Platner, Mamdani, and What We Expect From Civic Leaders

Platner, Mamdani, and What We Expect From Civic Leaders

In this episode of Boston Jewish Now, JCRC CEO Jeremy Burton discusses what Jewish communities should expect from civic leaders — in moments of celebration, in moments of pain, and in moments when antisemitism and public Jewish life are being tested.   The conversation covers Toronto’s March with Israel, Mamdani and New York’s Israel parade, and the question of what it means for civic leaders to show up for Jewish communities. Jeremy also discusses Graham Platner, Ralph Northam, Jake Auchincloss, and the double standard around racism and antisemitism in public life.   The episode also covers Clover Food Lab and kosher food access in Boston, why consumer data privacy is a Jewish safety issue, and the importance of nonprofit security funding in the Massachusetts state budget. Find your legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator

What It Means to Be Queer and Jewish Right Now

This Pride Month episode is a conversation between two queer Jewish professionals working inside JCRC, each bringing a different generational lens to what it means to be queer, Jewish, visible, and civically engaged in this moment.   Rachel Schlesinger, JCRC's Marketing Coordinator, and Jeremy Burton, JCRC's CEO, are living different chapters of the same larger story. Jeremy brings decades of experience as an out Jewish communal leader who has seen the evolution of LGBTQ belonging in Jewish spaces. Rachel brings the perspective of a younger Jewish professional navigating a post-October 7 world, where being out can sometimes feel easier than being visibly Jewish or Zionist in some progressive and LGBTQ spaces.   Together, they talk about Pride, authenticity, Jewish belonging, antisemitism, Israel, civil rights, and the responsibility of communal institutions to make room for people to show up fully.

Are Jewish Families Chasing Prestige Over Education?

Many Jewish parents are looking at college differently right now. Dr. Greg Weiner offers a perspective few others can. He is the 17th president of Assumption University, the first Jewish president of a Catholic university in the United States, and a scholar of American political thought. In this episode, Jeremy Burton speaks with Dr. Weiner about why Catholic education may offer Jewish students something many families are looking for now: a serious educational environment where faith is taken seriously, difference is treated with respect, and students are formed to think, question, listen, and live responsibly with others. Dr. Weiner makes clear that Catholic universities are not trying to evangelize Jewish students. They take faith, reason, learning, and human dignity seriously. For Jewish students, that can mean entering a community where difference is understood, where conviction is respected, where education is about more than ivy-league prestige — and where there are no encampments. Together, JCRC CEO Jeremy Burton and Dr. Greg Weiner unpack what a college education is, at its best: a place to produce the kinds of people a healthy civic society depends on.

What We Can Learn From Hungary… and More

This week, we’re catching up on the stories and events that had us talking — from Boston to Israel and beyond. We’ll look at what stood out, the questions these moments raised, and why they matter to us as a Jewish community. Reach out to your legislators to support data privacy: https://www.aclum.org/campaigns-initiatives/data-privacy-now/ Read Alan Dershowitz's Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/alan-dershowitz-why-im-becoming-a-republican-86c19b66 Check out the conversation from Yehuda Kertzer and Jeffrey Goldberg: https://jewishinsider.com/2026/04/yehuda-kurtzer-american-jews-political-homelessness-identity/

Are "Mainstream Jewish Institutions" Making Jews Less Safe?

A recent Boston Globe Ideas essay [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/18/opinion/israel-iran-war-antisemitism/] made sweeping claims about mainstream Jewish institutions, suggesting that their posture on Israel and their approach to defining antisemitism are themselves contributing to the climate that makes Jews less safe. In this episode, Jeremy Burton and Oren Jacobson unpack that argument, challenge its logic, and examine how reducing diverse Jewish communal leadership to a single caricature can easily become a way of blaming Jews for the harm or violence directed at them. They also explore where criticism of institutions is fair, where it starts to revive old tropes about Jewish influence, and what it means when those “ideas [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/18/opinion/israel-iran-war-antisemitism/]” gain legitimacy in public discourse. Oren Jacobson [https://www.projectshema.org/team/oren-jacobson] is a civic entrepreneur and the CEO of Project Shema [https://www.projectshema.org/], where he works with communities and institutions across the country to better understand and respond to contemporary anti-Jewish bias and anti-Jewish ideas. His work focuses especially on how these ideas show up in public discourse, even subtly and unintentionally. Oren is a regular partner to JCRC and CJP here in Greater Boston and has previously testified [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu36nMU1V0U] before the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism, helping commissioners and State House leaders better understand Jewish identity in public life.