Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was, for a moment, a Democratic golden boy—an oyster farmer and Marine veteran whose rough-hewn authenticity thrilled progressive strategists. Then came the Reddit posts, the Nazi-linked chest tattoo he claimed not to understand, and finally the rape allegation that collapsed his campaign.

But what does it say that a Nazi tattoo and edgelord posting weren't disqualifying, while an accusation of sexual misconduct was?

Arno Rosenfeld, who covers antisemitism for the Forward (but is soon joining Haaretz as its Washington correspondent), joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy to unpack the strange dynamics of the Platner saga: how anti-Israel positioning became a permission slip to wave away scandal, why he became the target of two mutually exclusive antisemitic conspiracy theories at once, how "authenticity" got tangled up with a certain kind of white male gentileness, and what Platner's rise and fall reveals about antisemitism's shifting place in the Democratic Party—and whether it's still disqualifying at all.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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In May, The CJN's opinion editor, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, published her latest book, The Last Straight Woman. One of the most incisive reviews (from a Jewish writer, no less) was Virginia Karnstein, a PhD candidate whose research crosses feminism, antisemitism and vampires—and, sometimes, the middle of that unique Venn diagram.

The Last Straight Woman does not focus on vampires, but it does look at the evolution of feminism and its intersection with sexual orientation and gender identity. So we invited Karnstein onto The Jewish Angle podcast to discuss Maltz Bovy's book, the history of second- and third-wave feminism, separatism, MeToo, tradwives, femcels, the changing cultural status of heterosexual women... and a little bit of vampirism.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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For decades, Jewish women played a central role in building feminist movements, shaping ideas about equality, activism, and social justice. Yet as of the last 30 years, they find themselves cast as symbols of privilege, whiteness, and oppression within the very spaces they helped create. How did that happen?

Writer and scholar Kara Jesella joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy to discuss her new book, Feminist Antisemitism: An Intellectual History. They explore the evolution of feminist theory, the rise of identity politics and queer theory, the emergence of the “as a Jew” phenomenon, and the ways Jewish women became uniquely positioned within debates over race, power, Zionism, and belonging. The conversation traces a decades-long intellectual history that helps explain some of today's fiercest conflicts over Jewish identity, feminism, and Israel.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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As the Western world grows more hostile to Jewish life—as exemplified by rising attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools, bullying and boycotts—one would think this strengthens the case for Israel's right to exist as a safe homeland for Jews. But Israel's existence, many anti-Zionists argue, is the very reason for so much antisemitism right now.

On the flip side, several of those same anti-Zionists wish for Israel to disappear. But then where would the Israeli diaspora go? To the Western world—where they would open up Israeli stores that one can imagine being continued targets of protests and graffiti.

These paradoxes have no easy answer. But for writer Josh Yunis, they raise the question of what it means to centre—or deliberately decentre—Israel in contemporary Jewish life. As he writes in a recent article, "On Collective Jewish Guilt", debates over Zionism, diaspora identity, and progressive politics are intensifying while many Jews feel increasingly alienated from leftist movements that once promised solidarity. Yunis joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the latest episode of The Jewish Angle to explain more.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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Hasan Piker, a left-wing provocateur with millions of digital subscribers, injected himself back into the news cycle after appearing alongside writer Jia Tolentino to discuss the ethics of stealing food from big-box grocery stores in the New York Times. Those who keep tabs on the world's most vocal anti-Zionists will recognize Piker's name—he's been called out by the ADL and other Jewish activists for veering into flippant antisemitism, including calling Orthodox Jews "inbred" and calling Zionism a "mental illness".

Due to these and other extreme positions, mainstream Jewish organizations would like to silence, or deplatform, Piker in much the same way that extreme right-wing internet activists have been. (See: Nick Fuentes, Alex Jones, et al.) But there's a problem: Hasan Piker isn't just popular, he's becoming mainstream. He has been featured in the New York Times several times before this shoplifting conversation, and he's beginning to join politicians who are soliciting his assistance on the campaign trail. This is more than just millions of subscribers on Twitch and YouTube, and it's a level beyond what Fuentes and Jones ever achieved.

So what do you do with a problem like Hasan Piker? Emily Tamkin tried to parse the issue in a recent article in the Forward, "American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt". She joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy to dig into the issue on this week's episode of The Jewish Angle.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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In the 1970s, in the wake of an emerging second-wave feminism, women's magazines were expanding rapidly with a unique style. Their focus, however, tended to exclude minorities. Jewish women were seen as privileged "others", not facing the same constraints as their gentile peers. That's why the Winnipeg-born Susan Weidman Schneider founded Lilith, a Jewish feminist magazine, out of New York City in 1976.

Lilith was radical in many ways, tackling taboo subjects like abortion and gay rights from a female Jewish perspective. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lilith has persevered as a community of literary, engaged and often mature Jewish women, hosting salons and creating a space for Jewish women to express themselves freely. To reflect on its impact, Weidman Schneider joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy on this week's episode of The Jewish Angle.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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When best-selling author Meg Keene tried to pitch her latest novel, she was told—outright, by multiple people in the industry—that her book wouldn't sell. Not because it was too controversial, or violent, or suggestive, but because Keene herself is openly Zionist, and her book included authentic, lived-in Jewish and Israeli references and personalities.

Keene isn't the only one facing this. In the last two years, mainstream book publishers have barely released any Jewish fiction—and the only Jewish fiction that does make it through tends to be anti-Zionist or hyper-progressive. It's left Jewish authors in a difficult spot, having to choose sides or be ostricized from their audiences and peers.

On this week's episode of The Jewish Angle, host Phoebe Maltz Bovy speaks with Keene about the pressures facing Jewish authors today, from editorial demands to erase cultural specificity to an industry climate shaped by fear of backlash and organized boycotts. Keene worries about the future of Jewish literature and doesn't see the trends reversing any time soon, which would result in a literary ecosystem where Jewish stories are not just harder to tell, but in many cases, disappearing altogether.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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Graham Platner is a progressive populist running to unseat longtime Republican Susan Collins in Maine. The military veteran's campaign has been fiery, to say the least, riddled with attacks about his past online comments and—notably for Jews—a tattoo that bore a resemblance to a Nazi symbol, which he's since covered up.

But his Nazi-adjacent imagery didn't damage his reputation in the way people expect. Instead, Platner's continued railing against billionaires and "the people in power", with antisemitic undertones, has bolstered his support. So American Jewish voters lose in both ways: either because Platner does indeed harbour antisemitic beliefs, or because he rallies his base against them with dog whistles and quiet accusations.

David Schraub, an associate professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School, joins The Jewish Angle with Phoebe Maltz Bovy to break down the ramifications of this controversy—and how Jewish Americans also find themselves caught in the awkward middle of President Donald Trump's war on Iran (which some accuse them of starting, by way of Israeli affiliations) while simultaneously not voting for him in the first place.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to The Jewish Angle