In this episode, singer Laura Elkeslassy and writer/organizer Shir look back at a decade of Mizrahi/Arab-Jewish Left organizing in New York City — from art and feminist, egalitarian prayer services to active solidarity with Palestine. Together, we dive into what it takes to move beyond the Arab–Jewish binary, reclaim our full selves, and tie our practices of return with the Palestinian struggle for the right of return.

SHOW NOTES

• Reading List on Mizrahi, Sephardi, SWANA and Arab Jews
• Shohat, Ella. On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings. Pluto Press, 2017.
• Bahar, Shirly. Documentary Cinema in Israel-Palestine: Performance, the Body, the Home. I.B. Tauris / Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023. 
• Elkeslassy, Laura. Website.
• Elkeslassy, Laura. Ya Ghorbati Concert, performed and recorded in May 2021
• Elkeslassy, Laura. Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile (multimedia album). 
• Elkeslassy, Laura. Ya Ghorbati: DIvas in Exile (Vinyl Record for purchase)

GLOSSARY

• Hazzanim – Plural of hazzan, the prayer leader in a Jewish synagogue, traditionally responsible for chanting prayers and leading the congregation in song.
• Selichot – Penitential prayers recited in the days leading up to the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), often late at night or early in the morning, seeking forgiveness and reflection.
• Egalitarian Prayer – A style of Jewish prayer in which all participants, regardless of gender, have equal roles in leading prayers.
• Baqashot – A pre-dawn tradition of Mizrahi supplicatory songs. The practice draws on local Islamic devotional traditions, particularly Sufi night prayers and du‘ā’ (supplications), blending Jewish liturgy with the poetic and musical forms of the surrounding Muslim world.

CREDITS

Host & Producer: Noémie Hakim-Serfaty

Host & Producer: Rosa Schwartzburg

Producer & Sound Mix: Fivel Rothberg

Intro Music: Lo Galerian performed by Eleonore Weil

Transitions and outro Music from Laura Elkeslassy’s upcoming album Ya Ghorbati | Divas in Exile

• Sidi Habibi, folk after Salim Halali.
• Ya Ghorbati, after Ma guitare et mon pays composed by Maurice El Medioni and interpreted by Line Monty.
• Abiadi Ana, after Zohra El Fassia

Music Production: Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Laura Elkeslassy.

Vocals: Laura Elkeslassy

Key, Accordion, Piano: Ira Khonen Temple

Violin : Eylem Basaldi

Oud & Taqsim: Rachid Halihal

Guitar: Yoni Avi Battat

Drums: April Centrone, Nizar Dahmani

Bass : Marwan Allam, Zoe Aqua

How can return for SWANA and Arab Jews be a visionary gesture? 

This is the question our guests ask on JVP Radio Episode 5 - SWANA and Arab Jews: Imagining Return. Writer and curator Camille Lévy-Sarfati speaks about returning to Tunisia as a political act of resistance — a way to imagine narratives beyond the ones prescribed by Zionism. And scholar Livnat Konopny-Decleve shares her work on political imagination: how we can revisit the past not as a reactionary gesture, but as a revolutionary act that frees us from the dogmas of the present and allows us to build a liberated future. Together, we reflect on the work many of us have been doing over the last few years to build a global Mizrahi / SWANA Jewish Left in solidarity with Palestine.

This episode is part one of a two-part series dedicated to SWANA and Arab Jewish organizing. From NYC to Tunis our guests share how they are dismantling the Arab-Jewish binary by returning to their cultures and forging a future grounded in solidarity and collective liberation. 

CREDITS

Host & Producer: Noemie Hakim-Serfaty

Host & Producer: Rosa Schwartzburg

Producer & Editor: Fivel Rothberg

Intro Music: Lo Galerian by Eleonore Weil

Transitions and outro Music from Laura Elkeslassy’s upcoming album Ya Ghorbati | Divas in Exile

• Ahalan Wa Sahalan, written and composed by Maurice El Medioni
• Ala Srir Enum, after Habiba Msika.
• Abiadi Ana, after Zohra El Fassia

Violin Taqsim by Eylem Basaldi

Oud Taqsims by Rachid Halihal

Music Production: Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Laura Elkeslassy. 

Vocals: Laura Elkeslassy

Key, Accordion, Piano: Ira Khonen Temple

Violin: Eylem Basaldi

Oud: Rachid Halihal

Drums: April Centrone, Nizar Dahmani

Bass: Marwan Allam, Zoe Aqua

Choir: Laura Elkeslassy, Yoni Avi Battat, Marwan Allam, Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Nozar Dahmani, Rachid Halihal. 

SHOW NOTES

• Reading List on Mizrahi, Sephardi, SWANA and Arab Jews
• Shohat, Ella. “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims.” (1988)
• Shohat, Ella. On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings. (2017)
• Lavie, Smadar. Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture. (2018)
• Azoulay, Ariella Aïsha. The Jewelers of the Ummah: A Potential History of the Jewish Muslim World. (2024)
• Livnat Konopny-Decleve’s film, The Rose of Ioannina; Nessij Collective, co-founded by Camille Lévy-Sarfati

How do we build the mass movements needed to fight genocide and rising fascism? In this episode, we talk “basebuilding” with organizers on the front lines: JVP’s Jemma Pasch and Khalil Cole of Rising Majority break down the challenges and the necessity of collective action. Then, JVP New Orleans’ Cypress Atlas gives us a ground-level view of what this work looks like day to day. Featuring Ana Dammi Falastini by Hanoun Brass Band.

JVP Radio is produced by Fivel Rothberg, Noémie Hakim-Serfaty, and Rosa Schwartzburg. Hosted by Rosa Schwartzburg and Noémie Hakim-Serfaty. Theme music “Lo Galerian” by Eleanore Weill. Art by Liora Ostroff.

Sign up for the JVP Wire to keep up with news across the movement for a free Palestine and learn how to take action. Contact us at podcast@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

As the genocide in Gaza continues, more Americans than ever stand in solidarity with Palestine. But action has been met with reaction: We discuss the repression facing the Palestinian solidarity movement as a whole, and explore the threats to Jewish pro-Palestine organizing. We’ll talk about how this repression harms our Palestinian comrades, and contextualize recent developments within both US history and the Trump administration’s escalating authoritarianism. 

Guests: Sonya Meyerson-Knox, JVP Communications Director; Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman, JVP Rabbinical Council; Dottie Zellner, veteran JVP member and civil rights activist

CREDITS:

JVP Radio is produced by Fivel Rothberg, Noémie Hakim-Serfaty, and Rosa Schwartzburg. Hosted by Rosa Schwartzburg and Noémie Hakim-Serfaty. Theme music “Lo Galerian” by Eleanore Weill. Art by Liora Ostroff.

Sign up for the JVP Wire to keep up with news across the movement for a free Palestine and learn how to take action. Contact us at podcast@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

Learn more about:

The Anti-Palestinian Origins Of American Islamophobia;

The Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism in the US;

The Origins and Growing Dangers of US Antiterrorism Law;

Project Esther;

The Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content;

The JVP Rabbinical Council;

Dottie Zellner’s work with SNCC;

An action led by JVP’s Elders;

Welcome back to JVP Radio! In episode two we return to Jewish Voice for Peace’s National Member Meeting (NMM), held in Baltimore in May 2025. Direct from the plenary sessions, Palestinian legal scholar Noura Erakat speaks about collective power; historian Robin D.G. Kelley urges listeners to embrace radical traditions in order to fuel global solidarity; Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of the United States Congress, confronts our nation’s “addiction to war”; and Eran Efrati, JVP's Director of Campaigns and Partnerships, brings it home.

This is the second and final short “teaser” episode. They offer a glimpse into JVP Radio’s upcoming direction. Future shows will primarily be in a long interview format. Stay tuned!

CREDITS:

JVP Radio is produced by Fivel Rothberg, Noémie Hakim-Serfaty, and Rosa Schwartzburg. Hosted by Rosa Schwartzburg and Noémie Hakim-Serfaty. Theme music “Lo Galerian” by Eleanore Weill. Art by Liora Ostroff. This episode features “Rebel Song” by the NMM Song Team, led by Rabbi Koach Baruch Frazier and Rabbi Elya (Zissel) Piazza.

Tune in, get inspired, and join the movement. Sign up for the JVP Wire to keep up with news across the movement for a free Palestine and learn how to take action. Contact us at podcast@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

EPISODE 1

Welcome to JVP Radio! Our first two episodes serve as teasers to give you a sense of the broader theme the show will address and simultaneously offer highlights from Jewish Voice for Peace’s National Member Meeting (NMM) in Baltimore this past May where over 2000 Jews, Palestinians, and allies gathered to grieve the ongoing Nakba, skill up, and organize for a Free Palestine. 

We’ll hear from: 

• Stefanie Fox, JVP’s Executive Director, on resisting genocide in this horrific moment;
• Elena Stein, JVP’s Director of Organizing Strategy, on growing our movement;
• Rebecca Vilkomerson, former JVP Executive Director on uniting with Palestinian comrades; 
• and Rand, a queer Palestinian organizer and public educator, on targeted resistance strategies.

Additionally, friends and families at the NMM, including Linda Sarsour, share why they traveled across the country to join this historic gathering and why intergenerational organizing is key to liberation.

Tune in, get inspired, and join the movement. Sign up for the JVP Wire to keep up with news across the movement for a free Palestine and learn how to take action. Become a JVP member.Contact us at podcast@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.

CREDITS:

JVP Radio is produced by Fivel Rothberg, Noémie Hakim-Serfaty, and Rosa Schwartzburg. Hosted by Rosa Schwartzburg and Noémie Hakim-Serfaty. Theme music, “Lo Galerian,” by Eleanore Weill. Art by Liora Ostroff. This episode features the song “Tiny Garden” by Jamila Woods.