From Rev. Arnold Thomas:
Host Rev. Arnold Thomas meets with Jimmy Leas and Ze'Eva Chasan to discuss different perspective among Jews on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has fueled political tensions and hate crimes throughout the world including our state. We shall discuss this crisis through the various perspectives of Jewish Vermonters.
Ze’Eva Chasan is an anti-Zionist Jewish communist who grew up in Burlington, Vermont, across the street from Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, where her father (Abba), Joshua Chasan, served as rabbi until 2015. Raised Zionist, she broke free through exposure to Marxist, decolonial, and—most crucially—Palestinian perspectives, rejecting Zionism’s death cult and its false promises of safety. Now based in Boston, she merges her culinary skills and love of history to reclaim Jewish traditions severed by assimilation and empire, while organizing for a future beyond borders. She teaches that Zionism is not Judaism, that Israel does not speak for all Jews, and that Zionism is an existential threat to Jews everywhere, especially as it carries out genocide against Palestinians. Her work uplifts diasporic Jewish survival as sabotage against ethno-nationalism, whether in the kitchen or the streets. Find her writing at antiquefaith.wordpress.com and reach her at theantiquefaith@gmail.com.
James Marc Leas is a patent attorney in South Burlington Vermont. He is a graduate of MIT, and he completed all but the dissertation toward a PhD in physics from the University of Massachusetts. He was an engineer at IBM, and read for the Vermont bar while working in IBM’s patent law department. He is a member of the Vermont Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Lawyers Guild. James is a past co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee. In 2015 he drafted a 63-page submission to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on behalf of the Palestine Subcommittee, “Neither facts nor law support Israel’s self‐defense claim regarding its 2014 assault on Gaza.” (attached) He was a member of the February 2009 National Lawyers Guild delegation to Gaza immediately after Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and contributed to its report, "Onslaught: Israel's Attack on Gaza and the Rule of Law." He again collected evidence in Gaza immediately after Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 as part of a 20-member Code-Pink delegation, and he authored or co-authored articles describing findings, including "Why the Self-Defense Doctrine Doesn't Legitimize Israel's Assault on Gaza." Over 20 of his articles on Israeli attacks on Palestine have been published on Truthout, Counterpunch, Mondoweiss, Opednews, and the Huffington Post. He has been an active participant in the campaign to end Israel’s wars and occupations, supremacy, and apartheid since 1982, when he helped found the organization, "Washington Area Jews Against the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon."
When African Americans mention “The Talk,” they refer to important conversations their parents or elders had with them concerning how to survive in a racist, hostile, environment, specifically when confronted by the police. I imagine similar conversations occur between parents and children among all People of Color and marginalized communities. However, in a nation that will soon be dominated by people of color, it is crucial that such conversations occur among White families as well concerning how to live peacefully and productively in a multiracial and multicultural country where all prosper. The Talk, Vermont is about the concerns and interests of Black Vermonters, Vermonters of Color, and other marginalized communities that can be shared with all Vermonters and those who wish to live in one of the whitest state in the nation, in the hope that we can truly learn and grow from our interactions with one other, and make Vermont a truly hospitable state in which all may learn and grow.
