Event for left-wing magazine Jewish Currents finds a new home after public complaints over cancellation
The cover of Jewish Currents’ Fall 2021 issue.
(New York Jewish Week) — The left-wing magazine Jewish Currents has rescheduled a Sunday conference after the event’s original host canceled with days to go.
The cancellation burst into public view on Wednesday when Jewish Currents alleged that the event had been axed due to the magazine’s pro-Palestinian leanings. The statement cited the Tow Center’s explanation — emergency repairs to its building — but suggested that wasn’t the true motive.
“We have good reason to believe that this was a political decision, intending to avoid platforming voices for Palestinian liberation,” the post said. The post did not cite any evidence for that claim.
The statement was seen and shared hundreds of thousands of times across platforms and garnered support from academics, activists and staff at other progressive magazines. Critics accused Brooklyn College of censoring pro-Palestinian views. The allegation would have made the Tow Center the latest in a long line of arts and culture spaces to become embroiled in disputes over the Israel-Hamas war — some of which have yielded expanded audiences in support of those who were canceled.
But Brooklyn College told the New York Jewish Week there were “no political considerations” involved in cancellations at the Tow Center’s theater, where the conference was to be held, only safety concerns.
“The theater’s ceiling was compromised from a roof leak, undermining the safety of its occupancy,” the college said in a statement.
All events at the theater, including student orientations and other external events, have been canceled from September to mid-October, the college said. Those include a performance scheduled for Sept. 28 as well as High Holiday services for Kolot Chayeinu, an independent synagogue in Park Slope that is also now looking for a Plan B.
“While we are speaking with several possible venues, we don’t yet know for certain where that will be, or what may need to shift about our services,” reads a statement on Kolot’s website. “We’re confident that we’ll find a space and a solution for this year, as we have always done in the past.”
Daniel May, the publisher of Jewish Currents, had said only part of the venue, Brooklyn College’s Tow Center, had been damaged, and that he believed the event could have gone forward in other spaces at the complex. Organizers had offered to restructure the event to accommodate the limitations and believed the repairs were used as a pretext for the cancellation, he said.
“We’re a controversial organization, and there’s a lot of folks who don’t love what we’re doing, and I imagine there would be significant constituencies at the school that wouldn’t be thrilled about the school hosting an event with Jewish Currents,” he said.
But the college said other spaces at the venue “could not hold anywhere near” the number of people expected at the Jewish Currents event due to fire code regulations and the proximity of construction needed to fix the ceiling damage. Jewish Currents said it had expected 1,000 people to attend.
Brooklyn College also said it had “aided in the search and identified alternate venues for Jewish Currents and other organizations.” Jewish Currents did not respond to a request for comment made after Brooklyn College sent its statement.
The event, “Jewish Currents Live,” will bring together left-wing Jewish and pro-Palestinian speakers for “a day of politics and culture,” the magazine said. Featured speakers include Jewish and Palestinian voices both affiliated with the magazine and not. One, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, has drawn accusations of antisemitism.
The event’s partners include some of the most prominent progressive groups in the city that have accused Israel of genocide, including the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Several progressive publications are also partners. Ticket sales will benefit the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.
“We’ll dig into the challenges of the moment with writers, poets, scholars and activists,” the magazine said. “We’ll explore new avenues of possibility for ourselves, our communities, and our shared struggles.”
And as of Wednesday, the event has a home. It will take place at the Abrons Arts Center and the Angel Orensanz Center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan — the city’s oldest surviving synagogue building that is now used as an events space — and will be streamed live.
“People want us to be their day school, synagogue, everything, and sometimes I think we should give up the magazine and just do something to meet those needs, because we have an audience that needs us,” Jewish Currents’ editor in chief, Arielle Angel, told the New Yorker in a story published this week. “I don’t know if they read us, but they need us.”
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