NYC and Americans everywhere. He marches with the antisemitic and anti-American mob,” Baker said. “A vote for Mamdani is a vote for antisemitism and continued pro-terror chaos on our streets. Especially since the tragic attacks in DC and Boulder, a vote for Mamdani is nothing short of a vote for Jews to stay inside.”
New York City will ultimately determine the merit of the case against the mayoral candidate, who would be the favorite to win the November general election if he prevails over his Democratic opponents, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during Tuesday’s primary.
During the campaign, Cuomo criticized Mamdani’s links to the anti-Zionist movement.
“Yesterday when Zohran Mamdani was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ he dismissed it as ‘language’ ‘that is subject to interpretation,’ Cuomo said in a statement earlier this month. “That is not only wrong – it is dangerous. At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and in fact witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington DC or their burning in Denver – we know all too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder. As the US Holocaust Museum so aptly said, all leaders or those running for office must condemn the use of this battle cry. There are no two sides here.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Calls for UN to Condemn Attacks on Aid Workers, Collaborate Amid Mass ‘Disinformation’
Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called on the United Nations to publicly condemn the killing of aid workers in Gaza and to collaborate in order to provide relief to the enclave’s population, accusing the UN of perpetuating a “vast disinformation campaign” aimed at tarnishing the US- and Israel-backed foundation’s image.
In a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, GHF executive chairman Rev. Johnnie Moore defended the foundation’s efforts to distribute aid to the civilians of Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has been ruled by the Hamas terrorist group for nearly two decades.
“Nearly 40 million meals have been distributed in our first month of operations from our Secure Distribution Sites,” Moore wrote, adding that the program has successfully distributed emergency aid to Palestinians in “desperate need” despite constantly operating “under grave threat.”
Moore also criticized the UN, saying that the GHF has “shared our data and our logistical approach” with the global body in hopes of forging a collaboration effort between the two entities. He lamented that the UN has “neither partnered with GHF nor even acknowledged our operational successes.”
“Our work has continued with normal operations amidst an expanding regional conflict, and also a vast disinformation campaign which has sought to stop us from feeding people from the moment we started,” Moore continued. “We regret that your own office has been a victim of this disinformation campaign which has only threatened to further harm the Gazan people.”
The GHF was created because Hamas routinely steals humanitarian aid, leaving civilians facing severe shortages. Documents released by the Israeli military earlier this month showed that Hamas operatives violently took control of approximately 25 percent of incoming aid shipments, which they then resold to civilians at inflated prices.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these frameworks are more neutral. Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort. The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
Since the GHF launched operations in late May, there have been reports of Palestinians being shot near distribution sites. In specific cases, Israel has acknowledged targeting what it believed to be armed Hamas operatives using civilians as cover.
In his letter, Moore also criticized the UN for staying “absolutely silent in the wake of a targeted killing of GHF personnel nearly two weeks ago.”
“Their murder was not only a violation of international law, it was an affront to the very principles the UN purports to defend,” the GHF chairman added. He called on the UN to “publicly condemn the targeting of humanitarian workers in Gaza, and to denounce the obstruction of aid by Hamas and other armed factions.”
Moore’s letter came about two weeks after the GHF said that, on the night of June 11, several of its aid workers were killed when Hamas gunmen attacked a bus transporting local staffers.
The group said the vehicle was targeted as it carried more than 20 workers to a distribution site near the city of Khan Younis. In a statement Thursday, GHF said that at least people people were killed and several more were injured.
The bus attack followed days of threats from Hamas directed at the foundation and its workers.
According to Moore, the UN can help the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by working directly with GHD to help distribute aid “at scale” to needy civilians while bypassing “intermediaries.”
“The only credible response to food insecurity is food delivery. Anything less is a deferral of responsibility. We are ready to work with other humanitarian providers to deliver food straight to the Palestinian people and restore order to a system plagued by desperation and disorder,” Moore wrote.
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Netanyahu Declares Historic Win, Says Israel Removed Iran’s Nuclear Threat in 12-Day War
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel in its 12 days of war with Iran had removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its program.
“We have removed two immediate existential threats to us – the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles,” he said in video remarks issued by his office.
“If anyone in Iran tries to revive this project, we will work with the same determination and strength to thwart any such attempt. I repeat, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu called it a historic victory that would stand for generations.
He said Israel never had a better friend in the White House than President Donald Trump, whose US military had dropped massive bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear sites in an attack over the weekend.
“Our friend President Trump has rallied to our side in an unprecedented way. Under his direction, the United States military destroyed the underground enrichment site at Fordow,” Netanyahu said.
He spoke hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said had violated a truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, Israel‘s closest ally.
Netanyahu said Israel‘s work was unfinished. He cited the war against Iran’s ally Hamas in Gaza, where 50 hostages remain in captivity since the Palestinian terrorist group carried out a surprise attack on October 7, 2023.
About 20 are believed to be alive.
“We must complete the campaign against the Iranian axis, defeat Hamas, and bring about the release of all the hostages, both living and dead,” he said.
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