Seeing, Questioning, Acting: A book reading and conversation from an anti-zionist Jewish perspective.

What does it mean to see, question, and act in this moment of genocide as anti-zionist Jews? Authors of three recent books will be in conversation with each other and engage with the audience about how to build community to more effectively reject Israeli settler colonialism and the US-Israel alliance, as well as all forms of racism and oppression. Our books, written from intersectional feminist, anti-racist, queer, historical and international as well as very personal perspectives, offer urgent testimonies on the harms Zionist ideology and politics have wrought in our lifetimes. How can we become stronger partners in the struggle for Palestinian liberation? How can we build Judaism beyond Zionism? How can we draw on our histories to build a better future for all?

A Land With A People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism 

Edited by Esther Farmer, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky and Sarah Sills

Esther Farmer Is a Palestinian Jew who has been active in Palestinian solidarity for 50 years. She is the co -editor of the book, A Land With A People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism, (2021), and the director and script writer of the theater project, Wrestling with Zionism.  She has also spearheaded the National Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) project, How to Have Hard Conversations about Israel/Palestine. She is on the leadership team of New York City JVP

Rosalind Petchesky is Distinguished Professor Emerita (retired) of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is a widely published feminist scholar and recipient of a MacArthur (“genius”) Fellowship. Her first book, Abortion and Women’s Choice: The state, sexuality and reproductive freedom (1984,1990) was cited by the United States Supreme Court in its landmark decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), and received an award from the American Historical Association. It will be issued by Verso in a new edition in March 2024 as part of their Feminist Classics series. Her many subsequent articles and books in the field of reproductive and sexual rights and justice have been translated and circulated in countries across the globe. Since 2013, Professor Petchesky has been an active member of Jewish Voice for Peace and part of the New York City chapter’s leadership team, with whom she co-edited/authored A Land With A People: Palestinians and Jews confront Zionism (Monthly Review, 2021). She lives in New York City with her two cats and is the proud grandmother of Anna and Jack Macias Petchesky.

Sarah Sills (co-editor) is a lifelong artist-activist, graphic designer, organizer, and event producer. Over the years she co-led a Teamsters trade union delegation to China, organized clerical workers at Columbia University, raised money for women’s cooperatives in El Salvador during the civil war in the early 1990s, and worked at a pro-Aristide Haitian newspaper. After a trip to Palestine in 2012 she became an active supporter of the Palestinian House of Friendship and a Jewish Voice Peace-NYC chapter leader, dedicating herself to fighting for Palestinian rights. In addition to co-editing and designing A Land With A People, she has been involved with producing storytelling workshops and the Wrestling with Zionism Readers Theater.

Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah

Edited by Morgan Bassichis, Jay Saper, and Rachel Valinsky

Morgan Bassichis is an anti-zionist Jewish comedian, musician, and writer living in Brooklyn. Their work has been presented by Abrons Arts Center, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, and the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University. They co-edited with Jay Saper and Rachel Valinsky the young adult anthology Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah, published by Wendy's Subway in 2023

Jay Saper is an artist, writer, translator, and organizer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Their artist books and zines honoring the legacy of Yiddish print and activist culture, under the imprint Pashkevil Press, are held in the collection of the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Along with Morgan Bassichis and Rachel Valinsky, Jay is co-editor of Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah (Wendy’s Subway 2023).

Rachel Valinsky is a writer, translator, and editor living in New York, where she serves as Artistic Director at Wendy’s Subway, a reading room, writing space, and independent publisher; and Managing Editor at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances in New York. 

Push the Water (an anti-zionist memoir) 

Written by Irit Reinheimer

Irit Reinheimer is an artist and writer based in Philadelphia. Her writing is influenced by her background in experimental filmmaking, where she has taken a sculptural approach to examining themes of loss and inheritance through shorts films constructed from her late father’s 8mm home movies, archival materials, and new footage. Irit’s films Young, Jewish and Left, How the Bridge Works, I Told Her This Was Home, and Of Origins have screened nationally and internationally. Beyond her artistic practices, Irit has spent over a decade working for community-based projects and organizations focused on social change. She is also a long-time member of Jewish Voice for Peace.