The Jewish Tent at a Crossroads
A Conversation with Rabbi Jill Jacobs (T’ruah), Esther Sperber (Smol Emuni), Peter Beinart, and Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove (Park Avenue Synagogue)
Moderated by Rabbi Irwin Kula
American Jews have long spoken of a “big tent”—a communal space capacious enough to hold deep disagreement while maintaining a shared sense of peoplehood. Today, that tent is being tested as never before. A generational shift that has been brewing for some time has come to the fore since October 7, challenging old assumptions about Israel and Jewish identity. Debates over Israel, Zionism, Jewish safety, Palestinian rights, and the meaning of democracy have grown more urgent and more polarized. The question is no longer just what Liberal Zionism stands for, but whether a tent large enough to include its supporters, its skeptics, and its fiercest critics can still exist.
This conversation brings together panelists who represent distinct and diverging perspectives on Zionism, Jewish democracy, and the future of Israel–Diaspora relations. They will explore the fault lines reshaping Jewish identity, and the very practical question facing communities and institutions: How big can the Jewish tent be, and what must it hold in order to endure?
The opinions presented in this conversation reflect those of the individual panelists, and not those of BJ.
Registration is requested.
Registration for the in-person lecture will close January 6 at 4:00 PM, but walk-ins will be accepted.
About the panelists
Rabbi Jill Jacobs (she/her) is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, an organization that trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors and their communities to bring a moral voice to protecting and advancing human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. She is the author of Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community and There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition, both published by Jewish Lights.
Rabbi Jacobs has been named three times to the Forward’s list of 50 influential American Jews, to Newsweek’s list of the 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America, and to the Jerusalem Post’s 2013 list of “Women to Watch.” She holds rabbinic ordination and an MA in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a Wexner Fellow; an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College, and a BA from Columbia University. She is also a graduate of the Mandel Institute Jerusalem Fellows Program. She lives in New York with her husband, Rabbi Guy Austrian, and their two daughters.
Esther Sperber is the founder of Smol Emuni US, a growing movement of Orthodox Jews committed to justice, equality, and dignity for Jews and Palestinians rooted in Torah. Born in Jerusalem, Esther has lived in New York for 25 years. She is the founder of Studio ST Architects, an award-winning firm specializing in synagogue and community design. Esther writes and lectures on architecture, Judaism, culture, and psychoanalysis, with essays in The New York Times, HuffPost, Haaretz, JTA, The Forward, and academic journals. She has lectured at Harvard, Yale, the Israel Museum, JTS, and Yeshiva University, and is a frequent guest on podcasts.
Peter Beinart is professor of journalism and political science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents, an MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) political commentator and a non-resident fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He writes the Beinart Notebook newsletter on Substack.com. His fourth book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, was published by Knopf in 2025.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, a leading voice of American Jewry, is Senior Rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue, a 2000 plus family congregation in New York City. Ordained in 1999 at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Rabbi Cosgrove is an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis, he serves on the boards of UJA-Federation of New York, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and Hillel at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rabbi Cosgrove represented the Jewish community at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum during the visit of Pope Francis to New York in 2015. A frequent contributor to Jewish journals and periodicals, he is the author of 17 volumes of sermons, and the author of For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today. He is the host of Common Faith, a SiriusXM Podcast which explores the issues of our day through the lens of Jewish tradition and lived experience.