We take calls and talk about "fusion voting" in New York, Working Families Party, the race for Governor of New York between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin and the public ballot measures we should pay attention to.

Stanley Fritz is the Movement Politics Director at Citizen Action of New York, and he writes about patriarchy, politics and music on his substack letsnotbtrash.com. We're talking about what’s at stake on November 8, election day in New York. 

Follow @StanFritz on Twitter

Rafael Shimunov is an artist and activist in Queens, New York who occasionally hosts WBAI's What's Going On? Rafael is a board member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), its Jews of Color caucus and the co-founder of The Jewish Vote. 

Follow @RafaelShimunov on Twitter.

Find your voter guide at https://votewfp.org/

What's Going On? with Rafael Shimunov and Stanley Fritz

Florida's Don't Say Gay law is is emboldening LGBTQIA+ hate, leading to a Jacksonville high school play centering a queer Jewish love story being banned. Beyond The Pale hosts the renowned playwright and the heroic students fighting together to bring it back.

Pulitzer prize winning playwright Paula Vogel is joined by actors Madeline Scotti and Brennan Mitchell from the Jacksonville, Florida high school production of their (now censored) play, Indecent. 

Special interview by original Beyond The Pale contributor, journalist, theater critic & scholar Alisa Solomon. 

Rafael Shimunov interviews workers' rights attorney Hugh Baran who joined 100+ lawyers drawing from their Jewish & American values to say #NoToLaSalle.

Share this page on IG with bit.ly/queerjewishlove

Beyond The Pale: Queer Jewish Love Banned in Florida & The Battle Against Justice LaSalle

Did you know the Hebrew Bible was rewritten to reverse genders of characters? We're joined by groundbreaking artist Yael Kanarek who talks about how she regendered the Torah into 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘵 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘩 with your cohosts Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov. Today is also Shoshana's first show as official, weekly co-host.

Yael Kanarek is an artist who's practice focuses on the relationship between language and form. She works in various media such as internet art, large-scale sculpture, and fine jewelry. Kanarek became known in the mid 90s for her Internet art trilogy, "World of Awe." She exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, SFMoMA, Jewish Museum, EMST Museum, and more. She’s a recipient of fellowships with the Rockefeller New Media grant, Eyebeam, and NYFA, among others. 

Learn more

Beit Toratah http://beittoratah.org
Yael Kanarek https://yaelkanarek.com
Shoshana Brown https://shoshanaakua.com
JFREJ Events https://jfrej.org/events

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Please support the show and WBAI by becoming a BAI Buddy at https://wbai.org/program.php?program=461

Yael photos by Gili Getz

Beyond The Pale: Regendering The Torah with Yael Kanarek

Nadia Sun 2013

What is afrofuturism? What is Jewish afrofuturism? How do we use art to define a future of joy and liberation?

Three incredible Black Jewish artists join our co-hosts Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov.

Jessica Valoris who is a multidisciplinary artist and community facilitator. Through ritual performance, sound collage, and mixed media painting, Jessica creates sacred spaces that honor the earth-based traditions of her Black and Jewish ancestors. Her art is rooted in practices of collective care, ancestral reverence, and embodied study.

Leah King a New Yorker in LA who is a musician, producer, and artist. She creates audio installations and interactive visual art works that explore race, gender, power, and family through an afrofuturist lens. 

And our guest co-host Leo Ferguson, a musical artist himself. He was half of the group called Decibelists here in New York and most recently released The Sterling Brown Project with Cornelius Eady.

You can follow Jessica Valoris’ work at JessicaValoris.com and on IG at JessicaValoris. Leah King at Leah-King.com and @leahkinglive on Twitter and IG. And Leo at @LeoFerguson on Twitter and sterlingbrownproject.com

Follow @BeyondThePaleFM on IG, Twitter and Facebook.

Black. Jewish. Afrofutures. (Extended Version)

We're celebrating Women's History Month with musician Ezra Furman, Rabbi Abby Stein and Rabbi Veronica S. Yisrael.

Ezra Furman is a singer, songwriter, and author. Her music is literally the entire soundtrack of the great Netflix show, Sex Education. Ezra came out as a transgender woman almost exactly two years ago and recently made waves calling on the Orthodox community to stop driving away Orthodox Jews like her after a transgender woman was fired from her Yeshiva job. Ezra is currently on tour, appearing in New York this March 23 and 28th, along with appearances cross the US and Europe this spring and summer. https://www.ezrafurman.com/

Rabbi Abby Stein Jewish educator & rabbi, award winning author, speaker, and activist. She was born and raised in a Hasidic family of rabbinic descent, and is a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Abby attended Yeshiva, completing a rabbinical degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore a self-determined life. In 2015 Abby came out as a woman of trans experience. Abby is the author of Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/abby-stein/becoming-eve/9781580059169/

Rabbi Veronica Yisrael joins to us from Atlanta, Georgia. She is the founder and Senior Rabbi of Congregation Rehovot Beit Tefillah Kol Anashim, an affirming sanctified Jewish synagogue. https://www.facebook.com/CongregationRehovotBeitTefilahKolAnashim/

Jewish Trans Woman Joy

We were joined by Sophie Ellman-Golan. We spoke about the #EndJewHatred resolution in New York City Council and why elected officials felt like supporting or opposing it. It has passed and established an official NYC Day to End Jew Hatred. Does it really combat antisemitism? Who are the people behind the bill? And why are they pushing it? 

We also honor Jordan Neely at the beginning and end of today's show.

Sophie Ellman-Golan is the Director of Strategic Communications at Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). Prior to joining the JFREJ staff, Sophie worked as a political and messaging strategist with a focus on antisemitism, and white nationalism, helping to expose ties between far-right movements and elected officials. She was one of the National Organizers of the 2017 Women's March on Washington, and later served as the Director of Digital Outreach at the Women’s March organization. The Forward named her one of the nation's 50 most influential Jews in 2017, The Jewish Week named her on their list of 36 Under 36 in 2018, and JTA named her one of 50 Jews to follow on Twitter in 2019.

Sign up with JFREJ at jfrej.org

Donate to Jordan Neely's fundraiser 
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jordan-neely-we-love-you

Follow us on BeyondThePaleFM on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

End Jew Hatred Day? The Far Right Groups Behind #EndJewHatred with Sophie Ellman-Golan

Our guest Beatrice Weber, the Executive Director of Young Advocates for Fair Education. YAFFED is a nonprofit organization founded by individuals raised within Hasidic and Haredi communities, and is committed to improving secular education in Hasidic and Haredi schools.

Beatrice is an Ordained Interspiritual Minister, author, and speaker Beatrice Weber. She was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community and was married off to a Rabbi in an arranged marriage before graduating high school. Despite harsh opposition from the community and her family, she left her marriage several years ago and currently lives in Brooklyn with the two youngest of her ten children. She was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times for winning a lawsuit against NYC and NYS.

Yeshiva Interrupted: The Fight for Hasidic Kids' Education

From Jewish Voice For Peace's (JVP) mass arrest in Congress to IfNotNow's (INN) shutting down the White House, and local actions by Jews For Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and others, Rafael Shimunov and Shoshana Brown report back with their exclusive access as participants and documentarians to the Jewish Left's global fight to shout Not In Our Name to US support for Israel's attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

The show also plays full comments by Congressmember Rashida Tlaib who joined Congressmember Cori Bush at what turned out to be the largest Jewish action for and with Palestinians in history.

Rafael Shimunov shares his story of arrest at a New York event, and the coverage he shot from the inside of the White House and Congressional actions.

Jews for Gaza Ceasefire: From the Largest Jewish Palestine Action in History

We examine the American Jewish response to Israel's criminal attack on Gaza, its abandoning of hostages and their families and where the Jewish left & progressives are succeeding and failing. We play listener calls, including one criticizing us for spreading misinformation about Israel's "moral army", Women in Black, and upcoming events around #CeaseFireNow.

Gaza in Crises

We're joined by Jewish Voice for Peace activist/chapter leader Rosalind Petchesky, who was arrested shutting down roads to Senator Chuck Schumer and helped take over Grand Central Terminal calling for #ceasefireNOW in Gaza.

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.

Jewish Elders for Gaza Ceasefire

Suzanne Ross was born in Antwerp, Belgium just a couple of years before the Nazis invaded and occupied that country.  Her father was born in Nuremberg, Germany and her mother in Lodz, Poland, both came from East European traditional Jewish families.  Once the Nazis invaded her parents decided to leave Belgium immediately. She, Her parents, brother, three years older than her began their five year odyssey , initially with much of our extended family but soon on our separate route, through Europe, North Africa, Palestine, where her and her brother lived in a Kibbutz, and ultimately the US, by 9, living in an Orthodox Jewish community in Queens, attending Jewish religious schools where Suzanne became Zionist. 

Suzanne joined Barnard in 1955 and Columbia in 1959 attaining a PhD in clinical psychology.  In the early 60s, she joined the anti-war movement, engaged in the South African, Cuban and Vietnam liberation struggles and the Columbia student Uprising of 1968, 

Suzaane spent her early years working working as a psychologist in the racist and classist institutions of New York, including locked adolescent psychiatric wards, a five year embattled stint teaching at Lehman College, the Weather Underground, and finally the Free Mumia Abu Jamal movement, the movement to support and free all political prisoners, and gradually the abolitionist movement.   

In her youth trying to transform the world around her, the world would transform Suzanne Ross, whose work made her question her commitment to the official Israel narrative. And as her love of Judaism grew, her criticism of Zionism grew, and today Suzanne calls herself anti-Zionist and joined the Palestinian struggle.

Dr. Suzanne Ross / A Nazi Survivor's Journey with Zionism

We're joined by the filmmakers of “The People’s Bubbie,” a documentary in works about the 92-year-old Shatzi Weisberger who became an unexpected symbol of resistance. This outspoken Jewish, lesbian, anti-Zionist, lifelong New Yorker embraced her flaws and faced her fears. With her captivating spirit, she forged powerful bonds with young queer activists to unlock a profound love that transformed her final weeks into an extraordinary journey of joy and loss.

Julia Sharpe-Levine (she/they) is a Brooklyn based artist, editor, and educator. Prior to 2023, she spent 8 years leading arts and media programming at the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a nonprofit under the leadership of Kimberlé Crenshaw that advocates for an intersectional vision of racial justice. While at AAPF, she also served as Executive Producer and lead editor of the hit podcast Intersectionality Matters, recipient of a 2021-22 Webby Award. Since 2018, she’s taught theater to K-12 students and older adults throughout NYC with organizations like New York City Children’s Theatre and DOROT, and has produced nonfiction films for various NGOs and grassroots organizations. She holds a masters degree in Applied Theatre from the CUNY School of Professional Studies and bachelors degrees in Drama and Chinese from Vassar College. 

Fivel Rothberg (he/him) specializes in recording location sound and produces nonfiction films for broadcast and NGOs. He produced two feature-length documentaries, Island Soldier (2017) and Lyd (2023). Lyd, a “sci-fi documentary” by Sarah Ema Friedland and Rami Younis, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary and the inaugural 2023 FIPRESCI award at Amman International Film Festival. It was executive produced by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. Fivel became a father at the age of 20, so spent a lot of his time parenting when he wasn’t working or going to college. His child is now 25-years-old, and Fivel sees this time as an opportunity to have more creative freedom. Finally, Fivel has lived in NYC for 17 years, but still says “wooder” like a good Philadelphian.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/shatzi-documentary

https://www.instagram.com/thepeoplesbubbiefilm/

The People's Bubbie: An Anti-Zionist Love Story

We were joined by Rabbi Alissa Wise and Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of Rabbis for Ceasefire.

Rabbi Alissa Wise is Lead Organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire, and former Deputy Director at Jewish Voice for Peace and co-found of the JVP Rabbinical Council. Also former Education Director at Jews for Racial & Economic Justice! 

Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari is the Senior Rabbi at Kol Tzedek Synagogue in West Philly He is a White, queer, trans person, of Ashkenazi and Italian descent. He was ordained from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and worked as a Jewish educator, Hebrew School director, and prison chaplain.

Rabbis for Ceasefire is an ad-hoc group of Rabbis and Rabbinical students across political affiliations and denominations. They are Rabbis from Conservative, Reform, Modern Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal communities who hail from Israel/Palestine, North America and Europe. 

"At this moment of great moral reckoning, we are speaking out with one voice to fulfill the most sacred obligation in Jewish tradition – pikuach nefesh, saving a life."

rabbis4ceasefire.com
instagram.com/rabbis4ceasefire
kol-tzedek.org (West Philadelphia)
instagram.com/alissashira

Opening track was Rabbi Mrian Levia Grossman of Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn who joined Rashida Tlaib, AOC, Jamaal Bowman, and other Congress members in front of the Senate weeks ago with the group.

Rabbis for Ceasefire

We're joined by two leaders of last night's 30+ activists and constituents who successfully shut down a 92nd Street Y event featuring Congressmen Ritchie Torres of the Bronx and Mike Lawler of Westchester, demanding a permanent ceasefire, an end to US support for Israeli war crimes, and a Free Palestine.

Protesters staged various interruptions, including chants of “blood on your hands,” “genocide is not peace,” and “free Palestine,” throughout the event. The venue’s security staff forcibly ejected the protesters and, in some cases, tried to wrest away their banners and signs. At least one protester was pushed down the stairs by security, and many others were roughly grabbed and shoved. 

Constituents of NY-15 and NY-17 voiced frustration with their representatives for abandoning community members and ignoring their needs while tirelessly promoting bipartisan efforts to continue the Israeli occupation of Palestine. 

Rep. Torres has been called “Israel’s loudest House supporter.” In 2022, Torres received $141K in funding from AIPAC. He serves the poorest Congressional District in the U.S., but in public statements made since taking office in 2021, he mentions Israel 236% more than he mentions poverty. 

“As a constituent in one of the poorer sections of District 15, I denounce Rep. Ritchie Torres for ignoring the needs of those most underserved while serving the capitalist class objectives of greed and genocide. The Bronx does not support genocide and we call on this government to force the Israel settler-colonial state to cease its attacks on Occupied Palestine now.” 
— Foxy Jazzabelle, NY-17 Constituent

Thursday’s disruption came a week after the U.S. House of Representatives passed  Ritchie Torres and Mike Lawler’s bill to create a new “special envoy” for the Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords, introduced by the Trump administration in 2020, have been widely criticized for offering a one-sided peace plan: Israel gains new recognition by Arab states like the UAE, while Palestinians gain no hope of statehood.

Rep. Lawler has repeatedly denounced calls for a ceasefire, emphasizing Israel’s “right to defend itself” and “the right of the Jewish people to live peacefully” on what he calls “their native land.” Lawler’s Congressional district has one of the highest populations of Jewish people in the U.S. and outside of Israel. Yet six weeks ago, he endorsed a Rockland County legislator, James Foley, who has a documented history of antisemitism. 

“As a Jewish constituent of Rep. Mike Lawler, it is appalling to watch him defend a genocide under the guise of Jewish safety and survival.”
 – Ilana Zaken, NY-15 Constituent

The 92NY, which hosted the disrupted event, made headlines in October for canceling a talk by the professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen because he signed a letter calling for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation. A public outcry ensued, and 92NY halted their remaining literary events for the season.

“I have watched 92NY time and time again suppress important voices that have extended support for the Palestinian struggle. This type of McCarthyism has no place at a beloved New York cultural institution.” 
– Jason Rosenberg, former employee of 92NY’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Life 

The grassroots coalition of Jews and constituents of NY-15 and NY-17 who disrupted Thursday’s event share a commitment to freedom for all people. Jewish values are not to be weaponized and our spaces are not to be compromised. New Yorkers deserve and demand better from our elected officials and our historic institutions.

Shutting Down 92nd St Y for Gaza

Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov speak with Tabitha Celeste Mustafa, PhD about economic organizing, Black Palestinians, Gaza and the history of Black Palestinian solidarity.

We touch on Kwanzaa and its principle of Ujamaa/Cooperative Economics as well as Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres via a constituent voicemail. We begin the show with a portion of a speech by iconic human rights activist and feminist, Dorothy 'Dottie' Zellner's at a recent Rabbis for Ceasefire action.

Dr. Tabitha Mustafa is the Wharton Coalition for Equity and Opportunity Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Dr. Mustafa’s scholarly work centers on moral and political responsibility (of businesses, in particular) for historic injustices, such as slavery in the US and the colonization of Palestine. Prior to that, Tabitha spent over a decade working with civil society organizations, governments, and progressive movements to address human rights and racial justice issues. They are based in New Orleans, LA.

Black Palestine

Palestinians are suing Joe Biden in US Court. South Africa is suing Israel in the World Court. Both for the charge of genocide.

We're joined by twice Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist, author/former Southern Africa Bureau Chief Jon Jeter and Astha Sharma Pokharel, of The Center for Constitutional Rights, and one of the attorneys behind the domestic lawsuit by Palestinians in Gaza and the US against President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III.

We touch on South Africa's history with Palestinians, Jews, the US and Israelis, the South African case before the World Court against Israel, and the US case, on behalf of Defense of Children International/Palestine and others in federal court.

We open the show with a speech by Elena Stein, of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

Keep up with Jon Jeter at JonJeter.com, on Twitter at @JonJeter and on Patreon at patreon.com/user?u=18884606

Keep up with Astha Sharma Pokharel and The Center for Constitutional Rights on Twitter at @theCCR and @AsthaSPokharel as well as @CCRJustice on IG and CCRJustice.org

Learn more about Defense of Children Palestine at dci-palestine.org

Genocide Goes to Court

Comedian Matt Lieb joins hosts Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov to discuss his new podcast, Bad Hasbara. The comedy podcast examining and ridiculing the failures of Israeli and US propaganda tactics during attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

We end the show with a clip from Palestinian comedian Sammy Obeid.

Bad Hasbara with Comedian Matt Lieb

The City of Chicago just became the biggest city in the US to demand #CeasefireNOW in Gaza. We're joined by Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, Alderman of Thirty-third Ward for Chicago's City Council and the lead co-sponsor of Chicago's Ceasefire Bill aka the “Uniting for Peace” resolution. We're also joined by Chicago journalist, activist and Executive Editor at Chicago's In These Times magazine Ari Bloomekatz to help us learn about this victory, the multifaith, multi racial, teacher, labor, and student coalition who won this victory.

Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov also touch on the How Many Stops Act in New York, and the veto attempt by Mayor Eric Adams that failed.

Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez who has been winning battles for schools and affordable housing in the 33rd Ward of Chicago. She has championed Treatment Not Trauma (a model to respond to mental health crises with clinicians instead of cops). Rossana has secured funding for violence interrupters. Protection of abortion, gender affirming care, codifying Chicago as a sanctuary city for immigrants, and stands out as an independent voice in the city council. In fact, the sole no vote after Oct 7 when Chicago decided to voice support for Israel with no strings attached, and no solution for Palestinians.

Rossana is a mother, youth educator, and lifelong community activist. She is currently completing her Masters in Social Work from Northeastern Illinois University. Originally from Puerto Rico, she attended her first demonstration at the age of six, when her neighborhood of Mariana waged a successful battle for public access to drinking water.

Ari Bloomekatz is the Executive Editor at In These Times magazine. In These Times is dedicated to informing social, economic, and political movements for justice and a more humane world. Ari was previously the Managing Editor of Tikkun and Rethinking Schools magazines and spent several years as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He is the board president of the podcast Unsettled, and he is also actively organizing with progressive Jewish groups for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation and system of apartheid in Palestine/Israel.

Chicago's Ceasefire Victory

We're on with Ahmad Abuznaid to talk about our collective liberation and ending US complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and what comes after ceasefire.

Ahmad is a Palestinian American in Florida. The Executive Director of USCPR, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Ahmad co-founded Dream Defenders after the killing of Trayvon Martin and served as its Legal & Policy Director and COO. He has also led the National Network for Arab American Communities.

We start the show with an anonymous voicemail from a listener who works at a Holocaust center, and is banned from speaking about Palestinians, Gaza and being critical of the Israeli government.

We also honor Cecilia Gentili, the trans and queer community organizer and actress who dedicated her life to creating spaces for healing, transformation and justice for TGNCIQ+ communities. Among her last actions was her activity with the ceasefire now campaign for Gaza.

We cannot do this show without WBAI 99.5 FM, keep it on the radio by becoming a buddy of the show at https://wbai.allyrafundraising.com and we'll thank you on air, on social media and our website.

Ahmad Abuznaid & US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Reform Jews are the largest Jewish denomination in the US, and the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) is at its helm. Members and alumni of the URJ are organizing to push it to finally join the majority of American Jews who oppose Israel's attacks on Gaza, which the International Court calls genocide. We're joined by Elise Glaser and Sam Panken, who are demanding URJ and its leader Richard Jacobs, use their relationships with Joe Biden, the White House and others in power to push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Elise Glaser is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist. Growing up as a Reform Jew, she attended a URJ temple, URJ camps, held a leadership position in the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY-NW) the youth group of the URJ, and interned at The URJ Religious Action Center (The RAC) in Washington, DC, which serves as the URJ's lobbying arm.

Sam Panken is a Reform rabbi’s kid committed to a radical vision of post-institutional Jewish life. Sam’s father, Rabbi Aaron Panken, was president of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion until his death in 2018. Sam attended URJ Eisner Camp and the URJ’s high school in Israel program. Sam’s engagement with the URJ since October 7th serves to put pressure on the institution to adhere to the values they teach—the values that Sam grew up with. When they’re not busy figuring out how to be a Jew in 2024, Sam is a pastured poultry farmer and horticulturist in the Hudson Valley.
Sam’s upbringing in the heart of the Reform movement informs their dedication to a just future for all, one that includes a free Palestine. 

We also speak about two legislations proposed in New York, one which would criminalize protests on roads as terrorism, and another that would criminalize disrupting any meeting with protests as a felony with one year in prison.

The "Dialog and Decorum Act" A8334, which is introduced by conservative NY Assembly member Sam Berger and co-sponsored by Democrats who call themselves progressive: Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Catalina Cruz, Nily Rozic and others.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/A8334

And A08951, which attempts to criminalize blocking "a street, avenue, road, alley, lane, highway, boulevard, concourse, park- way, driveway, culvert, sidewalk, crosswalk, boardwalk and viaduct, and every class of public road, square and place" in non violent protest a terrorist act.

https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A08951&term=2023&Summary=Y

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Will Reform Judaism Say Ceasefire?

We're joined by Talia Jane, the independent journalist who broke the whole story around Aaron Bushnell, army veteran Brittney DeBarros and for the second half of the show we’re joined by Pam Campos-Palma, veteran Air Force intelligence analyst (like Aaron was).

We opened the show with a song from artist Trishes called We Watched The Game, you can find that on TikTok and Soundcloud at @ trishesmusic. 

We also played audio from Wednesday’s vigil for Aaron Bushnell in Portland, where veterans with About Face: Veterans Against War lined up to burn some of their uniforms and medals to honor Aaron. Aaron Bushnell, who this week, walked towards the Israeli embassy in DC, in his US Air Force uniform, and said he refused to be complicit in US backed genocide in Gaza as he doused himself in flammable liquid, and set himself on fire. His last words were Free Palestine, which he repeated until he could no longer speak. Also a content warning, we end today’s show with the full, unedited audio that he live streamed.

Talia Jane is an independent reporter and videojournalist who reports via Twitter @ taliaotg, covering social movements and protests as well as researching far-right propaganda and extremism. Jane’s work has appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, New York Times, WNYC/Gothamist, and a slew of other outlets, with writing published in Vice, Teen Vogue, Hell Gate, It’s Going Down, and more.

Brittany is a Queer, Afro-Latina Combat Veteran and organizer who risked military prison to speak out against the wars and war profiteering while she was a Captain in the Army. She’s formerly served as a national organizer for the Poor People’s Campaign and About Face: Veterans Against the War and has served on the Advisory Team for Dissenters for the last several years. She also recently ran for Congress in Staten Island and South Brooklyn on a platform that unapologetically centered the needs of working class people and marginalized communities.

Pamela Campos-Palma. Pamela is a political strategist and human rights defender who, like Aaron,  enlisted in the Air Force as an active duty Intelligence Analyst in 2006. In 2010 Pam successfully organized 18 of her peers against fraud, waste, abuse & discrimination and has spent the past decade+ advancing structural & cultural change within the military veteran community at large as well as serving as a leading figure in the movement to end military sexual violence, injustice, and impunity within the Department of Defense.

https://aboutfaceveterans.org/

Troop & Veteran Support and Report Form
https://form.jotform.com/203016322583042

https://girightshotline.org/
MILITARY DISCHARGES AND MILITARY COUNSELING
CALL 1-877-447-4487

https://taliajane.com/

https://www.jfrej.org/

Veterans Reflect on Aaron Bushnell

We go in on Tiffany Haddish's trip to Israel during genocide in Gaza. Kusher's honoring at the ADL. Uncommitted votes across the nation. Biden's SOTU address. National Guard on the NYC subways.

Jews in the News

Co-hosts Shoshana Brown and Rafael Shimunov were joined by artist Dan Fishback to discuss his new music, resurfacing Yiddish tools of survival, the ability of language and art to help us keep fighting and thriving.

We also talk Gaza, the Leave it Blank election campaign, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, trans, queer and disability justice and how and when they show up in times of crises. We also listen to his songs and talk about his beautiful Laughing with Lizards animated music video (without spoilers).

Dan Fishback is a Jewish anti-Zionist artist who has been writing and performing in New York City for two decades.

He last appeared on Beyond the Pale in 2012, discussing his musical “The Material World,” which Time Out New York called “quietly revolutionary” and “the best downtown musical in years.”

As a curator, Fishback was the founding director of La MaMa’s Squirts, downtown New York’s annual festival of inter-generational queer performance.

As a performing songwriter, he has released several albums both solo and with his band Cheese On Bread.

In 2017, the American Jewish Historical Society canceled a reading of Fishback’s play “Rubble Rubble,” citing his support of BDS. “Rubble Rubble” depicted a Jewish family violently torn apart over the politics of Zionism.

Fishback’s new album, “Ill I: Laughing with Lizards,” is a collection of songs about political violence—witnessing it, enduring it and inheriting its legacy.

Exploring themes of Jewish historical trauma and leftist political despair, the album is accompanied by an animated music video for the song “Laughing with Lizards,” in which a young anti-Zionist Jew harnesses ancestral magic to resist fascism.

Dan Fishback

We touch on how the right wing tries to claim Passover, a revolutionary holiday opposing everything they stand for. All the progressive and left Haggadah supplements for you to choose from. Columbia University and Berkeley Law's attacks on their own anti-Zionist students, including genocidal cheerleader, assistant professor Shai Davidai, how to support the folks at Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Shoshana's advice about Negro Spirituals during Passover, Seder Plates, Rafael vents about Asian Jewish organizations and occasionally we're joined by the voice of G-d and Flo' Rida.

Red Sea Radio, Passover 2024 / 5784

"Everytime I go to Palestine, I update my will."

Professor Wynd Kaufmyn speaks about how she and crews of other volunteers plan to reach Gaza with 5500 tons of aid and hundreds of human rights observers. We speak about security concerns, given Israel's history attacking and even killing volunteers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

We also talk about Columbia University campus protests that have sparked a national campus movement, genocidal Columbia professor/toddler Shai Davidai, Shoshana debuts a new accent, antisemitic conspiracy theories by NYPOST, Shoshana's own aid travels for Cuba, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt defaming students with false claims they are terror "proxies" for Iran, a message from Cole Kravitz, another volunteer boarding the flotilla ships, all the new faces in the reemerging Palestine solidarity movement, our new Beyond The Pale mascot (we need your helping naming it), Shoshana's gonna speak in Kingston, New York and more.

Closing Music 
1-800-Genocide by Rebel Diaz.
https://soundcloud.com/rebeldiaz

Sign up and follow to help the flotilla at:

https://freedomflotilla.org
https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla
https://www.instagram.com/gazafreedomflotilla/
https://facebook.com/FreedomFlotillaCoalition

Support the show
https://wbai.allyrafundraising.com/

Follow Beyond The Pale
https://twitter.com/BeyondThePaleFM
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Golem Mascot Art by https://devotaj.com/

Gaza By Sea: The Freedom Flotilla

Host of Beyond The Pale on WBAI 99.5 FM New York

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