Joel S.
@joelhs.bsky.social
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
Free speech in the classroom is back: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/u...
Students Across the U.S. Are Protesting ICE. Texas Wants to Punish Their Schools.
www.nytimes.com
February 15, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Free speech in the classroom is back: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/u...
The fact that this is the response from the Conference of Presidents shows that they really do not understand what is coming in the next generation: www.jpost.com/diaspora/art...
Senior Jewish leader urges right to confrontTucker Tucker Carlson | The Jerusalem Post
Daroff described what he called a deepened bond between Israel and the United States since the October 7 attacks
www.jpost.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:58 PM
The fact that this is the response from the Conference of Presidents shows that they really do not understand what is coming in the next generation: www.jpost.com/diaspora/art...
If we want people to criticize the government of Israel without attacking all Jews worldwide (and we should want that!), the flip side is that pro-Israel people have to stop cynically claiming that people who were very careful only to criticize the Israeli government were actually attacking "Jews."
February 15, 2026 at 9:39 PM
If we want people to criticize the government of Israel without attacking all Jews worldwide (and we should want that!), the flip side is that pro-Israel people have to stop cynically claiming that people who were very careful only to criticize the Israeli government were actually attacking "Jews."
She didn't accuse Jews as a people of committing genocide, though. She accused the government and the military of the state of Israel of doing so. People reporting it this way are trying to make a conflation that AOC herself was careful not to make.
February 15, 2026 at 9:20 PM
She didn't accuse Jews as a people of committing genocide, though. She accused the government and the military of the state of Israel of doing so. People reporting it this way are trying to make a conflation that AOC herself was careful not to make.
Germany's far-right AfD, who are totally not Nazis, are planning to hold their national party conference exactly 100 years after a major Nazi party congress in 1926, in the exact same location. p.dw.com/p/58oLt
Planned AfD congress shows deliberate Nazi parallels, say historians, lawmakers
p.dw.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Germany's far-right AfD, who are totally not Nazis, are planning to hold their national party conference exactly 100 years after a major Nazi party congress in 1926, in the exact same location. p.dw.com/p/58oLt
We really don't have to do this in order to level highly legitimate criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza.
February 15, 2026 at 9:08 PM
We really don't have to do this in order to level highly legitimate criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza.
This post quite clearly shows the links between the European far-right’s efforts to erase complicity in the Holocaust, and the American right’s efforts to erase the history of slavery and Jim Crow. Which is part of why supporting DEI in the US should be seen as a Jewish issue.
This message from the US State Department about "not wanting allies to be shackled by guilt and shame" is a pretty direct call-out to the German far-right argument that Germany has spent too long feeling guilty about the Holocaust, and needs to move on and stop doing remembrance.
February 15, 2026 at 3:52 PM
This post quite clearly shows the links between the European far-right’s efforts to erase complicity in the Holocaust, and the American right’s efforts to erase the history of slavery and Jim Crow. Which is part of why supporting DEI in the US should be seen as a Jewish issue.
I think it’s bad that the major American Jewish organizations that claim to speak for the community have decided that college student protesters are a bigger danger to Jews than the actual US government supporting a German far-right that wants to stop Holocaust remembrance.
This message from the US State Department about "not wanting allies to be shackled by guilt and shame" is a pretty direct call-out to the German far-right argument that Germany has spent too long feeling guilty about the Holocaust, and needs to move on and stop doing remembrance.
February 15, 2026 at 3:49 PM
I think it’s bad that the major American Jewish organizations that claim to speak for the community have decided that college student protesters are a bigger danger to Jews than the actual US government supporting a German far-right that wants to stop Holocaust remembrance.
This message from the US State Department about "not wanting allies to be shackled by guilt and shame" is a pretty direct call-out to the German far-right argument that Germany has spent too long feeling guilty about the Holocaust, and needs to move on and stop doing remembrance.
February 15, 2026 at 3:08 PM
This message from the US State Department about "not wanting allies to be shackled by guilt and shame" is a pretty direct call-out to the German far-right argument that Germany has spent too long feeling guilty about the Holocaust, and needs to move on and stop doing remembrance.
One hundred years ago, in the 1920's, a rising German far-right movement was looking to the US as a model of juridical technologies of racial oppression. Today, in the 2020's...
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party supported by JD Vance and Elon Musk, are now looking to ICE in the US for inspiration and saying Germany needs an ICE of its own. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
European far-right parties push for ICE-style police
Fringe figures want to follow the Trump playbook for tackling unauthorized migration.
www.politico.eu
February 15, 2026 at 4:05 AM
One hundred years ago, in the 1920's, a rising German far-right movement was looking to the US as a model of juridical technologies of racial oppression. Today, in the 2020's...
This Marco Rubio speech is just unabashed blood and soil nationalism, but also, it's incredibly weird to use, as your example of the supposed artistic heritage of European Christendom, the Rolling Stones, of all bands, who cribbed their entire style from Black American music.
February 15, 2026 at 3:05 AM
This Marco Rubio speech is just unabashed blood and soil nationalism, but also, it's incredibly weird to use, as your example of the supposed artistic heritage of European Christendom, the Rolling Stones, of all bands, who cribbed their entire style from Black American music.
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party supported by JD Vance and Elon Musk, are now looking to ICE in the US for inspiration and saying Germany needs an ICE of its own. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
European far-right parties push for ICE-style police
Fringe figures want to follow the Trump playbook for tackling unauthorized migration.
www.politico.eu
February 15, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party supported by JD Vance and Elon Musk, are now looking to ICE in the US for inspiration and saying Germany needs an ICE of its own. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
In the name of "fighting DEI," the Trump administration used ChatGPT to cancel a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to make a documentary film entitled “The Untold Story of Jewish Women Slave Labor in the Holocaust.” www.politico.com/newsletters/...
ChatGPT cuts in action
www.politico.com
February 15, 2026 at 2:48 AM
In the name of "fighting DEI," the Trump administration used ChatGPT to cancel a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to make a documentary film entitled “The Untold Story of Jewish Women Slave Labor in the Holocaust.” www.politico.com/newsletters/...
"I have dreams that cannot be monetized. I have a problem with our society that cannot be solved with an algorithm. I have words to write and say that cannot be generated artificially." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘Just not monetizable’: humanities programs face existential crisis at US universities
Fears over the future of humanities spread amid layoffs and restructurings at scores of public and private universities
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 2:10 AM
"I have dreams that cannot be monetized. I have a problem with our society that cannot be solved with an algorithm. I have words to write and say that cannot be generated artificially." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
The administration that cares so deeply about fighting antisemitism.
White House stands by State Department nominee who complains that "white Americans are increasingly second-class citizens," warns of "white erasure" and says "the Jews love to see themselves as oppressed." @camcgrady.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...
Trump Nominates an Apostle of ‘White Erasure’ for the State Department
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 9:03 PM
The administration that cares so deeply about fighting antisemitism.
The International Olympics Committee is selling a limited edition t-shirt commemorating the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. They have already sold out of the shirts. www.jta.org/2026/02/14/c...
Olympics committee defends sale of T-shirt commemorating 1936 Nazi-era Games - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Some Jewish groups condemned the shirt, which has sold out.
www.jta.org
February 14, 2026 at 8:47 PM
The International Olympics Committee is selling a limited edition t-shirt commemorating the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. They have already sold out of the shirts. www.jta.org/2026/02/14/c...
Hard to imagine a news story that makes the late Pope Francis look better and more sympathetic than this one: www.cnn.com/2026/02/14/w...
Steve Bannon courted Epstein in his efforts to ‘take down’ Pope Francis | CNN
Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to “take do...
www.cnn.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Hard to imagine a news story that makes the late Pope Francis look better and more sympathetic than this one: www.cnn.com/2026/02/14/w...
This particular Holocaust survivor testimony tells of Nazi guards at Ravensbrück deliberately throwing an apple into the air and catching it in front of starving Jewish inmates, taunting them by reminding them that the guards had food and they did not. kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/szczercow/Sh...
February 13, 2026 at 11:33 PM
This particular Holocaust survivor testimony tells of Nazi guards at Ravensbrück deliberately throwing an apple into the air and catching it in front of starving Jewish inmates, taunting them by reminding them that the guards had food and they did not. kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/szczercow/Sh...
ICYMI: I wrote this past week about what it means that American Jews are now more likely to believe the state of Israel is guilty of genocide than they are to identify as Zionists. www.jta.org/2026/02/09/i...
Gut Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom, everyone.
Gut Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom, everyone.
Zionism was never a single concept. We should be grateful to JFNA’s survey for the reminder. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A Jew can believe in a Jewish, democratic state and still doubt whether contemporary Zionism advances both of those commitments, writes a scholar of European Jewish intellectual history.
www.jta.org
February 13, 2026 at 11:16 PM
ICYMI: I wrote this past week about what it means that American Jews are now more likely to believe the state of Israel is guilty of genocide than they are to identify as Zionists. www.jta.org/2026/02/09/i...
Gut Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom, everyone.
Gut Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom, everyone.
Even when studies of Jews questioning Zionism finds the exact opposite, it does not stop the "Jewish Journal" from insisting without any evidence that Jews are abandoning Zionism simply because they are ignorant and do not care about being Jewish.
February 13, 2026 at 9:59 PM
Even when studies of Jews questioning Zionism finds the exact opposite, it does not stop the "Jewish Journal" from insisting without any evidence that Jews are abandoning Zionism simply because they are ignorant and do not care about being Jewish.
I don’t love using the term “blood libel” for anything other than the historical phenomenon, but if anything in modern politics resembles it, it is JD Vance lying that Haitian migrants eat pets. A totally baseless claim about the supposedly inhuman habits of a hated out-group, justifying violence.
February 13, 2026 at 7:06 PM
I don’t love using the term “blood libel” for anything other than the historical phenomenon, but if anything in modern politics resembles it, it is JD Vance lying that Haitian migrants eat pets. A totally baseless claim about the supposedly inhuman habits of a hated out-group, justifying violence.
An essential part of the term “blood libel” is that it was an accusation made against Jews with no proof or evidence. Those accusing the state of Israel of committing genocide have marshaled extensive evidence. It demeans the term “blood libel” to compare them.
February 13, 2026 at 6:44 PM
An essential part of the term “blood libel” is that it was an accusation made against Jews with no proof or evidence. Those accusing the state of Israel of committing genocide have marshaled extensive evidence. It demeans the term “blood libel” to compare them.
"Gender studies... brought a critical lens to the biological determinism Trump invokes. And this critical lens extends to revealing how gender hierarchies enable the kind of abuses that some men in Epstein’s circle seemingly believed they had the right to commit." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:53 PM
"Gender studies... brought a critical lens to the biological determinism Trump invokes. And this critical lens extends to revealing how gender hierarchies enable the kind of abuses that some men in Epstein’s circle seemingly believed they had the right to commit." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The funny thing about Rod Dreher is that he argues that the Enlightenment was a mistake, but the kind of pre-Enlightenment world he supposedly lionizes would have made switching around religious traditions (Catholic to Orthodox) in the way he has done much harder.
rod dreher is not that interesting. he is a guy very clearly filled with self hatred tied to repressed feelings related to his gender and sexuality, and rather than deal with them, he blames “modernity” and “secularism” for why he’s unhappy. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake
The influential author derides secularism and the modern world. Conservatives—including the vice president—are joining him on a march back to the Middle Ages.
www.theatlantic.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:15 PM
The funny thing about Rod Dreher is that he argues that the Enlightenment was a mistake, but the kind of pre-Enlightenment world he supposedly lionizes would have made switching around religious traditions (Catholic to Orthodox) in the way he has done much harder.
Great essay by @returnstosender.bsky.social on translating Yiddish and Russian Holocaust literature during times of ongoing genocide. lithub.com/translating-...
Translating Holocaust Literature in Times of Genocide
While designing a poster for a lecture on our new book, In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union (Stanford University Press), one of the event’s organiz…
lithub.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Great essay by @returnstosender.bsky.social on translating Yiddish and Russian Holocaust literature during times of ongoing genocide. lithub.com/translating-...