Arts and Culture

When Is an Acceptance Speech Really a Speech About Acceptance?

By Erica Brody

At the Golden Globes, Jeffrey Tambor thanks the transgender community for “letting us be a part of the change.”

News and Politics

Nearly 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Here's One Conversation American Jews Need to Hear, Not Change

By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum

Will you take the Jew in the Street challenge for 2015?

Arts and Culture

It Begins with Words: In the Studio with Rachel Farbiarz

By Tamara Mann

Rachel Farbiarz is a public intellectual whose medium is visual art. Before devoting her career to art making, she worked as a lawyer focusing on the civil rights of prisoners, particularly those on death row. In this interview, Rachel takes ZEEK readers into the intellectual and physical space of her creative process.

Life and Action

Ten Things You Should Know About ZEEK & Why We Need You Now

By Erica Brody

At ZEEK Magazine, we work each week to develop and lift up emerging and established Jewish voices on social change, spirituality, arts and culture. We delight in the intersections and new ideas that make this landscape feel vibrant and make cultural shifts and social change possible.

We’re a small magazine, but we think what we do is important. We hope that you do, too.

Faith and Practice

To-Do List for the Social Justice Movement: Cultivate Compassion, Emphasize Connections & Mourn Losses (Don’t Just Celebrate Triumphs)

By Alex Weissman

One of the first lessons I got in community organizing was that it was important to celebrate victories, even small ones. It gives people hope and encouragement on a path that is all too often tortuous and strenuous. The lesson I did not get, and wish I had, was that we also need to grieve our losses. We need to accompany our movements, tend to them, and treat them kindly.

News and Politics

Housing & Resistance: Why Affordable Housing Remains a Struggle

By Samuel Stein

In New York City, the place I call home, activism and housing are virtually synonymous. It’s not just that our city has a historic tradition of rent strikes and never tore down its public housing. It’s that housing permeates nearly all of our other social movements too.

Life and Action

A ZEEK Hanukkah Roundup: Act, Fry, Give, Sing, Laugh, Reflect, Plan Your Power, Read

By Erica Brody

Feel like you’re doing it wrong? Or maybe you’re just ready to make this Hanukkah even better? Let us help. Check out ZEEK’s guide to Hanukkah. We’ve got ideas to light up the next eight nights — whatever kind of Jew-ish you are, from A(ctions) to Z(EEK).

Arts and Culture

Poet Q, Poet A: Six Poets Talk About Jewish "Authenticity," Identity, Mapping & Archetypes in Their Poetry

By Eduardo Gabrieloff , Emily Jaeger , Erika Meitner, Hila Ratzabi and Rosebud Ben-Oni

This is the second installment of Rosebud Ben-Oni’s series of poet-poet conversations in ZEEK, featuring poets Erika Meitner, Eduardo Gabrieloff, Hila Ratzabi, Jason Schneiderman and Emily Jaeger. Future installments include discussions about whiteness and privilege, humor, and more.

News and Politics

#ThisStopsToday: A Response to the Eric Garner Decision

By Erica Brody

It’s hard not to agree with Jon Stewart’s now-viral, four-letter-word reaction to a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the white police officer who killed Eric Garner, an unarmed black man. In fact, anything less than outrage feels unacceptable.

Here is one of the four official “values” of the New York Police Department:

Value human life, respect the dignity of each individual and render our services with courtesy and civility.

Here is the official mission of the New York Police Department.

The MISSION of the New York City Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in our City by working in partnership with the community and in accordance with constitutional rights to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment.

Right now, the NYPD is failing its mission. READ MORE