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Articles by Ken Silverman
The Costs of Being Prematurely Correct
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guests will be Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama, contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, co-host of Pod Save the World and author, more recently, of All We Say: A History of the United States in 15 Speeches, and Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at the Arab Center, Washington DC.
The Pro-Israel Establishment’s Five Stages of Grief
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Chris Van Hollen, Democratic Senator from Maryland. He’s been among the senators most vocal about changing US policy toward Israel. In May, he wrote a New York Timescolumn calling for conditioning US arms sales to the Jewish state and suggested that “Democrats should pursue a last-gasp effort to salvage a two-state solution.
We Still Haven’t Said “Never Again”
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Darializa Avila Chevalier, who last month won the Democratic nomination for Congress in New York’s 13th district. Avila Chevalier has attracted controversy for her views on Israel-Palestine, among other issues. But the interviews with her that I’ve seen haven’t probed those views in depth. I want to ask what she saw while living in the West Bank and as an activist at Columbia University’s Gaza encampment.
Reckoning with Anti-Israel Rage
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Brad Lander, who last week won the Democratic nomination for Congress in New York’s 10th district. Brad’s victory is a milestone: A Jewish congressman, running on his support for Palestinian rights, winning in one of the most Jewish districts in the country. Even a few years ago, it would have been unimaginable.
Israel’s Defenders Say Legal Equality Would Bring Repression and Bloodshed
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guests will be Aslı Bâli, professor international law at Yale, and Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. When I imagine the people I’d want to advise the next Democratic president, Asli and Trita are near the top of my list.
A Reply to Sam Harris
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Munther Isaac, a Palestinian minister and theologian based in the West Bank. He gained international attention for his Christmas 2023 sermon, Christ in the Rubble. We’ll talk about Palestinian life in the West Bank, Munther’s critique of Christian Zionism, his views of Hamas and his interview with Tucker Carlson. Please join us.
A Glimpse into The Horror in Gaza
Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Transcript A Glimpse into The Horror in Gaza What Israel’s supporters would see, were they willing to look This week’s Zoom call will be at a special time: Thursday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and author of the new book, When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words and Wounds of Palestine.
Condemning Settler Violence is Not Enough
Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Transcript Condemning Settler Violence is Not Enough If You Keep Funding Something, You Don’t Truly Oppose it This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. We will talk about how progressives should respond to the anti-Israel right.
Progressives Must Not Give Tucker Carlson a Pass
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Senate in Michigan, whose Democratic primary has become the most hotly contested in the nation. El-Sayed has been attacked for saying that both Israel and Hamas have acted in evil ways, for campaigning with Hasan Piker and for calling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal.
The Far Right Now Talks About Judaism The Way It Has Long Talked About Islam
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guests will be Molly Crabapple, author of the newly released, New York Times bestseller, Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund, and Joshua D. Zimmerman, Professor of History and Chair in Holocaust Studies at Yeshiva University, and author of Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914.
Israel is Not Hungary
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Cenk Uygur, co-creator and host of The Young Turks, a popular progressive political show. A month or so ago, Cenk and I were interviewed together by Piers Morgan and while we agreed about the war in Iran and US policy towards Israel, I was uncomfortable with some of the ways he spoke about Israel’s supporters in the US. Some of his subsequent comments have added to my concern.
It’s Not Just the Presidential Candidates
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guests will be Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, co-authors of the new book, The Future is Peace. Aziz, a Palestinian born in the West Bank, saw his brother die from injuries sustained while held in an Israeli prison. Maoz, a Jewish Israeli born on a kibbutz near Gaza, lost both of his parents on October 7, 2023. Somehow, both men have turned their suffering into activism for justice and peace.
This War is All About the Palestinians
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Mehdi Hasan, formerly of MSNBC and now founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo. It’s a little unnerving to be interviewing Mehdi, who may be the single best political interviewer in America. We’ll talk about why American journalists don’t ask tougher questions. But we’ll also talk about more personal things. Mehdi isn’t only one of the most important progressive voices in American media.
It’s OK to Want Trump to Lose This War
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the author of three remarkable books on the relationship between the United States, Israel and Iran. For as long as I’ve followed Trita’s work, he’s been warning that if hawks in Washington got their way, we would end up with the kind of catastrophe we’re currently witnessing in the Middle East.
What Would Heschel Say?
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. In the shadow of the war with Iran, Israel is doing terrible things in Lebanon: demolishing homes, killing more than one thousand people, displacing close to a million from their homes and perhaps pushing the country toward civil war. To discuss all this, our guest will be Rami Khouri, a deeply knowledgeable commentator on Lebanese and international politics.
Thoughts on the Michigan Synagogue Attack
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and political analyst based in Haifa. Since this war began, I’ve struggled to understand why most Israeli Jews support it. I discussed this last week with the Iranian, Jewish, and Israeli writer and translator Orly Noy. But sometimes, the people who best understand a society are those who live within it as outsiders.
The Danger This War Poses to American Jews
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Chris Hayes, host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNOW and the Why Is This Happening? Podcast. He’s also author most recently of The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource. Chris sits at a difficult and crucial intersection, between the progressive world (he’s the former Washington editor of The Nation) and mainstream television.
Nader Hashemi on Why the Iranian Regime Won’t Collapse
Nader Hashemi on Why the Iranian Regime Won’t Collapse Share Nader Hashemi is Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University. We spoke about the roots of America’s antagonism with the Islamic Republic, comparisons between Iran and Cuba, and why Iranians deserve a democratic revolution but Trump and Netanyahu won’t create one. Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Peter Beinart.
What If Other Countries Claimed The Right to Bomb the US?
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Negar Mortazavi, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and host of the excellent Iran Podcast. We’ll talk about the potential for another US and Israeli attack on Iran, how Iranian dissidents view such a move, the role of the Iranian diaspora, and America and Israel’s efforts to boost Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah.
The Closing of the Establishment Jewish Mind
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Sabri Jiryis, who for more than half a century has been among the most important Palestinian intellectuals trying to understand Zionism and promote Palestinian freedom. As a young man, he helped found al-Ard, the first Palestinian political movement in Israel, which called for Palestinian national rights and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Trump is Not a Patriot
In this age of unfathomable cruelty and suffering, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But I want to highlight one individual, and one campaign, for you to consider supporting. The individual is Abdullah Awwad, a surgeon in the Gaza Strip I interviewed last year. He’s been working for years in horrifying conditions. He’s been accepted to multiple overseas medical programs but needs the money to leave Gaza with his family.
There’s Nothing Offensive About Invoking the Holocaust to Defend Human Rights
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Our guest will be Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg, lead rabbi of Shir Tikvah, a “justice-seeking, song-filled” congregation in South Minneapolis.
Marc Carney vs Pharaoh
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. Last week’s guests were two Jewish brothers who disagree politically. This week, the intra-family disagreement will be between two Palestinian brothers. Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and author of State of Palestine NOW.
A Lesson from Noam Chomsky about Israel and Iran
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern time. Our guests will be two brothers, Yehuda and Joel Beinin. Yehuda is a landscape architect in Kibbutz Shomrat in northern Israel. Joel (“Joey” to his family and friends”) is Emeritus Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University.
American Progressives Must Support the Protests in Iran
Note: Apologies for the poor video quality here. I’m making do with spotty WiFi. A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. There will be no Zoom call this week. We’ll return next week.
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s zoom call will be at a special time, Wednesday at 1 PM. Our guest will be one of the foremost scholars of US policy towards Latin America, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale historian Greg Grandin, author of Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism and America, América: A New History of the New World.
The Palestine Exception to Free Speech Rarely Ends with Palestine
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Phillip Gordon, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and former National Security Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Don’t Ban “Globalize the Intifada”
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank A way to directly help victims of the massacre in Sydney This week’s zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM. Our guests will be two remarkable people, Musya Herzog and Meyer Labin. Musya is a neuropsychologist who grew up in the Chabad-Lubavitch community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Meyer is a Yiddish-language journalist and writer from the Satmar community. Both are now active in Smol Emuni, the religious left.
Thoughts about the Chanukah Massacre in Australia
This week’s zoom call will be at A SPECIAL TIME: THURSDAY AT 2 PM Eastern. In light of Chanukah massacre in Sydney, we’ll talk to Sarah Schwartz, a human rights lawyer who grew up in Sydney, and is the founding executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, a Jewish community organization founded to fight against antisemitism and all forms of racism, and to support Palestinian freedom and justice.
The Trump administration’s dangerous obsession with Jews
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This week’s call will be at a special time, WEDNESDAY at 1 PM. Given the controversy over my talk at Tel Aviv University, and subsequent apology, I thought it would be interesting to talk to two experts on boycotts: one South African and one Palestinian. Zackie Achmat is a veteran South African political activist and a leading authority on the role of boycotts in the anti-apartheid movement.
When Equality Feels like a Mortal Threat
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This Friday’s Zoom call will be at 1 PM Eastern, our usual time. Our guest will be Chapman University Professor Emeritus Nubar Hovsepian, author of the new book, Edward Said: The Politics of an Oppositional Intellectual. We’ll talk about Professor Hovsepian’s insights into Said, his close friend, and about what we might learn from Said’s work for this moment in Israel-Palestine and the United States.
What Will Establishment Jewish Leaders Sacrifice to Defeat Mamdani?
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This Friday’s Zoom call will be at 1 PM Eastern, our usual time. We’ll talk about the New York mayoral race’s ramifications for the Israel-Palestine debate nationally. Our guests will be Palestinian-American Georgia State Representative, and gubernatorial candidate, Ruwa Romman, who was denied the chance to speak at last year’s Democratic convention, and former Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes, co-host of the podcast, Pod Save the World.
Jewish Leaders Keep Calling Zohran Mamdani an Antisemite
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This Friday’s Zoom call will be at 1 PM Eastern, our usual time. Our guest will be Jonathan Mahler, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and author of the new book, Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990.
It Was Never About Hamas
A list of ways to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This Friday’s Zoom call will be at 1 PM Eastern, our usual time. Our guest will be the Gaza-born political analyst Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He’s been explaining why Trump’s ceasefire isn’t even a ceasefire, let alone a path to Palestinian freedom. And he’s been discussing the clashes inside Gaza between Hamas and Israeli-supported clans.
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My email has changed or will change. How can I receive Substack emails at my new address? Unfortunately, we cannot change your email for you since we cannot access your account settings. Fortunately, it is quite easy to do. Log into your account at https://substack.com/sign-in and go to Settings → Account →select the email account you want to change → Click Edit →enter new email address.
Let Zionists Speak
Our call this week will be at a special time: Wednesday at 11 AM Eastern Our guest will be Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute and one of the most thoughtful and best-informed observers in Washington about the relationship between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran. We’ll discuss Israel’s recent attack, US policy and the danger of a regional war. Paid subscribers will get the link this Tuesday and the video the following week.
Where is the Biden Administration’s Self-Respect?
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guest will Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley, author most recently of Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World and co-host of the Makdisi Street Podcast.
Even Destroying Hamas Won’t Make Israel Safer
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guests will Dr. Lina Qassem-Hassan, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Guy Shalev, the organization’s Executive Director. They’ll talk about the unfolding public health catastrophe in Gaza. Paid subscribers will get the link this Tuesday and the video the following week.
Biden and Gaza: Is Cruelty the Point?
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guest will be Fadi Quran, a Senior Campaigner at Avaaz, a Popular Struggle community organizer in the West Bank and one of the most eloquent voices I know about the moral principles undergirding the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Since October 7, his writing has been desperate and enraged, but never lost its ethical core.
Jewish Scholars vs. Jewish Donors on Antisemitism
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guests will be two of America’s most insightful commentators on Israel-Palestine, and foreign policy more generally: Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah and Terrell Starr, author of the Black Diplomats newsletter on Substack. We’ll talk about the evolution of Black political discourse on Israel-Palestine and the way race structures debates over America’s role in the world.
To Save the Hostages, End the War
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guest will be Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi, America’s most eminent historian of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian struggle. We’ll talk about this latest iteration of what he’s called “The Hundred Years' War on Palestine”— what’s new and what’s old since October 7.
Challenging Israel’s Legitimacy Also Challenges America’s
Our Zoom call this week will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guest will be Omer Bartov, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown. Omer is one of the world’s most prominent scholars of the Holocaust. He’s also an Israeli who has warnedabout the genocidal rhetoric of some Israeli leaders since October 7.
Who Will Deradicalize Us?
Our Zoom call this week, for paid subscribers, will be at the usual time: Friday at Noon EST. Our guest will be Mikhael Manekin. For me, some of the most unsettling scenes from Gaza have been the images of Jewish worship— a soldier using a knife as his yad (pointer) as he reads Torah, a soldier reciting the Shema from the balcony of a mosque, soldiers singing to welcome Shabbat at the Islamic University of Gaza. It’s not the liturgy itself that unnerves me.
Elise Stefanik, University Presidents, and the Politics of Distraction
Our Zoom call this week will be at a special time: Thursday at 1 PM EST. There will be no zoom call on the week of Friday, December 22 or 29. Our guest will be Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute and the author of threehighly acclaimedbooks on the relationship between the United States, Iran, and Israel. We’ll talk about the response by Iran and its allies to October 7 and the risks that Israel’s Gaza war could convulse the entire Middle East.
American Words vs. American Deeds
Our Zoom call this week will be at the regular time: Friday at Noon EST. (I’ve decided to stop mentioning Friday’s guests at the beginning of these Monday videos.) Our guests this week will be Diana Buttu and Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man. Diana is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Emily is a Jewish Israeli human rights lawyer.
Antisemitism is Rising because Bigotry is Rising
Our guest for this Friday’s Zoom call will be New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, arguably the most influential American commentator on Israel-Palestine of the last four decades. After Israel’s election last month, he wrote a much-discussed column entitled, “The Israel We Knew is Gone.” Tom and I hold somewhat different views but that’s part of why I invited him. I learn from respectfully probing the views of people with whom I’m disagree.
NYC's Modern Jazz Guitar Ken Silverman Trio To Play Woodstock's The Colony on August 6
Blistering blues licks... Guitar Fantasies showcases Silverman's originality as a composer and his superb skills into melding divergent traditions into a cohesive whole. allaboutjazz.com regarding 2016's release 'Guitar Fantasies.' The Colony 22 Rock City Road Woodstock, NY 12498 (845) 679-7625 August 6, 2017 at 8 PM. $10. Ken Silverman's original compositions combine jazz with surf, rock, blues, funk, classical and avante garde influences.
Ken Silverman Trio Releases "Guitar Fantasies" on Soundseer
With Guitar Fantasies Ken Silverman continues on the path he started on the 2015 release Parallel Man (Soundseer). The focus is again on the multifaceted melodies that simultaneously reflect elements of various genres while remaining anchored in the jazz idiom. While on Parallel Man there were more western classical motifs on the current album rock influences predominate.The three ?Guitar Fantasies" demonstrate this amply.
Ken Silverman Trio At Amoskeag Studio (NH) on August 26 And At Brandon Music (VT) on August 27
The New York-based Ken Silverman Trio is a modern jazz group that plays original compositions with influences that range from atmospheric film music to swing, funk surf-rock and blues. The trio demonstrates the improvisational prowess of jazz, the delicate creativity of classical composition, and the raw intensity of the blues. Reviewing the 2015 recording Parallel Man, Hrayr Attarian wrote Polished, sophisticated...
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