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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 3d

To our students: your resistance matters. You are right to refuse this training, and we stand with you in demanding a university worthy of your commitment to truth and justice.

We won’t give in. It won’t stop here.

Opinion | LTE: We support NU students boycotting the ‘Anti-Bias’ training

Opinion Contributors Michael Peshkin and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd show support for students boycotting an 'Anti-Bias' training.

dailynorthwestern.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 5d

“It would be a mistake to view the plan as a historic breakthrough for Palestine. Trump’s vision is yet another American-Israeli concoction cooked up without any input from Palestinians that would retain Israel’s perpetual control over Gaza’s future.”

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe

www.theguardian.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 8d

Please watch to see what’s happening at the protests against ICE near Chicago, where immigrants are being violently detained and Turning Point supporters are lionizing Kirk.

How Chicago is resisting Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown | Anywhere but Washington

YouTube video by The Guardian

youtu.be

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 8d

“We’re losing this country,” Newsom said. “We’re losing it in real time. This is a chaos presidency. He is a wrecking ball. This is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetime. It is code red. No time for neutrality. It’s time to stand up, pick a side, and be firm and resolute.”

Calling a ‘code red,’ Newsom says universities must reject Trump’s compact

The governor applied more pressure on USC, which received a proposal this week to cooperate with the Trump administration.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 9d

The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

www.wsj.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 10d

“A show of force for nothing.”

Border wall slicing through Arizona wildlife corridor begins construction: ‘A show of force for nothing’

The 30ft-high wall between the US and Mexico will cut through one of the last unbroken grasslands in the west, leaving residents alarmed over the potential impact on wildlife and water use

www.theguardian.com

Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 10d

The opinion on Tuesday left no doubt that Judge Young came away from the trial convinced of the core point made by the academic associations: that the Trump administration had successfully turned an obscure element of immigration law into a cudgel to intimidate opposing voices.

Exactly.

Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech

www.nytimes.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 12d

Thank you @ulrich-schmiedel.bsky.social !

Ulrich Schmiedel @ulrich-schmiedel.bsky.social · 12d

My review of @bethhurd.bsky.social's Haven Has A Wall (@uchicagopress.bsky.social): "captivating reading, a tour de force in political theology. ... Hurd shows clearly and compellingly that religion animates what appears as secular. Whether revered or reviled, religion is to be reckoned with.”

Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States

Published in Journal of Contemporary Religion (Ahead of Print, 2025)

www.tandfonline.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 13d

“The antisemitism in Northwestern is not where I was told it would be,” (student Holly) Simon said. “The students and faculty organizing for Palestinian freedom and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have continuously welcomed me as my full Jewish self.”

I stand with these students.

Northwestern Graduate Workers for Palestine protest bias training

Around a dozen graduate and undergraduate students gathered in front of Technological Institute on Friday to protest a controversial bias training required for all Northwestern students. The news conf...

dailynorthwestern.com

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Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 26d

U.S. support for Israel isn’t just foreign policy, it’s a political religion. Rooted in Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism, it blurs borders until America and Israel are imagined as one, argues Elizabeth Shakman Hurd for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

American Support for Israel Is a Political Religion

US policies reflect the entangled destinies of the two countries — as if they were merged into one

newlinesmag.com

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Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 26d

NEW: What makes the relationship between the U.S. & Israel unique, one that can’t be captured by ordinary frameworks? It’s as if the two were a single entity - “AmericaIsrael” - which functions like a political religion, argues @bethhurd.bsky.social

newlinesmag.com/argument/ame...

American Support for Israel Is a Political Religion

US policies reflect the entangled destinies of the two countries — as if they were merged into one

newlinesmag.com

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Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

The Intercept @theintercept.com · Sep 10

Palestinian students who were admitted to American universities are now trapped in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed most schools.

Gaza Students Found a Lifeline to U.S. Colleges. Then Trump Shut the Door.

Palestinian students who were admitted to American universities are now stuck in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed most schools.

interc.pt

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 29

The border no longer divides only countries. It snakes between white and brown, between families and neighbors, between citizens and the rights they once thought were inviolate.

Opinion | The Border Is Invading America

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 26

As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis across the world are speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.

Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza

Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.

nyti.ms

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 23

The university’s trustees and leaders view it as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal. We are simply choosing not to be a university.

The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump

The University of Chicago is in crisis. Under extraordinary financial strain, it has diminished its faculty-student ratio and hired hundreds of “lecturers”: teachers whom it pays little and whom it do...

www.compactmag.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 13

While new collaborations between Israeli and U.S. universities lack widespread buy-in from American faculty and students, framing them as redress for supposed discrimination against Jewish or Israeli students, “is a cynical but very effective way to make sure these partnerships are untouchable.”

After crushing dissent, U.S. universities deepen ties with Israeli academia

Israeli universities regularly collaborate with the military, which has destroyed all academic life in Gaza. That's done nothing to slow U.S.-Israeli partnerships.

www.972mag.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 10

It’s harder and harder for Democratic politicians who want to position themselves as sensible, moderate liberals to defend a country that carries out such grotesque crimes against its stateless and rightless noncitizen subjects.

The Problem With Israel Is So Much Bigger Than Netanyahu

Increasingly, mainstream Democrats have sought to carve out a space for “acceptable” Zionism by saying that they support Israel but oppose Bibi Netanyahu. But the horrors of Gaza are a result of proce...

jacobin.com

Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 9

The problem with Antisemitism Here/Now is that its tendentious and simplistic approach to enormously complex histories, including the history of Zionism, is at odds with the mission of the university: to teach, not to indoctrinate.

www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

Northwestern’s Inane — and Controversial — Bias Trainings

Indoctrination is not education.

www.chronicle.com

Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 7

CURA is looking for an assistant director! Here’s your chance to work at the oldest center for the study of religion and world affairs in the U.S. Please share widely! jobs.silkroad.com/BU/External/...

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Pardee School of Global Studies - BOSTON, MA, United States - Boston University

Find a career with Boston University

jobs.silkroad.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 7

This is not a temporary measure in an abnormal period. These agreements help create a new normal. If we are being extorted, then just say so. But don’t call a stick-up a voluntary agreement, and don’t sell it as a return to the way things were.

www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...

Gourevitch: What is Brown’s deal?

Serving the Brown University community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd

cmnd.bsky.social @cmnd.bsky.social · Aug 4

In the second part of their CM conversation, @bethhurd.bsky.social and Hannah Strømmen discuss the role of masculinity in far-right movements today and the importance of focusing on affect when studying them.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-m...

Bibles Belong to All of Us: Elizabeth Shkaman Hurd Interviews Hannah Strømmen | Contending Modernities

Taking affective investments seriously can be transformative for understanding the staying power of trends and tendencies in biblical reception.

contendingmodernities.nd.edu

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 5

Part II of my discussion with @hannahmstrommen.bsky.social about her new book Bibles of the Far Right. Fantastic, creative work on some of the most vexing questions of our time. @cmnd.bsky.social

Bibles Belong to All of Us: Elizabeth Shakman Hurd Interviews Hannah Strømmen | Contending Modernities

Taking affective investments seriously can be transformative for understanding the staying power of trends and tendencies in biblical reception.

contendingmodernities.nd.edu

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 4

Important.

New Firm Seeks to Confront Trump on Executive Power

www.nytimes.com

Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 4

The fact that we now have two genocides marks a terrible historical irony. Our vast and varied response to the first genocide—a response motivated in large part by our determination to prevent such a thing from ever happening to us again—must now be understood as one of the causes of the second.

Our Genocides: Confronting a New Period in Jewish History

Part One of a ten-part series on Israel, Gaza, and American Jewry.

toddhasaklowy.substack.com

Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · Aug 1

Sometimes a book is exciting because it makes you think in new ways. Other times it's important to a particular historical moment. Rarely does a book do both. Hannah Strømmen’s new book The Bibles of the Far Right is the exception.

My review for @cmnd.bsky.social

urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Bibles Belong to All of Us: Masculinity, Civilization, and the Bibles of the Far Right | Contending Modernities

What does a focus on biblical assemblages together with the far-right allow us to see anew?

urldefense.com

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