Annie Gottfried Cohen
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annsplaining.bsky.social
Annie Gottfried Cohen
@annsplaining.bsky.social
1.8K followers 870 following 310 posts
Historian researching communism and anti-fascism in the 30s and 40s, Spanish Civil War and (l'havdil) professional Jewish women who spoke to the dead. www.pullingatthreads.com. Yiddish teacher and translator. From💂🏼‍♂️, now based in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and 🇫🇷. She/her.
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annsplaining.bsky.social
Very proud to be part of this online event. Sunday 18th Jan at 12 noon EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET. Registration is free but we are asking for donations to a family in Gaza www.tickettailor.com/events/onech...
An online flyer that reads: Jewish and Yiddish Reactions to the Destruction of Gaza: a Panel
January 3, 2026 at 2:17 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
First sunset of 2026 over Arthur's Seat
grassy hills underneath a blue/pink sky
January 1, 2026 at 5:53 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
A few photos from my last walk of 2025 - a scouting mission to find the best place to see the fireworks. Not pictured: us getting stuck up Calton hill at midnight with a partial view, getting lost and spending the first half hour of 2026 trying to get off the hill and find each other. Classic NYE
White woman with long brown hair wearing an orange coat, blue scarf, black respirator mask and big blue headphones, entrance to Edinburgh castle in the background Sunset over Edinburgh, seen from calton hill sunset from Edinburgh seen from Calton Hill
January 1, 2026 at 1:52 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
"I'll never let you go"
A black cat looking down from a mezzanine bed, his paw touching a human hand Black cat stretching down paw from a mezzanine bed, turning away from the camera
December 3, 2025 at 10:01 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
registering with a GP in 2025 be like
screenshot of a question in an online form 'do you come from ABROAD'
November 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
😂😂😂
Screenshot from the website of French homeware store Leroy Merlin reading "-10% sur les caméras de surveillance avec le code LOUVRE" [10 percent reduction on surveillance cameras with the code LOUVRE]
November 10, 2025 at 10:34 AM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Beautiful talk with Basma Ghalayini and Mazan Manrouf on their new book Palestine -1, stories from the Eve of the Nakba at the Edinburgh Radical Book Fair organised by @lighthousebks.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 7:31 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Since I last posted on Bluesky (which i still pronounce as if it were a Russian-Jewish surname) I've moved to Edinburgh to (re)start my PhD. Here's some photographic evidence
November 8, 2025 at 8:23 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Tell me you're a Communist Party archive without telling me you're a Communist Party archive
Screenshot reading "Type of document: Accusation, Information Material, Leafing, Appeal, Circular"
July 23, 2025 at 6:03 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
I spent the rest of my walk looking out for buildings that might have been here when Felicia passed through, and thinking about how much the world and this particular part of it has changed and not changed since then.
a small white house with blue shutters and a slanted roof a street with a row of small shuttered houses another larger white house with blue shutters and two blue doors
July 14, 2025 at 9:51 AM
annsplaining.bsky.social
I'm staying in Montreuil for three weeks while I teach in Paris, and while I was exploring this weekend I realised that it was exactly OTD (11th-15th July specifically) in 1936 that my hero and dead celebrity crush Felicia Browne passed through on her way to Spain ...
snapshot of a letter reading "the finest place we have struck yet is Montreuil, very pale with plain houses jammed toegher round an enormous empty square. On top of a steep hill."
July 14, 2025 at 9:50 AM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Pretty darn exciting to be submitting the final proofs of this chapter, which represents about a year of some of the most interesting and rewarding research I've ever done. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Screenshot of a title page "We'll stay here 'til the fascist tomb is made" - the IWO and the International Brigades, Annabel Gottfried Cohen A group of young people pose, fists raised, around a makeshift monument to their fallen comrade Ernest Arion who died fighting in the International Brigades
July 4, 2025 at 12:18 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Remembering the time that @sacrederviche.bsky.social and I had our first fight (sort of?) and he made me a dinner of everything I had in my fridge on a tortilla as a peace offering
What appears to be a small natural habitat made of giant mushrooms on top of fried potatoes and other green stuff on a tortilla
May 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Current mood
a black cat lying on a shelf looking exhausted
May 10, 2025 at 9:35 AM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Shofar in a boat for a Tuesday afternoon
a black cat in a small polystyrene white boat next to a few plant pots a black cat in a small polystyrene white boat next to a few plant pots a black cat in a small polystyrene white boat next to a few plant pots
May 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Friend who spent the past week traveling with me and my husband sent us this and I feel like I've won an award. I am giving "healthy" 😇 Generations of bat-shit dysfunctional ancestors + my teenage self are smiling down on me proudly (or cursing me 🪬 who knows with them honestly)
April 28, 2025 at 2:56 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
A gate leading into a small park flower beds and bushes, an old municipal building in the background. Near the center is a pink cherry blossom which is dropping blossom on the ground
April 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Filling out emergency contact information in France be like
screenshot of a webpage reading 'J'ajoute les personnes de mon entourage' [I add the persons of my entourage]
April 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Evening brain balm from the canal du nord
Trees and fields reflected in the canal in low evening light A footpath alongside a canal. A red bridge crosses the canal, on the other side are trees and fields
April 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Fundraiser post, cat for attention. (He is purring in this picture, no cats were harmed etc...)
chuffed.org/project/1227...
A white woman with brown hair in a patterned sweater holding a black cat who looks very squished and uncomfortable
April 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Fave group chat memes so far, credits unknown
A picture of pippin from lord of the rings holding a glowing firey ring and screaming, caption reads "Pippin accidentally getting added to the Sauron-Saruman-Denethor group chat" Pic of a statue of lenin looking at a small rectangular thing in his hand. Caption: "Lenin discovering Alexander Kerensky has accidentally added him to the Provisional Government group chat"
March 26, 2025 at 7:55 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Without downloading new pictures where are you at mentally?
A black cat with very wide open round eyes lying in a white tote bag
March 20, 2025 at 9:41 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Mir vitslen zikh in yidish klas / wisecracking in yiddish class

The exercise is to match the descriptions with particular professions.

4. They make something with their hands. Answers: cook, baker, tailor, cobbler

5. They work from 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon
Answer: The French.
March 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
We are anxious cat parents and got our cat a GPS collar and I think the best thing about it is when on a sunny day we randomly get an 'out of office' email from the cat
Screenshot of email from "Weenect": "mise à jour en cours: Shofar est indisponible pour quelques minutes" [update in progress: Shofar is unavailable for several minutes]
March 19, 2025 at 12:43 PM
annsplaining.bsky.social
Unexpected ref to British Cuisine(™) in a postcard from an American in Paris to friend fighting in the International Brigades in Spain, summer 1937.
'We're eating in a Belgian restaurant at the minute. The waiter, thinking us English, tried to give us something called 'Lemon Squatch' to drink.'
Black and white postcard showing the Soviet building at the Paris International Exposition 1937. Huge Brutalist structure with a communist flag in front, on the roof is a statue of a man and woman holding a hammer and sickle in joined hands Otherside of handwritten postcard containing text quoted above
March 7, 2025 at 12:32 PM