Abe Silberstein
@abesilbe.bsky.social
Writer, Ph.D. student in History and Jewish Studies at New York University. Interested in modern political history, labor, migration, diaspora, and religion.
Pinned
Abe Silberstein
@abesilbe.bsky.social
· Aug 19
After a long and productive break, I think I am ready to use social media in moderation again. Or until I delete again. Anyway, here goes.
“Shame isn’t a pleasant emotion, but any honest reckoning with what my country has become has to start with it.”
Adam Shatz · Another Country: Visions of America
America is a ‘battlefield’, Simone de Beauvoir wrote, ‘and you can only become passionate about the battle it is...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 2, 2026 at 4:33 AM
“Shame isn’t a pleasant emotion, but any honest reckoning with what my country has become has to start with it.”
One of the essential texts written in US History over the last 20 years. A must-read if you want to understand the dynamic at play here, which is not recent.
February 1, 2026 at 11:04 PM
One of the essential texts written in US History over the last 20 years. A must-read if you want to understand the dynamic at play here, which is not recent.
I sense that Laurence Tribe's own faith in the Constitution is shaken, despite this wholly ungenerous review of Jill Lepore's new book. His citation of an Amy Coney Barrett interview on the role of the Ninth Amendment (post-Dobbs!) smacks of real desperation.
Is the Constitution ‘Dead, Dead, Dead’? | Laurence H. Tribe
The difficulty of amending the Constitution does not mean that it is a flawed and outdated relic of a distant past.
www.nybooks.com
February 1, 2026 at 6:17 PM
I sense that Laurence Tribe's own faith in the Constitution is shaken, despite this wholly ungenerous review of Jill Lepore's new book. His citation of an Amy Coney Barrett interview on the role of the Ninth Amendment (post-Dobbs!) smacks of real desperation.
"The White House is caught in a spiral of its own making. The more it tries to repress and dominate its opponents, the more it loses ground with the public, and the more it loses ground, the more it leans on force and threats of force to save face."
Opinion | Trump’s Brute-Force Approach to Power Is Wearing Thin
www.nytimes.com
January 31, 2026 at 10:15 PM
"The White House is caught in a spiral of its own making. The more it tries to repress and dominate its opponents, the more it loses ground with the public, and the more it loses ground, the more it leans on force and threats of force to save face."
Increasingly appears that signing up to the Trump protection racket might not be the best way to protect American Jews from antisemitism.
January 31, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Increasingly appears that signing up to the Trump protection racket might not be the best way to protect American Jews from antisemitism.
Stellar essay by Nathan Shields on classical music's doomed search for a heroic and redemptive liberalism.
Liberalism’s Pianist | Nathan Shields
Can Igor Levit restore classical music’s claim to cultural and political authority, or is it irrevocably lost?
www.nybooks.com
January 31, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Stellar essay by Nathan Shields on classical music's doomed search for a heroic and redemptive liberalism.
"New Yorkers can amass in astonishing numbers, their worries and passions never becoming populism. Fairly or not, they are assumed to read books."
Marilynne Robinson: The killings in Minneapolis
As American cities have been left reeling by ICE federal agents, the acclaimed novelist explores the deeper conflict behind Donald Trump’s show of force
www.ft.com
January 31, 2026 at 4:29 PM
"New Yorkers can amass in astonishing numbers, their worries and passions never becoming populism. Fairly or not, they are assumed to read books."
Good. With Vernikov at the head, this task force was never going to do anything remotely constructive. Now they won’t be able to waste anyone else’s time.
January 31, 2026 at 6:32 AM
Good. With Vernikov at the head, this task force was never going to do anything remotely constructive. Now they won’t be able to waste anyone else’s time.
Gordon Brown was solid in office. The UK and the continent would have been much better off had Labour won the 2010 election under his leadership.
one thing I faintly dream of is politicians being held to much higher standards for their post-office careers, even to the point of legal restraint.
you know who has generally been a good model for this? Gordon Brown.
you know who has generally been a good model for this? Gordon Brown.
Tucker Carlson: "Saudi Arabia [...] is kind of a weirdly free place.”
Hillary Clinton: "The example that the kingdom is setting for the right kind of development [...] that is a very strong model for other parts of the world"
Quotes from a real estate conference in Riyadh
Hillary Clinton: "The example that the kingdom is setting for the right kind of development [...] that is a very strong model for other parts of the world"
Quotes from a real estate conference in Riyadh
January 30, 2026 at 4:07 AM
Gordon Brown was solid in office. The UK and the continent would have been much better off had Labour won the 2010 election under his leadership.
This is one of my old bugbears, but it's really unacceptable that a single passenger on the NYC subway has the ability to throw entire train lines into disarray by pulling the emergency breaks. This does not happen in London, Paris, or Berlin. There must be an alternative to this madness.
January 29, 2026 at 4:47 PM
This is one of my old bugbears, but it's really unacceptable that a single passenger on the NYC subway has the ability to throw entire train lines into disarray by pulling the emergency breaks. This does not happen in London, Paris, or Berlin. There must be an alternative to this madness.
“The refrigerators and the cemeteries are full to the brim with the [Palestinian] dead, each one of whom has parents and children who long to give them a proper burial. But Israel is adamant: Only we have feelings. Only we are human beings.”
Israel went to extremes to return Ran Gvili's body. Why don't Palestinians get the same? | Opinion
The State of Israel, That Abducted and Continues to Hold Hundreds of Bodies – Some Buried, Some Frozen for Months and Even Years – Is Willing to Charge Any Price for the Return of a Single Body
www.haaretz.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:05 AM
“The refrigerators and the cemeteries are full to the brim with the [Palestinian] dead, each one of whom has parents and children who long to give them a proper burial. But Israel is adamant: Only we have feelings. Only we are human beings.”
It's Candace Owens so obviously you can't rule out AI. But if it is genuine, I can't think of a better way to honor Charlie Kirk's legacy. At the most innocent and basic level, he was a merchandise salesman. His widow is ensuring the murderer did not succeed in stopping the work.
Candace Owens released leaked audio from Turning Point USA in which Erika Kirk is heard giggling and cheerfully discussing attendance figures, merchandise sales, and performance metrics from Charlie Kirk’s memorial event just 11 days after his death...
January 29, 2026 at 1:25 AM
It's Candace Owens so obviously you can't rule out AI. But if it is genuine, I can't think of a better way to honor Charlie Kirk's legacy. At the most innocent and basic level, he was a merchandise salesman. His widow is ensuring the murderer did not succeed in stopping the work.
An interesting essay but with confused targets. It is not so much political science that has gotten Trump wrong but political scientists who have sought to become political horserace commentators, as well as pundits who (mis)use political science.
In the Land of the Data Blind, by Jason Blakely
Why political science can’t grasp Trumpism
harpers.org
January 29, 2026 at 1:14 AM
An interesting essay but with confused targets. It is not so much political science that has gotten Trump wrong but political scientists who have sought to become political horserace commentators, as well as pundits who (mis)use political science.
I was just assaulted on the street in New York for the first time in my 31 years living here. I'm okay. A big drunk (I think) person shoving me and my older brother while we were waiting for a delivery outside our building. Thankfully this experience was only bizarre and not injurious.
January 29, 2026 at 12:06 AM
I was just assaulted on the street in New York for the first time in my 31 years living here. I'm okay. A big drunk (I think) person shoving me and my older brother while we were waiting for a delivery outside our building. Thankfully this experience was only bizarre and not injurious.
Yes, but that's not what Republicans were saying during the Obama administration. It was definitely not the message they were sending out over their propaganda networks.
IDK why right-wingers keep bringing up Obama's record deportations, it just shows that if you wanted to have a conservative immigration policy without partisan militias occupying cities and gunning people down in the streets you could do it and a lot of americans would be fine with it
January 28, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Yes, but that's not what Republicans were saying during the Obama administration. It was definitely not the message they were sending out over their propaganda networks.
I read both the FT and NYT, and I appreciate that the former does not bend over backwards to accommodate Republicans and reflexive supporters of Israel. It pointedly did not join the American upper-class hysteria over Mamdani. It's been a tonic for the soul over the last year.
January 28, 2026 at 4:12 PM
I read both the FT and NYT, and I appreciate that the former does not bend over backwards to accommodate Republicans and reflexive supporters of Israel. It pointedly did not join the American upper-class hysteria over Mamdani. It's been a tonic for the soul over the last year.
Hopefully future Democratic presidents are watching and, to quote some of our unfriendlier critics, "you will never be enough."
January 28, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Hopefully future Democratic presidents are watching and, to quote some of our unfriendlier critics, "you will never be enough."
For whatever my view is worth, I think Phylisa Wisdom would be an excellent choice to lead the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. She is someone the mayor can trust on politically sensitive issues and who can talk to almost anyone in the Jewish community.
January 28, 2026 at 6:12 AM
For whatever my view is worth, I think Phylisa Wisdom would be an excellent choice to lead the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. She is someone the mayor can trust on politically sensitive issues and who can talk to almost anyone in the Jewish community.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
The "new direction" is just Bari Weiss hiring a bunch of her friends, who are all (like Weiss) right-wing pseudo-centrist grifters.
Turns out that Bari Weiss's all hands at CBS today is to announce she's bringing on some anti-vax guys and Niall Ferguson. www.axios.com/2026/01/27/b...
January 27, 2026 at 2:16 PM
The "new direction" is just Bari Weiss hiring a bunch of her friends, who are all (like Weiss) right-wing pseudo-centrist grifters.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
wouldn't necessarily assume inside information, but weiss is a reliable weathervane because she's a pure careerist and there has been a shift.
so bari definitely got the heads up that noem is being shitcanned, right?
January 26, 2026 at 6:26 PM
wouldn't necessarily assume inside information, but weiss is a reliable weathervane because she's a pure careerist and there has been a shift.
"As governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem launched an anti-drug campaign with the tagline: 'Meth: We’re on it.' Noem’s message control has not obviously sharpened as Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary."
ICE and America’s flailing autocrat
Easily discredited propaganda is undermining Trump’s assault on the constitution
www.ft.com
January 26, 2026 at 5:51 PM
"As governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem launched an anti-drug campaign with the tagline: 'Meth: We’re on it.' Noem’s message control has not obviously sharpened as Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary."
January 26, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Also ironic given that the vast majority of Columbia's undergraduate population comes from outside New York. Mamdani graduated from a NYC public high school.
I think it's really bad that the group that claims to speak for Jews at Columbia University is so grossly xenophobic.
Also - Mamdani did grow up in NYC.
Also - Mamdani did grow up in NYC.
January 26, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Also ironic given that the vast majority of Columbia's undergraduate population comes from outside New York. Mamdani graduated from a NYC public high school.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
incredible that the ADL just added an evangelical war criminal to their board
January 25, 2026 at 10:23 PM
incredible that the ADL just added an evangelical war criminal to their board
