On the Nose

Manijeh Moradian, Barnard professor and feminist activist; Narges Bajoghli, Johns Hopkins anthropologist and Iran scholar. They unpack how war, sanctions, and propaganda are fracturing Iranians worldwide. They trace pro-monarchy currents, online harassment tearing families apart, and the urgent call for anti-war, anti-imperial feminist politics. The conversation centers on diaspora polarization and paths toward solidarity.

Simone Zimmerman, Jewish Currents advisory board member and commentator on Jewish politics, and Daniel May, publisher of Jewish Currents, discuss the Michigan synagogue attack. They examine ties between American Jewish institutions and Israeli policy. The conversation covers community safety, institutional responsibility, media framing, and the push to build alternative Jewish institutions.

In early February, clips began circulating from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission hearing, where the former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller challenged Jewish activists Yitzhak Frankel and Shabbos Kestenbaum about the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Notably, Prejean Boller framed her opposition to political Zionism in terms of her Catholicism: “I’m a Catholic and Catholics do not embrace Zionism,” she said. She raised the charge of deicide, reading the New Testament verse about the Jews killing Jesus and questioning a panelist about whether he would have tech platforms censor the Bible on account of antisemitism claims. And she challenged the theology undergirding evangelical support for Zionism, dispensationalism, which understands Jews as God’s chosen people that help fulfill the end times prophecy by settling in the land of Israel. A number of prominent “America First” isolationists are Catholic, including Pat Buchanan, one of the fathers of America First paleoconservatism who famously opposed the Iraq War. Vice President J.D. Vance, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, far-right strategist Steve Bannon, and columnist Sohrab Ahmari are all America Firsters skeptical of foreign intervention. Catholicism also appears dominant among a cohort of extremist Groyper-style figures infusing their anti-Israel worldview with classically antisemitic language and ideas, including streamers Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, the Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, and now Prejean Boller, who has aligned herself with Owens in particular. On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Matthew Cressler, author of the forthcoming Catholics and the Making of MAGA: How an Immigrant Church Became America’s Law and Order Faith, and Julie Schumacher Cohen, co-author with Jordan Denari Duffner of the forthcoming Palestine, Israel, and Catholic Social Teaching: A Guide. They discuss how we should understand this apparent connection between skepticism about American intervention abroad and Catholicism. Cressler and Schumacher Cohen explain what Catholic theology has to say about Judaism, Zionism, and the modern political state of Israel. They explore how some figures on the right are hearkening back to the earlier days of the Church—before the Second Vatican Council’s modernizing changes, which included a condemnation of antisemitism—and they dissect the antisemitic and fascist threads in the Catholic tradition that are being surfaced in Fuentes’s and Owens’s rhetoric. Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Media Mentioned and Further ReadingFifth Religious Liberty Commission Hearings, Parts 1 and 2“Nostra Aetate” from the Second Vatican CouncilMatthew Cressler discussing MAGA Catholics on the Reign of Error podcast “No Catholic Brand of Christian Zionism, or Tolerance for Antisemitism,” Julie Schumacher Cohen and Jordan Denari Duffner, Contending Modernities“Catholic Guilt and Gaza,” Julie Schumacher Cohen, Commonweal Magazine“I am a Catholic. And a Zionist.,” R.R. Reno, The Washington Post“Maga Catholics are on a collision course with Leo XIV. They have good reason to fear him,” Julian Coman, The Guardian“Portrait of a Campus in Crisis,” Will Alden, Jewish Currents“‘Christ is king’ becomes a loaded phrase in US political debates, especially on the right,” Peter Smith, Associated PresKevin Roberts’s first statement on Nick Fuentes’s appearance on Tucker Carlson’s showTucker Carlson interviews US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee“The Dangerous Exceptionalism of Christian Zionism,” Halah Ahmad and Mimi Kirk, Al-ShabakaTranscript forthcoming.

Last weekend, the United States and Israel started a war with Iran. The Trump administration has offered no real or convincing reason why they have dragged the country into war except “Israel was going to do it anyway,” and the president has no discernible war plan. Many have commented that this war seems to be an expression of pure power, undertaken by Trump largely because he can. Have we entered a new phase in malignant American foreign policy or is this just a striking “mask off” moment? In this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks with Aslı Ü. Bâli, the Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of Law at Yale and a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about what the war in Iran signals about the kind of global power the US has become, whether it represents rupture or continuity in the history of US imperialism, and what it means for the stability of the Middle East and the world.This episode first appeared on the Beinart Notebook on Substack. Thanks to Daniel Kaufman for editing help and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Further Reading“The Path to the Trump Doctrine,” Aslı Ü. Bâli and Aziz Rana, Boston ReviewTranscript forthcoming.

Recently, the Jewish Federation of North America released a poll they conducted last year that shows that while 88% of respondents said they “believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state,” only 37% identified as “Zionist.” A small number identified as “anti-Zionist” and “non-Zionist,” 7% and 8% respectively, with a plurality answering “not sure” (18%) or “none of these” (30%). These numbers are confusing; they seem to indicate that while Zionist identification is waning—perhaps due to the stink of the term amid the genocide—the underlying commitment to a Jewish state, albeit one paradoxically imagined as “democratic,” is not. At the recent Conference on the Jewish Left at Boston University, nearly every presentation discussed or confronted questions about the terms “Zionist” and “anti-Zionist,” and whether they had enough of an agreed-upon meaning within the community to be useful terms to organize around. On this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Ari Lev Fornari, senior rabbi at Kol Tzedek in Philadelphia; Dove Kent, interim executive director of Diaspora Alliance and former executive director of Jews For Racial and Economic Justice; and Fadi Quran, the senior director at Avaaz and a Ramallah-based strategist and organizer. They try to make sense of the recent polling numbers and discuss different strategic considerations about using the Z-word in organizing contexts, including how to welcome newcomers to the Palestine liberation movement without coddling them.Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Media Mentioned and Further ReadingJFNA Survey of Jewish Life since October 7 – Zionism Findings“The ‘Zionism’ gap: What JFNA data really shows about Jews, Israel and Zionism today,” Mimi Kravetz, JTACombined Jewish Philanthropies’ 2025 Greater Boston Jewish Community Study“Do American Jews Really Know What ‘Zionism’ Means?,” Mira Sucharov, HaaretzJewish Electorate Institute July 2021 National Survey of Jewish VotersSynagogues Rising2026 Conference on the Jewish Left sessions on YouTubeTranscript forthcoming.

Naomi Klein, author and activist known for books on capitalism and climate, joins to unpack the newly released Epstein files. She discusses Jewish references and eugenics in the documents. She frames Epstein as a symptom of elite impunity, disaster capitalism, and conspiracism that deflects systemic critique. Conversations probe settler colonialism, finance, and the left’s path to reclaim class accountability.

In December, ICE agents began arriving in Minneapolis under the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” As of late January, 3,000 agents are on the ground in the city, outnumbering local police officers three-to-one, pursuing a campaign defined by its cruelty: ICE has abducted children as young as two, and agents have used those children as bait to draw out and arrest their families. To counter these efforts, locals have organized vast mutual aid and rapid response operations, with block-by-block networks mobilizing to deliver supplies and run errands for undocumented people who can’t leave their homes without fear of detention. These locals have been met with violence. On January 7th, Renee Good, a mother and poet, was shot in the face by an ICE agent while she attempted to turn her car around. On Saturday—one day after a general strike brought tens of thousands to the streets in subzero temperatures—Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, was murdered while observing ICE, with agents firing at least ten shots at close range.On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with three organizers on the ground in Minneapolis: Lily Cooper from UNIDOS’s rapid response team, which has conducted legal observer trainings for almost 30,000 people across Minnesota; Kandace Montgomery, a local organizer, trainer, and movement strategist who co-founded Black Visions in 2017; and Jesse Meisenhelter, an organizer with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools, whose current campaign aims to build sanctuary school teams across the state. They discuss the legacies of local organizing since George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the opportunities for the left-liberal coalition in this moment, and navigating the steep risks involved in this resistance work.Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Articles Mentioned and Further Reading“Organizing for Abolition in the Spotlight,” Kandance Montgomery and Hahrie Hahn, Hammer & Hope“Ten years ago, killing of Jamar Clark prompted wave of Twin Cities activism,” Danny Spewak, Kare11The St. Paul PrinciplesMinneapolis Families for Public SchoolsICE OUT OF MN Toolkit UNIDOS MN and Monarca“ICE Is a Virtual Secret Police,” Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times“Minnesota National Guard mobilizes around Minneapolis following fatal shooting,” Jonathan Limehouse, USA Today“Minneapolis City Council votes unanimously to strengthen separation ordinance,” MPRnews“Minneapolis schools cancel classes after Border Patrol clash disrupts dismissal at Roosevelt,” Elizabeth Shockman, MPRnews“How Should Activists Relate to Risk?” Aryeh Bernstein and Maya Rosen, Jewish Currents“‘I heard screaming, I heard crying:’ Inside ICE detainment at the Whipple Building,” Katelyn Vue, Sahan Journal“ICE Making List of Anyone Who Films Them,” Ken Klippenstein, Substack“‘Trumped-Up Charges’: Out of Jail, Nekima Levy Armstrong Faces Prosecution for Anti-ICE Church Protest,” Democracy Now!“Whose Concentration Camps?” Noah Kulwin, Jewish CurrentsUS Holocaust Museum tweet about Minneapolis“Trump ousts Biden-appointed Holocaust Museum board members, including Doug Emhoff,” Ed O’Keefe and Kathryn Watson, CBS News“Walz Invokes Holocaust, Calls ICE Agents ‘Modern-Day Gestapo,’” Lonny Goldsmith, TC JewfolkAn Open Letter from Catholic, Evangelical, and Jewish Community Leaders to Minnesota’s Federal, State, and Local Elected OfficialsTranscript forthcoming.

On Christmas, director Josh Safdie released his new film, Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as a young table-tennis player bent on global recognition. Like Safdie’s previous film—Uncut Gems, co-directed with his brother Benny Safdie—Marty Supreme focuses on an American Jewish antihero and unfolds in a deeply Jewish milieu. But while Uncut Gems takes place in present-day New York, Marty Supreme transports us back to the Lower East Side of 1952, examining American Jewish ambition in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and amid assimilation into whiteness. This mid-century setting is complicated by various anachronistic elements, including a soundtrack rooted in the ’80s and, perhaps most notably, Chalamet’s conspicuous lack of a period-accurate accent. On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, senior editor Nathan Goldman, contributing editor David Klion, and contributing writer Mitch Abidor discuss what, if anything, the film has to say about American Jewishness then and now.Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Media Mentioned and Further ReadingUncut Gems, dir. Josh and Benny Safdie“An Unserious Man,” Jewish Currents“Marty Supreme’s Megawatt Personality,” Richard Brody, The New YorkerWhat Makes Sammy Run? by Budd SchulbergErik Baker’s Letterboxd reviewMarie Antoinette, dir. Sofia CoppolaAnti-Semite and Jew by Jean-Paul Sartre“Marty Supreme Is the Moment, With Josh Safdie!,” The Big PictureTough Jews by Rich CohenMari Cohen on Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, Jewish Currents Shabbat Reading List“Demon Doubt,” Vivian Gornick, interview by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Boston Review“Is This Anything?,” Mitchell Abidor, Jewish Currents

On Saturday, January 3rd, President Trump announced that a military raid on Caracas had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and brought him back to the US to face drug charges. The operation followed months of deadly US strikes against boats purportedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela and a military buildup off its coast. But even after Maduro was seized, the administration still could not, or would not, clearly explain its intense interest in Venezuela any more than it could explain its plans for the country. And beyond the practicalities of “running” Venezuela, as Trump said the US would be doing, are even more disturbing questions about what comes next under the “Donroe doctrine”—the administration’s update of the 202-year-old Monroe Doctrine, which was used to justify generations of US interventions throughout the Western Hemisphere. This episode of On the Nose turns to a foremost expert on US interference in Latin America, Greg Grandin, to help us understand the historical context of Trump’s surge—and what it may suggest about his military adventures going forward. A Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Yale, Grandin has written several books on the tangled history of the US and Latin America, including his sweeping 2025 chronicle, America, América: A New History of the New World. Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart asks Grandin to break down the political situation in Venezuela and the history of its nationalized oil reserves—and to explain what Trump’s new doctrine of pure power may hold in store for the US and the Americas. This episode originally appeared on The Beinart Notebook on Substack. Thanks to Daniel Kaufman for editing help and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” Books Mentioned and Further ReadingAmerica, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic by Greg Grandin The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin “What the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is and where Trump could use it next,” Rebecca Falconer and Julianna Bragg, Axios “After Venezuela, Trump Offers Hints About What Could Be Next,” David E. Sanger, The New York Times “The Trump Doctrine,” Patrick Iber, DissentTranscript forthcoming.

In this discussion, human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz offers insights into the tragic Bondi Beach shooting, highlighting its impact on the Australian Jewish community. She critiques the political responses, particularly the controversial 20-point plan from antisemitism envoy Gillian Segal, and the danger of conflating the attack with Palestinian activism. Schwartz advocates for a nuanced understanding of anti-Semitism and emphasizes the importance of community solidarity and evidence-based responses to such violence. The conversation reveals the complexities of Australian politics and the urgent need for clear discourse.