Matt and Sam talk to Peter Beinart about Zohran and Islamophobia, Jews and anti-semitism, the genocide in Gaza, and more.
This episode isn't focused on a single topic or text, but rather just wanting to have a wide-ranging conversation with our guest, Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and author of the recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. We start by discussing the appalling wave of Islamophobic attacks against Zohran Mamdani during the last weeks of his victorious mayoral campaign, the short-sighted embrace of such bigotry by too many American Jews and Jewish institutions, the current iterations of anti-semitism roiling the right, religious tradition and progressive politics, changing your mind, and more.
Listen again: "Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL" (w/ Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart), Sept 26, 2023
Sources:
Zohran Mamdani, "My Message to Muslim New Yorkers—and Everyone Who Calls This City Home," YouTube, Oct 24, 2025
Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (2025)
Mark Mazower, On Antisemitism: A Word in History, (2025)
Arwa Mahdawi, "Mamdani's Mayoral Race was Marred by Unhinged Islamophobia. It's Not Going Away Soon," The Guardian, Nov 6, 2025
Romanus Cessario, O.P., "Non Possumus," First Things, Feb 1, 2018
George Washington, "To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island," August 18, 1790
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