Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.

Cynthia Kaufman: Jewish Safety and the Weaponization of Antisemitism

The conflation of criticisms of Israel with antisemitism makes Jews less safe.

August 3, 2025 · 6 Comments

Atalia Omer: For many American Jews protesting for Palestinians, activism is a journey rooted in their Jewish values

Activists emphasized that they were inspired to act because of their Jewish identity and values, not in spite of them.

May 22, 2024 · 11 Comments

Phyllis Bennis: Why False Accusations of Anti-Semitism Are So Harmful

Bad-faith smears of Rep. Ilhan Omar and many others are being used to crush Palestinian rights, undermine social movements, and divert attention from real anti-Semitism.

April 10, 2024 · 4 Comments

Judith R. Robinson: I Apologize

My own people, once stalwart as the stars, 
must now weep as we, their stunning progeny,
disappear like shadows 
into the cracked cement of sweet America

September 25, 2023 · 11 Comments

David Adès: These Are the Men

Into the lush gardens of their hearts
they took me,
gardens of unexpected flowerings
amid bracken and tangles of vines

July 8, 2021 · 1 Comment

Jena Schwartz: Preparing for Sabbath

This voice of mine is stuck tonight,
words falling everywhere as I prepare
for the Sabbath, sweeping piles
of debris from the ground…

June 26, 2020 · 5 Comments

Baruch November: Dream 12

They tell me it is okay to dance
to this music as we all should
be very modern religious Jews
who need to bust the most modern moves.

January 21, 2020 · Leave a comment

Baruch November: St. Louis Park, M.N.

they would ask how it felt
“to be a kike, to taste a baby’s
blood, to kill a savior?”

January 7, 2020 · Leave a comment

Paul Celan: Death Fugue

Black milk of dawn we drink it in the evening
we drink it at noon and in the morning we drink it at night

December 15, 2019 · Leave a comment

Baruch November: Beard 7

In its color alone,
my beard is the sun falling upon the evening
and some days
it is chaffing brambles, poison
sumac, creeping red vines everywhere.

December 5, 2019 · Leave a comment

James Q Whitman: Why the Nazis studied American race laws for inspiration

The US had race-based immigration law, admired by racists all over the world; and the Nazis, like their Right-wing European successors today (and so many US voters) were obsessed with the dangers posed by immigration.

April 24, 2019 · 2 Comments

Don Krieger: Breendonk Generations

1. Anna and Isaac met in an orphanage where they were hidden as Catholics. They married in Antwerp. The house door was six inches thick. Two great bolts shot into … Continue reading

May 18, 2018 · 1 Comment

Majid Naficy: Helen

Sometimes I see Helen Passing by Wearing a long skirt. She pushes a metal walker Scraping against the ground. She always asks: “Sir! What day is today? What day is … Continue reading

January 22, 2018 · 1 Comment

Philip Terman: My Russian-Jewish Grandparents and The Birth Parents of Our Chinese Child Meet at a Café and Discuss My Child’s Future

Schmu-el and Malka and our child’s Chinese birth parents are sipping tea at a café somewhere between the Pale Settlement of Russia and central-rural China. They speak in signs and … Continue reading

November 8, 2017 · 3 Comments

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