Shane Burley

book coverage

Christian Nationalism's War on Democracy: A Conversation with Talia Lavin

Not all coups change a country in an instant. Some are a slow-boil process of subversion that nonetheless leaves the institutions they affect unrecognizable. Journalist Talia Lavin has spent her career looking at the violent and bigoted politics of the United States’ rightward turn, and, as she chronicles in her

Jewish left

The Jewish Left is Taking on Deportations and the ADL

While many are gathering this weekend to hold seders on the first nights of Passover, a number of Jewish organizations are inviting us back into the streets to take the message of liberation further. On Monday, April 14, the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) will lead over a

mahmoud khalil Featured

The Free Press Free Speech Con

The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil reveals just how little The Free Press and the "heterodoxsphere" actually cares about defending free speech.

Jewish left

Inside Jewish "Co-Resistance" in the West Bank

A conversation with Jewish Studies scholar Oren Kroll-Zeldin about his new book Unsettled, which chronicles the growth of the Jewish-led Palestine solidarity movement and the activists who do "co-resistance" in the West Bank.

horror books

Reading Horror, Genre, and Politics At the Beginning of 2025

A look at the first quarter of 2025, what we've read, the classics we are rediscovering, and the great books releasing this year.

Esther

Reading Esther After the Destruction of Gaza

What does the Book of Esther teach us about violence, both that of our enemies and that we commit ourselves?

halakha Featured

Reconstructionism and the Future of Halacha

When it comes to Jewish law, the innovators may actually be the keepers of the tradition.

anti-Zionism Featured

The ADL Doesn't Speak for Jews, They Speak for the Rich

The ADL claims to speak for Jews, but they actually speak for the affluent perspectives of their donors and reject the Eastern European Jewish radical tradition.

reconstructionism

Anti-Zionism is Growing in Reconstructionst Judaism

In December 2023, as Sarah was preparing for their admissions interview for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), they received an email from the college asking them to get on a phone call with an administrator. Sarah assumed the call would be about upcoming Hebrew competency testing. Instead, they were greeted

Best of the Year

The Best Comics of 2024

Some of the best comics from 2024, including ones to continue watching in 2025.

horror

Best Horror Books of 2024

So this newsletter has focused on horror more than any other publishing genre, and this year we focused on books that were specifically released in 2024. This resulted in the biggest of all the "best of" lists with a range of books that came out this year as

Horror Books Featured

The Best Books of 2024

Here are my seventeen favorite books published in 2024, just a small snippet of the year's amazing offerings.

jewish literature

The Best Jewish Books of 2024

Here are the ten best Jewish books published in 2024.

horror round-up

November and December Horror Round-Up

I decided to just combine these two months into one given how dense the end of the year has become, and because I'll shortly put out a number of "best of" lists to cover some great work from 2024. This was amongst the best couple months

paganism

Pagans and Jews

A look at how antisemitism shows up in modern paganism and how interfaith organizing is the answer.

anti-Zionism

When Zionist Politics Disguises Antisemitism

Anti-Zionism is not necessarily antisemitism, and Zionist politics can even contain a serious core of antisemitism itself.

antifascism

How to Build a Community Self-Defense Network

Communities targeted by escalating right-wing violence are learning from their own histories how to keep each other safe.

Antisemitism

Antisemitism's Threat Is Coming from the Right

When the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Antisemitism Audit was released in April, its claim of a 140% rise in antisemitic incidents in 2023 seemed like old news. Following the October 7th Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, news reports frequently mentioned escalating American antisemitism. Many of these

horror books

October Horror Round-Up

We Used to Live Here - Marcus Kliewer (Atria) Pick of the Month The best horror begins with the same premise: something feels a little off, and it’s about to get weirder. A young couple is flipping a rural home when a family stops by. The father claims to

conspiracy theories

Conspiracy Theories Are Attacking Our Ability to Support Hurricane Ravaged Communities

I wrote the below piece for In These Times as the devastation of the Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina was still a fresh wound, one that people were grasping at straws to explain. Not unlike whenHurricane Sandy that hit New York City with a hideously toxic aplomb in 2012,

Jewish anti-Zionism

Why Are Jewish Organizations Firing Jewish Staff for Supporting a Ceasefire?

American Jewish organizations are firing or purging their staff critical of Israel at the same time as they are struggling to hire people.

Gretchen Felker-Martin

'Cuckoo' Visualizes a Queer Cosmic Horror

It’s curious, the childhood memories that burrow their way into your mind, so intact that you can recall stray bits of dialogue over twenty years later.  “Yeah, my dad showed up after he heard I was having such an issue with my mom,” my friend said, backpack slung over

horror books

September Horror Round-up

The Night Guest - Hildur Knútsdóttir, Translated by Mary Robinette Kowel (Tor Nightfire) * Pick of the Month* The story of the Night Guest caught my eye as the perfect narrative allegory for the kind of exhausting chronic illnesses we are talking about more and more in the era of long

Author Interview Featured

Lessons from the Jewish Left

Conversation with two longtime organizers from Jewish Voice for Peace on the lessons they learned from decades of Jewish Palestine solidarity activism.

candace owens

Frankists, Talmudists, and Zionists: Shifting Sands of Antisemitism in 2024

With the Internet filled with claims of Talmudists, Frankists, and Zionists, what does antisemitism look like in 2024?