In February, Dove Kent gave a talk at the Conference on the Jewish Left entitled “From Margin to Center, From Opposition to Power.” In her talk, Dove asserted that it is time for the Jewish Left to advance a vision for fighting antisemitism in the context of fighting all oppressions, in a multiracial democratic movement. She said that it’s time for the Jewish Left to lead a coalition that replaces the “legacy” Jewish organizations, currently in disarray due to their failed strategy of aligning with the U.S. right and exceptionalizing Jews. Since these organizations no longer speak for the majority of U.S. Jews, the U.S. Jewish Left (the most organized in the world) has an opportunity to build a movement based on Jewish values. 

On April 14th, the Israel/Palestine Committee of BWC hosted a “Conversation with Dove Kent on her Vision for the Jewish Left,” moderated by Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein, in order to explore and dive more deeply into the talk from February. In this thought-provoking conversation, Dove elaborated on the ideas she presented at the Conference as, together, we explored next steps for BWC and like-minded Jewish Left institutions. We are making this conversation available in order to further the conversation. If you have ideas for ways to follow-up, please contact us at ipc@circleboston.org.

Dove Kent has two decades of experience in grassroots organizing, political education, and movement building. She served as the Executive Director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Senior Strategy Officer at Bend the Arc, co-Founder of Tzedek Lab, and currently as the Interim International Executive Director of Diaspora Alliance. Dove is a nationally recognized leader and teacher on dismantling antisemitism and has been published in anthologies and news outlets including The Guardian, NPR, Ha’aretz, and Jewish Currents. She is the co-author of the culture-shifting publication “Understanding Antisemitism: An Offering to our Movement.”