On Christmas, director Josh Safdie released his new film, Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as a young table-tennis player bent on global recognition. Like Safdie’s previous film—Uncut Gems, co-directed with his brother Benny Safdie—Marty Supreme focuses on an American Jewish antihero and unfolds in a deeply Jewish milieu. But while Uncut Gems takes place in present-day New York, Marty Supreme transports us back to the Lower East Side of 1952, examining American Jewish ambition in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and amid assimilation into whiteness. This mid-century setting is complicated by various anachronistic elements, including a soundtrack rooted in the ’80s and, perhaps most notably, Chalamet’s conspicuous lack of a period-accurate accent. On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, senior editor Nathan Goldman, contributing editor David Klion, and contributing writer Mitch Abidor discuss what, if anything, the film has to say about American Jewishness then and now.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Media Mentioned and Further Reading

Uncut Gems, dir. Josh and Benny Safdie

“An Unserious Man,” Jewish Currents

“Marty Supreme’s Megawatt Personality,” Richard Brody, The New Yorker

What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg

Erik Baker’s Letterboxd review

Marie Antoinette, dir. Sofia Coppola

Anti-Semite and Jew by Jean-Paul Sartre

“Marty Supreme Is the Moment, With Josh Safdie!,” The Big Picture

Tough Jews by Rich Cohen

Mari Cohen on Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, Jewish Currents Shabbat Reading List

“Demon Doubt,” Vivian Gornick, interview by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Boston Review

“Is This Anything?,” Mitchell Abidor, Jewish Currents

On Saturday, January 3rd, President Trump announced that a military raid on Caracas had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and brought him back to the US to face drug charges. The operation followed months of deadly US strikes against boats purportedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela and a military buildup off its coast. But even after Maduro was seized, the administration still could not, or would not, clearly explain its intense interest in Venezuela any more than it could explain its plans for the country. And beyond the practicalities of “running” Venezuela, as Trump said the US would be doing, are even more disturbing questions about what comes next under the “Donroe doctrine”—the administration’s update of the 202-year-old Monroe Doctrine, which was used to justify generations of US interventions throughout the Western Hemisphere.

This episode of On the Nose turns to a foremost expert on US interference in Latin America, Greg Grandin, to help us understand the historical context of Trump’s surge—and what it may suggest about his military adventures going forward. A Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Yale, Grandin has written several books on the tangled history of the US and Latin America, including his sweeping 2025 chronicle, America, América: A New History of the New World. Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart asks Grandin to break down the political situation in Venezuela and the history of its nationalized oil reserves—and to explain what Trump’s new doctrine of pure power may hold in store for the US and the Americas.

This episode originally appeared on The Beinart Notebook on Substack. Thanks to Daniel Kaufman for editing help and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Books Mentioned and Further Reading

America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin

Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic by Greg Grandin

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin

“What the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is and where Trump could use it next,” Rebecca Falconer and Julianna Bragg, Axios

“After Venezuela, Trump Offers Hints About What Could Be Next,” David E. Sanger, The New York Times

“The Trump Doctrine,” Patrick Iber, Dissent

Transcript forthcoming.

On December 14th, two gunmen opened fire on a celebration marking the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 and injuring more than 40. The gunmen, a father and son, have since been linked to the Islamic State. Immediately, as observers near and far were just beginning to process and mourn, bad actors rushed in to claim the narrative. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a rebuke of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, linking the antisemitic attack to Albanese’s call for a Palestinian state. Australian antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal similarly linked the attack to a peaceful August 3rd Palestine solidarity march over Harbour Bridge attended by 300,000. She used the opportunity to promote her controversial 20-point plan to combat antisemitism, which would necessitate the broad adoption of the flawed IHRA definition of antisemitism, mandate Trumpian funding cuts to universities, and crown herself arbiter of acceptable speech related to Israel/Palestine in the media. American politicians quickly weighed in to express solidarity with the state of Israel and link the violence to the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Some prominent American Jewish figures like New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and former US antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt claimed—without evidence and before anything was known about the shooters—that the attack was downstream from use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a dig at New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani who chose not to condemn the phrase.

On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and senior editor Mari Cohen spoke with Sarah Schwartz, the Melbourne-based executive officer of the new progressive, independent Jewish organization the Jewish Council of Australia. They parsed the various responses, from Australia to the US to Israel; explored the folly of conflating the ideology of the Islamic State with Palestinian national or solidarity politics; and reflected on the role and responsibility of the Jewish left amid antisemitic violence.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“Jews, antisemitism and power in Australia,” Max Kaiser, Meanjin

“Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like,” Bret Stephens, The New York Times

Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement on Bondi...