Jostling in the Tent

Disagreements over Israel, Gaza, and Zionism have exposed deep divisions within American Jewish communities, that is furthered by political instability. This uncertainty is compounded by a meaningful rise in antisemitism, which has turned many synagogues into arenas of tension and conflict. 

In his recent New Yorker article, “At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over,” journalist Eyal Press explores how these disagreements are reshaping congregational life and testing the boundaries of Jewish community.

Join us for a conversation with Press where he addresses the fault lines within American Jewish life, and the results of midterm elections in the U.S and the elections in Israel.

What is pulling American Jews apart, and what might still hold us together?

Eyal Press is a contributing writer at The New Yorker magazine and an author based in New York. At The New Yorker, he has covered an array of issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the debate within the American Jewish community about Israel, where he was born and still has family.

He has a Ph.D. in sociology from New York University and was formerly a fellow at the Carnegie Corporation and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library. He is a past recipient of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism and has written several books, including “Dirty Work,” which won the 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, and “Beautiful Souls,” a study of moral courage that will be reissued next year, in a new edition featuring stories about individuals who have displayed such courage during the Trump era. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic and the New York Review of Books.