Joel S.
@joelhs.bsky.social
9.2K followers 3.3K following 7.9K posts
Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies, Sarah Lawrence College. PhD in Religious Studies, University of Chicago. Globalist elite and Thing-in-Itself-hating Jew. Husband of @petticoatshrink.bsky.social‬. He/Him/הוא/ער
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joelhs.bsky.social
Ian Carroll, whom Democratic representative Ro Khanna is featuring in this video, claims Israel invented Holocaust denial to discredit its critics, that the US is controlled by a "Zionist mafia," and that Jews did 9/11.

Really bad that Democrats are platforming overt antisemites like this!
rokhanna.bsky.social
I don't take a dime from any PAC or lobbyist, including AIPAC.

I am proud to be one of the handful of Democrats standing up against Big Money.
joelhs.bsky.social
“If you don’t get them in the first five to eight words, they just get up and go. ‘Yeah, that’s it. I heard enough. I’ll be in the lobby.’ My competition was the lobby. Jews love a lobby.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/s...
He’s Gay. He’s an Observant Jew. His Comedy Career Is Booming.
www.nytimes.com
joelhs.bsky.social
"The pope doesn't understand immigration" is a wild thing to say.
"One American Catholic priest in a conservative parish in North Carolina, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the new pope, said many of his traditionalist parishioners were “concerned” about Leo’s focus on migrants.

“I can say that my parishioners are saying something along the lines of, ‘Why doesn’t he just focus on the church?” the priest said. “I think people here generally think that the Holy Father, or anyone outside the United States, doesn’t understand what immigration looks like in the United States on the day-to-day ground level. They think he doesn’t fully understand the scope of it. Even he has walls in Vatican City.”"
joelhs.bsky.social
During the Red Scare of the 1950’s, two-thirds of the people questioned by McCarthy were Jewish. A war against the left is always going to disproportionately target Jews.
joelhs.bsky.social
Out of nine groups targeted by the Trump admin in its initial crackdown on left-wing organizing, two - Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow - are explicitly Jewish. Throw in Soros and it’s three of nine - one third. Trump thinks a third of the US left is Jewish. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
www.reuters.com
joelhs.bsky.social
Karl Lueger, the antisemitic mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910, was once asked how he could give virulently antisemitic speeches to supporters during the day and then dine with Jewish friends at night. He allegedly responded, "I decide who is a Jew."
atrupar.com
JD Vance describes Chuck Schumer as "one of the most famous Palestinians in the world"
joelhs.bsky.social
This is how Trumpism squares the circle of using antisemitic tropes against bad rootless diaspora Jews while also claiming to be acting to protect Jews. They, the Christian nationalists, get to decide who is a Jew and who is therefore deserving of protection. Jews as symbols of Christian politics.
joelhs.bsky.social
There's nothing at all wrong with being Palestinian, and using "Palestinian" in this way is deeply racist against Palestinians, but it is also antisemitic, because it defines Jewishness as something that can be granted and removed for political reasons.
atrupar.com
JD Vance describes Chuck Schumer as "one of the most famous Palestinians in the world"
joelhs.bsky.social
He did specify "circumcised early," so I guess Abraham was okay.
acyn.bsky.social
RFK JR: There are many other confirmations -- there are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol
joelhs.bsky.social
Fair - I phrased that with less clarity than I should have.
joelhs.bsky.social
There is zero possibility that a federal government campaign against circumcision, even if in theory it is applied neutrally, is not going to result in more Islamophobia and antisemitism.
justinbaragona.bsky.social
Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."
joelhs.bsky.social
Poland, like any place, is complicated, and has its good and bad. I don't think it is impossible for a Jewish person to live a decent life there right now, which is huge compared to the past. At the same time, the Nawrocki campaign was a big problem!
joelhs.bsky.social
That's true, but also, the president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, is a historian who led the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, which advanced revisionist narratives denying any Polish complicity in the Shoah and promoting equivalence between Jewish and Polish suffering.
joelhs.bsky.social
The "Jewish Journal" published an entire article telling me I'm wrong to defend Judith Butler from having their name handed over to the US gov in the name of "fighting antisemitism." In writing this article against me, the "Jewish Journal" misgendered Judith Butler. jewishjournal.com/commentary/o...
Defending Jewish Students Is Not McCarthyism
Defending Jewish students does not weaken free speech. It strengthens it by ensuring that every student, regardless of faith or background, can participate fully in campus life.
jewishjournal.com
joelhs.bsky.social
One of my students told me they felt deeply conflicted about whether to attend the class walk-out for Palestine yesterday or my class on Talmud, and the debate between those two choices gave them a stomachache.

I told them getting a stomachache over hard choices is the most Jewish thing there is.
joelhs.bsky.social
There is not some hypothetical fixed moment in historical time when you can identify where a particular population lived and return there to achieve justice. Communities have always migrated and many of us come from many places. We just have to do our best to build just societies where we are.
joelhs.bsky.social
I would argue the opposite - that the anonymity of a poll frees people to say things they feel social pressure not to say in a synagogue. I'm going to trust the polling data on this one as the best source we have.
joelhs.bsky.social
I'm very aware of the distinction between Hungary and Poland, and Hungary would be worse. I still think "Immediately send a huge population to Poland overnight" would spark violence. But it's all hypothetical because it isn't going to happen anyway.
joelhs.bsky.social
Of course it's all purely hypothetical - it's not going to happen and it should not happen.
joelhs.bsky.social
I don't think Poland is currently particularly unsafe for the small minority of Jews who live there but I also think that's premised on them being a small minority - the "All Jews go to Poland" proposal seems almost designed to create a critical mass that would spark violence.
joelhs.bsky.social
I mean this is a poll that tries to take a representative sample. That's every poll. That concern would apply to all polling data, and yet we still use it, with caveats.