Jewish Currents

2 days ago | jewishcurrents.org | Christopher Blackwell |Sarah Sax

On February 17th, as hundreds of prison guards across New York State abandoned their posts in a wildcat strike, Robert Williams, a 41-year-old incarcerated man in Eastern New York Correctional Facility in Ulster County, was stuck in his cell, trying to make sense of what was happening. Usually, guards would come by for count at 6:00 am, letting prisoners out for breakfast around 7.30. But now it was 12:00 pm, and they were still locked up.

6 days ago | jewishcurrents.org | Eli Valley

In the summer of 1896, writing from a prison cell one year into his sentence for gross indecency, Oscar Wilde pleaded with the British Home Secretary for a commutation.

1 week ago | jewishcurrents.org | Eli Valley

Eli Valley is a Jewish Currents contributing writer. His comics collection Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel, and his new book, Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque, are available from OR Books.

3 weeks ago | jewishcurrents.org | Peter Beinart

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has chosen an inopportune time to publish a book. The release of Antisemitism in America: A Warning coincides with a revolt among Democrats against his failure to oppose a Republican budget that slashes Medicaid and other domestic spending. To avoid protests, he has had to cancel his book tour. His media interviews often feature questions about how the Democratic Party lost its way.

3 weeks ago | jewishcurrents.org | Tanvi Misra

On March 7th, Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University doctoral student from India and the holder of an F-1 student visa, was on a Zoom call with an advisor from the university’s international students’ office when a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents knocked on her door.