The Maiseh Review

29/07/2025

New: Jews seem to be a feature of every news story, political action, or attack on our civil rights. But did anyone actually ask Jews what we think?

Jews are everywhere in American political discourse. The problem is no one actually asked us what we think.

13/12/2023

Shane Burley's upcoming book, co-authored with Ben Lorber, is a radical take on the fight against antisemitism!

At the same time as rising antisemitism has led to dangerous attacks across the world, organizations like the Anti-Defamation League are leveling accusations of antisemitism in defense of an increasingly deadly Israeli nationalism. How are we supposed to parse it out, and how can we build a real, intersectional movement against antisemitism?

The only thing that has ever kept Jews safe is solidarity with people experiencing oppression, and that is the future that is unpacked in this new book: Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

You can pre-order the book here and please share around information to get the word out! Both authors will be doing events and trainings next year and will be launching a newsletter on the same subject next week!

Pre-order: https://bit.ly/3v1ZwS2

03/03/2023

In this reappraisal of last week's panic over a neo-Nazi "Weekend of Hate," we look at how Countering Violent Extremism organizations like the Anti-Defamation League are structurally built to pump up "peak fear" in ways so detached from reality that the only solution is to bring in police.

If we want community-based responses then we need measured analysis that avoids hyperbole.

You may have noticed a panic brewing across hashtags and trending Twitter topics last week, one echoed in endless emails from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “White supremacist groups are trying to organize antisemitic activities as a ‘National Day of Hate’ throughout this coming weekend and...

11/02/2023

We first learned about Black Metal Rainbows a few years ago when they did a Kickstarter campaign to fund their book. The volume is an anthology of writing on black metal that takes a decidedly anti…

05/02/2023

For , we look at the revolutionary potential of trees: the same trees can be used to capture Palestinian land, and to fight back a police complex. When thinking about how we bond to trees, a deeper context is necessary, to see how those trees dot the atlas of our future liberation.

Like most things in Judaism, trees are rarely just imposing plants. The Jewish holiday Tu B'Shevat powerfully locates the pathway God takes through us, from this distant and unknowable force into the bittul, the transcendent materiality of our bodies and lives, taking root through Torah, wisdom, and...

02/01/2023

Antifascist podcast discussion between Shane Burley and Last Born In The Wilderness, talking about the role of community building, coalitions, mutual aid and relationships in general in community self-defense.

Also discuss Burley's new antifascism anthology, no No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis from AK Press, which features contributions from Tal Lavin, David Renton, Kim Kelly, Margaret Killjoy, and so many more!

https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shane-burley-4

20/12/2022

Check out our recent interview with Emily Tamkin about her book, Bad Jews. Have you ever felt like a Bad Jew? Don't keep kosher? Haven't been to shul all year? Ate ham on Yom Kippur? Tamkin tells the history of "bad Jews" and reveals that we are just looking for our own way to be Jewish.

https://maiseh-review.ghost.io/solidarity-with-bad-jews-an-interview-with-emily-tamkin/

20/12/2022

Don't let the pro-Israel right capture the definition of antisemitism.

Despite conservatives in America feigning their undying support for “free speech,” when it comes to Israel, those convictions often vanish when it comes to even mild criticism of Israel. A recent Texas state bill was introduced that, among other things, barred any worker or company on a public s...

20/12/2022

What it takes to build a radical, antiracist, egalitarian movement history.

If there’s one word I never want to hear in a major news story ever again, it’s “antifa.” Part of this is because of the massive conspiracy infrastructure the right has built around it. It has created a new incarnation of an earlier Cold War panic blaming just

20/12/2022

Check out the best horror books from last month, including one forty-year old classic of Jewish horror that's making a necessary comeback.

This was a particularly strong month, and we are going to return to this month’s top pic pick shortly as part of our series on Jewish horror. As with the rest of the year, horror comics continue to outpace particularly short horror fiction, part of the momentary popularity of

20/12/2022

Recent literature on American conservatism reveals just how radical its ideas are.

As the ballots cast on November 8th reveal, our entire political system has been cast into a catastrophic state of flux. This may be most true for the GOP, whose search for identity continues to walk further into the previously fringe elements of their base. Backing their star quarterback (Trump)

20/12/2022

A new conversation with Dr. Max Strassfeld, the author of Trans Talmud, which unpacks gender non-conformity in the Talmud. We discuss how gender is dealt with in Jewish writing, how it challenges the dominant "Judeo-Christian" infrastructure, and what options it holds for a q***r, Jewish future.

To many, last month’s brutal attack on a q***r nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community. This tragic event came at the tail end of a string