Hey Reddit and r/JewsOfConscience, I am Andrey X, journalist and activist in the West Bank. I cover violence by the settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and work with human rights advocates who provide protective presence to vulnerable Palestinian communities. AMA!

My Instagram
My Twitter
My TikTok

Hey Reddit and r/JewsOfConscience, I'm Rafael Shimunov.

I'm a Jewish left activist who is active with JVP, IfNotNow and JFREJ. I'm the co-host of Beyond The Pale: Radio’s Home for the Jewish Left on NY’s WBAI 99.5FM. I'm a creative activist and founder of ArtvWar, a mostly anonymous group who uses art to create cultural interventions. I also cofounded The Jewish Vote, an electoral project of JFREJ in NYC who helped elected leaders like Jamaal Bowman and many other progressives.

I arrived to the US with my parents as a HIAS child refugee from Soviet-dominated Uzbekistan. I'm a Bukharian Jew, one of Central Asia’s many minority ethnic groups who have largely settled in Queens NYC. You may have first found me when I went viral after Ellen DeGeneres’ lawyers tried to censor my criticism of her support of disgraced former President George Bush on Twitter. Or my installing an illegal exhibit in the Whitney Museum to protest its leader’s manufacturing of chemical explosives sold to Trump’s border patrol. If you were around during Trump's Muslim ban, you may have been one of the 12 million on my livestream during the JFK Airport protests against it, which I filmed from the airport me and my family arrived in as refugees.

I've also worked to successfully help organize with Queens residents against building an Amazon headquarters for their ties to ICE, militarization of police, racism, labor and small business abuse. I've worked professionally and personally supporting movements and orgs winning $15 minimum wage, going after the crime of Guantanamo Bay, Stop and Frisk, and more.

I grew up in the projects aka public housing. My parents did all the stereotypical immigrant jobs you can imagine until my father became an architect and my mother a nurse and I began to go from poverty to the middle class. My parents learned English watching Star Trek with me. That influenced me a lot. And my secret past is working in advertising. For the bad guys. Man that was bad. My not so secret and proud past was being a warehouse worker and bicycle mechanic for Toys R Us, where I learned more about life than almost anywhere.

Find me on X, BlueSky, Instagram.

And the radio show on WBAI 99.5FM NY, X and Instagram. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and a bunch of other apps.

X post for verification

Hello, friends! I'm looking forward to our AMA, starting in ~10 minutes. Never done anything like this before, so it'll be a new experience. Thank you for inviting me. https://x.com/Mivasair/status/1822855344684458400

Hi , I'm Alex Kane, and I'm a senior reporter at Jewish Currents, where I cover the politics of Israel/Palestine in the US.

https://jewishcurrents.org/author/alex-kane

Ask me anything!

https://imgur.com/a/alex-kane-reddit-ama-GkSDWIO

Our AMA with Rafael will be this Friday, December 6th at 8pm eastern (5pm Pacific). He is the host of WBAI's Beyond the Pale FM. He is a Bukharan HIAS refugee and is at the forefront of Jewish activism in solidarity with the pro- Palestine movement. He was an executive board director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and co-founder of Jewish Vote. He is a consultant to non-profits and corporate clients specializing in social media and digital communications strategies. He has his very own profile page on Canary Mission (!)

His Twitter: https://twitter.com/rafaelshimunov

ODSI - or the One Democratic State Initiative - is a movement calling for an end to the explicit sectarianism and apartheid that has plagued Palestine and for creating a democratic, civic state where all people irrespective of their ethnic, religious or other identitarian backgrounds can live in peace and security.

Being Palestinian myself - my background is rooted in both my parents being from the diaspora, as well as the sectarianism I had witnessed in my own life - I see a single democratic state as the best, nay, only option moving forward to peace and security in Palestine.

Ask me anything.

Hi everyone,

We're happy to announce an upcoming AMA with Andrey X, an activist and journalist.

Andrey has done a lot of solidarity work in the territories and has documented the daily abuses of the occupation. By documenting it all in informative, quick videos that are easy to follow - Andrey communicates the important work of Palestinian, Israeli and international solidarity activists in the OPT, to a wide audience.

You can follow him on X:

https://x.com/the_andrey_x?lang=en

This is his personal site:

https://www.andreyx.com/en

/r/JewsOfConscience AMA archive can be viewed here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1gflqfn/rjewsofconscience_ama_archive/?

If you cannot attend the AMA but would like to ask a question(s), then feel free to list them here. We will post your question on the day-of. Thanks!

Our archive is visible on old.reddit, here, and here on new.reddit.

So this post will be occasionally stickied.

Updated as of 12/19/24

• Rafael Shimunov, co-host of Beyond The Pale: Radio’s Home for the Jewish Left on NY’s WBAI 99.5FM, creative activist and founder of ArtvWar.

• Andrey X, jounalist and activist in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Andrey X regularly captures the everyday reality in the OPT for Palestinians and the activists who work alongside them to safeguard communities.

Updated as of 8/15/24

• Rabbi David Mivasair, a retired activist rabbi that has been involved with Israel & Palestine for more than 50 years. Rabbi Mivasair has lived in Israel & returned a number of other times. They are an active member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada and the rabbinic council of Jewish Voice for Peace in the U.S.A. Since October, Rabbi Mivasair has helped fundraise for the Palestinians of Gaza who are suffering extreme deprivations due to the ongoing genocide and 18+ year blockade.

• Alex Kane, senior staff writer for Jewish Currents. Alex writes on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with a focus on Israel/Palestine and post-9/11 civil liberties.

Updated as of 1/25/24

• Suheil Yassin, Palestinian member of One Democratic State Initiative (ODSI), a movement which calls for the creation of 'a democratic, civic state where all people irrespective of their ethnic, religious or other identitarian backgrounds can live in peace and security.'

Updated as of 8/21/23

• Michael Arria, independent journalist/author and U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss, covering U.S. politics as it pertains to human rights in Palestine.

• (via r/Palestine) Israeli anti-Zionists Peleg Bar Sapir & Omri Evron. Peleg & Omri are members of the Communist Party of Israel, a joint Palestinian and Jewish party in Israel. Peleg is a member of Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East & Omri was an IDF conscientious objector.

• Dave Reed, product manager at the Mondoweiss website & producer of the Mondoweiss Podcast. Mondoweiss is an independent news website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy.

• Dr. Yaara Benger Alaluf, historian & activist, member of "Academia for Equality" where she led campaigns against the silencing of critical voices in Israel and around the world, and currently the Coordinator of Community & Education for the Israeli NGO, Zochrot.

• Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago - formerly served as rabbi of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (JRC), Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Now, co-founder of Tzedek Chicago, the first American synagogue known to officially adopt anti-Zionism as a core value.

• Israeli-American activist Dr. Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

• Dr. Marc H. Ellis of Baylor University, Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of History and former Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor Univ..

Hi everyone,

We have an upcoming AMA with Rabbi Brant Rosen on Thursday, August 29th at 1PM EST.

For background information on Rabbi Rosen, check out our previous AMA:

https://np.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/ud7hi1/ama_on_rjewsofconscience_with_rabbi_brant_rosen/

If you won't be present on the day-of, feel free to leave your questions here and I can forward them to Rabbi Rosen. Thanks and we hope to see you there!

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow August 15th (Thursday) at 1PM EST, we will be hosting Rabbi David Mivasair for an AMA!

Rabbi Mivasair has spent decades on-the-ground advocating for Palestinian human rights and has been a lifeline to Palestinians in Gaza who face challenges getting basic needs due to Israel's 18+ year blockade.

David graduated from rabbinical college in 1991. One of his classmates was Rabbi Brant Rosen.

“I have huge respect for David,” says Brant Rosen, a Chicago-based rabbi and classmate of Mivasair’s from rabbinical college, who belongs to an outreach group that delivers food aid to Gaza. Rabbi Alissa Wise, the lead organizer of the group, in 2023 herself founded Rabbis for Ceasefire, which has 338 signatories—of whom Mivasair is one.

• The Walrus - How a Canadian Rabbi Became a Lifeline for Gaza Residents. David Mivasair is raising tens of thousands of dollars to help Palestinian families affected by war.

In 2003, David founded the Ahavat Olam synagogue, a progressive-minded congregation.

David lived in Israel for a time and saw the discrimination Palestinians face up-close:

During his sophomore year at college, Mivasair lived in Israel and studied at Hebrew University. The experience exposed him to the complex politics of the area. He saw Palestinian land expropriated and ethnic discrimination laid bare. One vivid memory: Israeli police refusing to help a young Palestinian boy who had cut himself on glass and was bleeding on the sidewalk. “I was full of Jewish prophetic scripture,” recalls Mivasair. “And then that happened. It seemed so, so unjust.” Mivasair felt deeply that, as a rabbi, he could use Jewish teachings to bring people together.

• The Walrus - How a Canadian Rabbi Became a Lifeline for Gaza Residents. David Mivasair is raising tens of thousands of dollars to help Palestinian families affected by war.

If you have any questions for Rabbi Mivasair but cannot make it to the AMA, please leave your questions here. We look forward to seeing you there!

Hi r/JewsOfConscience, I'm Michael Arria and I am the U.S. correspondent at Mondoweiss. I cover U.S. politics as it pertains to human rights in Palestine. This includes what happens in Washington, activism, and legal fights over the issue.

https://mondoweiss.net

Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter, THE SHIFT, where I track the changing politics around Palestine across the U.S. – https://mondoweiss.net/the-shift/

https://i.imgur.com/GLd68Mz.jpg

Ask me anything!

Hi everyone,

We will be hosting an AMA on one of these days, so just wanted to see which timing is best. Thanks!

Hi r/JewsOfConscience, I'm Dave and I am the product manager at Mondoweiss. I produce the Mondoweiss Podcast, assist with video production, and various other work related to running an independent, non-profit news and opinion publication.

https://mondoweiss.net

https://mondoweiss.net/podcast/

Ask me anything!

https://imgur.com/a/aIPAeFI

Hi everyone,

Next Friday at 1PM EST, /r/JewsOfConscience will be hosting an AMA with Alex Kane, senior journalist for Jewish Currents.

Alex is a former editor at Mondoweiss, a news site that covers Israel/Palestine, and AlterNet, a progressive web magazine.

He has also written for Haaretz, The Intercept, VICE News, Al Jazeea English, The Forward, The Nation, and In These Times and more.

Alex holds a Masters in Journalism and Near East Studies from New York University. He writes on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with a focus on Israel/Palestine and post-9/11 civil liberties.

Useful links:

• Alex Kane - Jewish Currents

• Twitter

If you cannot make it to the AMA but would like to attend, feel free to submit your questions here and we'll repost them during the AMA.

Thanks and we hope to see you all there!

Both AMAs are set and will convene at the scheduled times. Previously the August 15th AMA was tentative, but is now confirmed.

As always, if you have any questions for our guests but can't make it in-person, feel free to leave them here.

Our AMA archive:

https://np.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1e221pz/rjewsofconscience_ama_archive/

Our archive is visible on old.reddit, here, and here on new.reddit.

So this post will be occasionally stickied.

Updated as of 8/15/24

• Rabbi David Mivasair, a retired activist rabbi that has been involved with Israel & Palestine for more than 50 years. Rabbi Mivasair has lived in Israel & returned a number of other times. They are an active member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada and the rabbinic council of Jewish Voice for Peace in the U.S.A. Since October, Rabbi Mivasair has helped fundraise for the Palestinians of Gaza who are suffering extreme deprivations due to the ongoing genocide and 18+ year blockade.

• Alex Kane, senior staff writer for Jewish Currents. Alex writes on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with a focus on Israel/Palestine and post-9/11 civil liberties.

Updated as of 1/25/24

• Suheil Yassin, Palestinian member of One Democratic State Initiative (ODSI), a movement which calls for the creation of 'a democratic, civic state where all people irrespective of their ethnic, religious or other identitarian backgrounds can live in peace and security.'

Updated as of 8/21/23

• Michael Arria, independent journalist/author and U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss, covering U.S. politics as it pertains to human rights in Palestine.

• (via r/Palestine) Israeli anti-Zionists Peleg Bar Sapir & Omri Evron. Peleg & Omri are members of the Communist Party of Israel, a joint Palestinian and Jewish party in Israel. Peleg is a member of Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East & Omri was an IDF conscientious objector.

• Dave Reed, product manager at the Mondoweiss website & producer of the Mondoweiss Podcast. Mondoweiss is an independent news website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy.

• Dr. Yaara Benger Alaluf, historian & activist, member of "Academia for Equality" where she led campaigns against the silencing of critical voices in Israel and around the world, and currently the Coordinator of Community & Education for the Israeli NGO, Zochrot.

• Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago - formerly served as rabbi of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (JRC), Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Now, co-founder of Tzedek Chicago, the first American synagogue known to officially adopt anti-Zionism as a core value.

• Israeli-American activist Dr. Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

• Dr. Marc H. Ellis of Baylor University, Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of History and former Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor Univ..

Hi everyone,

Please let us know what an ideal time is, as this will help us when scheduling with upcoming guests.

Thanks!

Our AMA archive is visible on old.reddit, here, but not on mobile or redesign.

So this post will be occasionally stickied.

Updated as of 1/25/24

• Suheil Yassin, Palestinian member of One Democratic State Initiative (ODSI), a movement which calls for the creation of 'a democratic, civic state where all people irrespective of their ethnic, religious or other identitarian backgrounds can live in peace and security.'

Updated as of 8/21/23

• Michael Arria, independent journalist/author and U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss, covering U.S. politics as it pertains to human rights in Palestine.

• (via r/Palestine) Israeli anti-Zionists Peleg Bar Sapir & Omri Evron. Peleg & Omri are members of the Communist Party of Israel, a joint Palestinian and Jewish party in Israel. Peleg is a member of Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East & Omri was an IDF conscientious objector.

• Dave Reed, product manager at the Mondoweiss website & producer of the Mondoweiss Podcast. Mondoweiss is an independent news website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy.

• Dr. Yaara Benger Alaluf, historian & activist, member of "Academia for Equality" where she led campaigns against the silencing of critical voices in Israel and around the world, and currently the Coordinator of Community & Education for the Israeli NGO, Zochrot.

• Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago - formerly served as rabbi of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (JRC), Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Now, co-founder of Tzedek Chicago, the first American synagogue known to officially adopt anti-Zionism as a core value.

• Israeli-American activist Dr. Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

• Dr. Marc H. Ellis of Baylor University, Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of History and former Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor Univ..

View Poll

r/JewsOfConscience is excited to host an AMA with Suheil from the One Democratic State Initiative on Sunday, December 1, at 9 AM EST. You can post questions here that will be added to the AMA, or even better show up at that time.

From the ODSI website about their mission:

The One Democratic State Initiative is a Palestinian political endeavor that aims at making the central issue “A Jewish state or a democratic state?” (rather than simply solidarity with Palestinians or criticism of Israel without a definite political objective) the core of the Palestinian liberation discourse, a key milestone in the struggle for the decolonization of Palestine.

The purpose of the Initiative is thus to mobilize individuals, entities and political parties, in Palestine and abroad, to network behind such an endeavor. To do so, we are reaching out both online and on the ground to individuals and groups who support the One Democratic State solution, who see Zionism for the danger it is but do not support the One Democratic State solution, or who are simply willing to listen.

The more people take part in our campaigns, the more successful we will be. If you share our vision for a transition from settler colonialism to democracy in Palestine, we urge you to declare your support for it by signing up and checking the “I might be able to help” box to take part in the Initiative—There’s tons to be done, and you can make a difference.

Today at 11 AM EST, JewsOfConscience will host our first ever AMA. The guest is Dr. Marc H. Ellis, Professor of History and Jewish Studies and the author of more than 30 books including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time and more recently Traveling Jewish: Touring Lands of Dreams Deferred. His concepts of ethical Judaism are the inspiration for the name of this subreddit and I hope his experience in the struggle for liberation can help others.

The post will go up at 8 AM on Friday and Dr. Ellis will begin answering questions at 11 AM.