Mondoweiss was founded by Phil Weiss, a career journalist, while he was on staff at The New York Observer.
In 2006 a wealthy young man named Jared Kushner bought the Observer. After tolerating Phil’s writing on Israel for a brief period, Phil was forced out by Kushner, but he was allowed to keep his blog.
Phil is a magnanimous guy and he credits Kushner with freeing him from the world of mainstream journalism to pursue his interest in Israel and the fascination with it that much of American Jewish society clings to.
We get asked a lot about the name of the site, Mondoweiss. It was the name of the blog version when it was hosted at the Observer and Phil kept it when he left.
One definition of the word “mondo” is “very, or extremely”. So the name “Mondoweiss” was meant as a lighthearted joke that the site would be “extremely Weiss”, because initially Phil was the only author.
But the site has grown and evolved into a full-fledged news and analysis publication with staff in the United States and Palestine. We are one of the only U.S.-based publications with a full Palestine news bureau and not simply one reporter in the region.
So Jared Kushner might have hoped to prevent Phil from gaining an audience for critical takes on Israel, Zionism, and the American Jewish community, but instead he helped launch an important media outlet in the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
This episode of the podcast features an extended interview with Phil, conducted by Miko Peled, the veteran Israeli anti-occupation campaigner. They discuss the origins of Mondoweiss, how Zionism destroyed American Jewish culture, and many other topics. It was originally published on Miko’s podcast in January of this year in three parts. We are excited to share it with you here in one program.
Articles and Links mentioned in the show
- Visit Miko Peled’s website
- Subscribe to Miko’s podcast
- Jared Kushner fired me over Israel ten years ago, Phil Weiss
- Read more from Phil Weiss
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“Miko Peled interviews Phil Weiss about the beginning of Mondoweiss and how Zionism is destroying American Jewish culture.”
One of the peculiar features of our current disputes on Zionism is how poorly the media has reported on the long line of anti-Zionist Jews and Jewish organizations. This book, published in 1990, might be of interest for those interested in the history of Jewish anti-zionism:
“Jews Against Zionism: The American Council for Judaism, 1942-1948”
From the Amazon description, emphasis mine:
“This is the first full-scale history of the only organized American Jewish opposition to Zionism during the 1940s. Despite extensive literature on the Zionist movement, the Jewish opposition to Zionism has received only marginal and usually negative attention. In this impartial study, Thomas A. Kolsky examines the neglected phenomenon of Jewish anti-Zionism, its roots, and its results. In 1942, a number of dissident Reform rabbis founded the American Council for Judaism, the first and only Jewish organization created to fight against Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish state. Emphasizing the purely religious nature of Judaism and unequivocally rejecting Jewish nationalism, the Council supported free Jewish immigration and equal rights for Jews throughout the world. For Palestine, specifically, it advocated establishment of a democratic state wherein all citizens, regardless of their religion, would enjoy equal political rights.”
Some will argue that in 1942, the year the American Council for Judaism was founded, the full horrors of the Holocaust were not yet known. But the Council still exists and still questions Zionism.
http://www.acjna.org/acjna/default.aspx
http://www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx?id=3789
TURMOIL GROWS IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY AS ZIONISM INCREASINGLY SEEMS TO BE A MISTAKEN PATH…