Episode Details

Carter’s Break with the White South Over Civil Rights Offers a Model for Jews

Our guest for the Zoom call this Friday, January 3rd, at 1 Eastern, for paid subscribers, will be Paul O’Brien, Executive Director at Amnesty International USA. We’ll discuss Amnesty’s new report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

My New Book

Knopf will publish my new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, on January 28, 2025. I hope the book will contribute, in some small way, to changing the conversation among Jews about what is being done in our name. But I’m keenly aware of two things: first, Jewish voices like mine usually get more attention in the US than do Palestinian ones. Second, while I’m publishing my book, Palestinians in Gaza— and beyond— are suffering in unspeakable ways.

So, while I hope you consider buying my book, I hope you also consider buying a book by a Palestinian author. I’m grateful to readers for offering their favorites. One reader suggested In Search of Fatima, by the British-Palestinian writer Ghada Karmi, which The New Statesman has called “one of the finest, most eloquent and painfully honest memoirs of the Palestinian exile and displacement.”

Readers have also suggested additional charities working in Gaza. One is Donkey Saddle, which “has been providing ongoing support for over 15 extended families” in Gaza.

Sources Cited in this Video

Jimmy Carter’s 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman’s claim that Carter was “engaging in antisemitism.”

Deborah Lipstadt’s 2007 Washington Post column, “Jimmy Carter’s Jewish Problem.”

The attacks on Carter by Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton.

The attacks on Carter’s book in The New York Times and Slate.

“Great is repentance, which hastens redemption” from the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma (86b).

Kenneth E. Morris’ biography, Jimmy Carter: American Moralist.

Carter’s inaugural addresses as Georgia governor and president.

Carter’s 1977

Listen Now