Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs

‘Judaism has been hollowed out by a replacement of Judaism with Zionism’

Arielle Angel ( ), Editor in Chief of Jewish Currents ( ), speaks with Liana Krupp, President of the Krupp Family Foundation, at the 2026 Conference of the Jewish Left organized by about the need for new left wing Jewish institutions in the US. Arielle further states:

‘We need [new Jewish institutions] to serve our needs. We deserve a spiritual and cultural life. And so just on that level alone, it would be important to do, but also because we need it to keep our movement and our position sustainable.

‘There is a lot of talk about the Left Liberal Coalition, and I agree that we actually need to build the Left Liberal Coalition, but also we need to beat them. We need to be the ones who have the power in those coalitions, and we need to be leading the agenda. And we only get there through institution building. We only build enough power to actually compete in that conversation through building our institutional power.’

Watch all the talks from the 2026 Conference of the Jewish Left here: http://bit.ly/jewishleft2026

Subscribe to the Conference newsletter here: http://bit.ly/jewishleftletter

‘Genocide has transformed the political map’

Dove Kent speaks at the 2026 Conference of the Jewish Left organized by - she continues:

‘US politics around Israel and Palestine have fundamentally shifted.

‘From the left, the ceasefire movement made solidarity with Palestine mainstream, and now mainstream democratic opinion has shifted and a wide majority of the party’s members support Palestinian rights.

‘Jewish legacy institutions, our ‘self-appointed leaders,’ have abdicated their responsibility to represent majority American Jewish positions, uphold a basic Jewish moral position, or support the actual wellbeing of the American Jewish community.

‘This meant the American Jewish establishment played a role in ensuring Israel wouldn’t be held accountable in the US for its decades of crimes against Palestinians.

‘I am here to call in the alternative future that we are called to create in the wake of the American Jewish establishment’s collusion with some of the most destructive forces in our world today.’

Watch the full conference here: bit.ly.jewishleft2026

Subscribe to the conference newsletter here: bit.ly/jewishleftletter

‘The state of Israel has become an object of worship in many American Jewish communities’

Peter Beinart, in conversation with Marjorie Feld at the 2026 Conference of the Jewish Left, discusses the concept of idolatry, and his new book.

Marjorie asks:

‘So many people of all backgrounds who are here today first came to know you through your book ‘Being Jewish After The Destruction of Gaza.’ I thought you could start by talking about what motivated you to write it?’

Peter responds:

‘I began to think about this idea of idolatry because it seemed to me what Israel was doing after October 7th was testing the question of whether there was anything that it could do that would lead the American Jewish establishment to say, enough, right, here’s where we get off the bus. And again and again, it became clear
to me that there was no line.

‘The state was much more valuable, than the lives of all the people who lived in the state.’

Watch the full conference here: bit.ly.jewishleft2026

Subscribe to the conference newsletter here: bit.ly/jewishleftletter