Lifting The Veil: Hakham Esther Azar on Collective Shame, Arab-Jewish Identity & the Antisemitic Logic of Zionism

In this wide-ranging conversation I spoke with Hakham Esther Azar—a Syrian American rabbi, social worker, writer, and educator raised in Brooklyn's Arab-Jewish community—to explore the psychological, historical, and spiritual foundations of Zionism and the systems of domination that sustain it.

Esther offers a deep framework rooted in collective shame, trauma, colonialism, and identity. She shares her own journey from growing up in a deeply Zionist environment to questioning everything she had been taught, while reflecting on Arab-Jewish identity, Christian supremacy, Western empire, and why she believes Zionism ultimately reproduces antisemitic logic rather than protecting Jews from it.

This is a fantastic episode and I learned a lot. Multiple listens probably warranted!

For this episode we are drawing attention and support for The Sumud School, a grassroots educational lifeline for displaced Palestinian children in Gaza.

HAKHAM ESTHER AZAR

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