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.
Jesse Jackson, 1988:
February 17, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Jesse Jackson, 1988:
Yes. Repealing this Jesse Helms-sponsored trash should not be a heavy lift.
February 14, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Yes. Repealing this Jesse Helms-sponsored trash should not be a heavy lift.
I hope and expect members of the Mamdani administration are reading this book. Challenges centrist and progressive verities about economic development in NYC. Yes, tax the rich—but if that's actually the answer for how to fund transformative policy, we may have a bigger problem.
February 14, 2026 at 1:43 AM
I hope and expect members of the Mamdani administration are reading this book. Challenges centrist and progressive verities about economic development in NYC. Yes, tax the rich—but if that's actually the answer for how to fund transformative policy, we may have a bigger problem.
He says this as if he's established there are roots. The fact that the Soviet Union used the words "imperialism" and "colonialism" is not compelling. Are the words "freedom" and "liberty" irredeemably tainted by association with US foreign policy?
February 3, 2026 at 2:46 AM
He says this as if he's established there are roots. The fact that the Soviet Union used the words "imperialism" and "colonialism" is not compelling. Are the words "freedom" and "liberty" irredeemably tainted by association with US foreign policy?
Well, if Joshua Muravchik says so.
February 3, 2026 at 2:39 AM
Well, if Joshua Muravchik says so.
These are in fact seminal events in the history of the Bund that anyone who admires that movement would know. Does he realize how ridiculous this sounds?
February 3, 2026 at 2:36 AM
These are in fact seminal events in the history of the Bund that anyone who admires that movement would know. Does he realize how ridiculous this sounds?
It's true that Howe promoted the line of "revolutionary defeatism" during World War II. So did Irving Kristol—maybe something Tikvah/Mosaic readers would benefit from knowing. But that wouldn't help Klehr's anti-Left polemic.
February 3, 2026 at 2:32 AM
It's true that Howe promoted the line of "revolutionary defeatism" during World War II. So did Irving Kristol—maybe something Tikvah/Mosaic readers would benefit from knowing. But that wouldn't help Klehr's anti-Left polemic.
This is quite egregious. You can't claim one group dropped its commitment to nonviolence by quoting the statements of a completely different group of people.
February 3, 2026 at 2:30 AM
This is quite egregious. You can't claim one group dropped its commitment to nonviolence by quoting the statements of a completely different group of people.
Yeah, the only reason anyone might refer to the U.S. as "imperialist" and Israel as "colonial" is because they are dupes of the Soviet Union. Incredible imagination on display here.
February 3, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Yeah, the only reason anyone might refer to the U.S. as "imperialist" and Israel as "colonial" is because they are dupes of the Soviet Union. Incredible imagination on display here.
Is there any evidence for this rather inflammatory claim by Harvey Klehr? Not interested in "effectively" stretches.
ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...
ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...
February 3, 2026 at 1:41 AM
Is there any evidence for this rather inflammatory claim by Harvey Klehr? Not interested in "effectively" stretches.
ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...
ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...
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.
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.
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."
January 26, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Heroes who treated children amidst the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
January 25, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Heroes who treated children amidst the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Likely the last year I am attending Sundance. It's been a great excuse to visit a close friend who lives nearby. Do I blame Utah Republicans or Jared Polis? Or both?
January 24, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Likely the last year I am attending Sundance. It's been a great excuse to visit a close friend who lives nearby. Do I blame Utah Republicans or Jared Polis? Or both?
There was every reason to believe this would be the case from the start. Here's what I wrote in 2021:
www.haaretz.com/us-news/2021...
www.haaretz.com/us-news/2021...
January 16, 2026 at 8:20 PM
There was every reason to believe this would be the case from the start. Here's what I wrote in 2021:
www.haaretz.com/us-news/2021...
www.haaretz.com/us-news/2021...
Haaretz could not get more a ringing endorsement from the government.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
January 13, 2026 at 2:43 AM
Haaretz could not get more a ringing endorsement from the government.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Incisive essay by Noam Pianko on a counter-Brandeisian American Zionist tradition that emerged in the 1950s and crystalized in the '60s and '70s. The intellectual origins of today's establishment consensus.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/edite...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/edite...
January 10, 2026 at 3:35 AM
Incisive essay by Noam Pianko on a counter-Brandeisian American Zionist tradition that emerged in the 1950s and crystalized in the '60s and '70s. The intellectual origins of today's establishment consensus.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/edite...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/edite...
Writing in an inactive candidate in the general election, certainly something one might associate with a "results" oriented leader and not an empty signaller.
January 6, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Writing in an inactive candidate in the general election, certainly something one might associate with a "results" oriented leader and not an empty signaller.
So a David Frum Republican, then.
January 3, 2026 at 6:18 PM
So a David Frum Republican, then.
Michael Walzer, who apparently lives in New York, voted for Zohran Mamdani.
January 2, 2026 at 2:54 AM
Michael Walzer, who apparently lives in New York, voted for Zohran Mamdani.