Abe Silberstein
@abesilbe.bsky.social
Ph.D. Student in History and Jewish Studies at New York University. Interested in modern political history, labor, migration, diaspora, and religion.
Pinned
Abe Silberstein
@abesilbe.bsky.social
· Aug 19
After a long and productive break, I think I am ready to use social media in moderation again. Or until I delete again. Anyway, here goes.
My theory is that regardless of its origins it's now mimetic. More broadly, both Clinton and Hurwitz are telling their audiences what they want to hear: Your children not being pro-Israel has nothing to do with Israel's conduct or actions—so there is no need to reevaluate your views on Israel.
First Van Jones, then Sarah Hurwitz, now Hillary Clinton with these talking points about social media and carnage in Palestine …
It’s clear the talking points are being distributed.
By whom????
It’s clear the talking points are being distributed.
By whom????
December 3, 2025 at 12:09 AM
My theory is that regardless of its origins it's now mimetic. More broadly, both Clinton and Hurwitz are telling their audiences what they want to hear: Your children not being pro-Israel has nothing to do with Israel's conduct or actions—so there is no need to reevaluate your views on Israel.
I am far from a national booster, but I genuinely do not believe this sort of gutter racism is popular. It disgusts the median American, and not just out of social pressure. Most people in the country are not as cruel and hateful as Trump, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller.
Trump on Minnesota's Somali community: "They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you."
December 2, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I am far from a national booster, but I genuinely do not believe this sort of gutter racism is popular. It disgusts the median American, and not just out of social pressure. Most people in the country are not as cruel and hateful as Trump, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller.
Your mind on 36% approval rating.
December 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Your mind on 36% approval rating.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
in this specific respect AfD is to the left of the GOP, which probably says something about multiparty parliamentary politics and political discipline
Far-right Alternative for Germany co-leader Tino Chrupalla said his party will expel a member accused of delivering a speech in an Adolf Hitler-like manner at a party meeting last weekend.
🔗 politi.co/4oF83Rm
🔗 politi.co/4oF83Rm
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM
in this specific respect AfD is to the left of the GOP, which probably says something about multiparty parliamentary politics and political discipline
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
conservatives basically want to implement the caricature of affirmative action for conservative students. acceptance without meeting qualifications, good grades and degrees without having to do the work.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 1:29 AM
conservatives basically want to implement the caricature of affirmative action for conservative students. acceptance without meeting qualifications, good grades and degrees without having to do the work.
One reason for grade inflation outside elite universities is that you don't get put on administrative leave for giving a B to sub-mediocre work such as that "essay."
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:14 PM
One reason for grade inflation outside elite universities is that you don't get put on administrative leave for giving a B to sub-mediocre work such as that "essay."
If only there were a well-endowed organization committed to fighting this sort of bigotry on behalf of the American Jewish community.
This image and message from the Department of Labor both warps American history and defines the nation in an exclusionary way, one that is historically hostile to Jews and should concern and anger all Americans.
November 30, 2025 at 9:07 PM
If only there were a well-endowed organization committed to fighting this sort of bigotry on behalf of the American Jewish community.
Discussion posts in the last two weeks of the semester...let's just not?
November 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Discussion posts in the last two weeks of the semester...let's just not?
"Evidence: Because the Bible tells me so" is such a George W. Bush era anti-egghead story that one is tempted to think the Republican Party is healing.
Turning Point at OU posted this girl's essay in full and man is it rough
November 30, 2025 at 4:26 PM
"Evidence: Because the Bible tells me so" is such a George W. Bush era anti-egghead story that one is tempted to think the Republican Party is healing.
Randi Weingarten: "By demonizing teachers’ unions rather than engaging with us, Jewish organizational leadership is supporting those who seek to undermine public education."
Jewish leaders must work with educators to battle antisemitism — not demonize us
Jewish leaders demonized educators at a recent conference. But battling antisemitism requires partnership.
forward.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Randi Weingarten: "By demonizing teachers’ unions rather than engaging with us, Jewish organizational leadership is supporting those who seek to undermine public education."
Keir Starmer's ban on Palestine Action must be one of the most self-destructive decisions taken by a supposedly center-left government in recent years. It bought them precisely zero good will from pro-Israelists when they recognized Palestine at the UN and has outraged liberals and progressives.
Sally Rooney books may be withdrawn from UK sale over Palestine Action ban, court told
Rooney has said she intended to use royalties from her work "to go on supporting Palestine Action."
www.bbc.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Keir Starmer's ban on Palestine Action must be one of the most self-destructive decisions taken by a supposedly center-left government in recent years. It bought them precisely zero good will from pro-Israelists when they recognized Palestine at the UN and has outraged liberals and progressives.
If anyone here is at the University of Idaho and can help, please let me know.
November 27, 2025 at 10:23 PM
If anyone here is at the University of Idaho and can help, please let me know.
This is such a tiresome journalistic ritual. With very few exceptions, political appointees depart from an outgoing administration. This includes transitions between elected officials from the same party. They are not civil servants.
In City Hall Housecleaning, Mamdani Asks 179 Adams Staff Members to Quit
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
This is such a tiresome journalistic ritual. With very few exceptions, political appointees depart from an outgoing administration. This includes transitions between elected officials from the same party. They are not civil servants.
"With his nuanced response, Mamdani is showing that he is trying to represent that city. He is not offering reassurance to one side by abandoning the other; instead, he is straining to hold multiple truths at once."
What does Mamdani's response to synagogue protests mean for Jews? No one will like the answer.
Zohran Mamdani's response to a protest outside Park East synagogue satisfied no one. But it might speak to a crucial truth about Jewish life.
forward.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:32 PM
"With his nuanced response, Mamdani is showing that he is trying to represent that city. He is not offering reassurance to one side by abandoning the other; instead, he is straining to hold multiple truths at once."
A strange headline for a story that contradicts it. Beinart has never supported the academic boycott. When he started boycotting settlements, I think he may have even cheekily called it "Zionist BDS."
Pro-Boycott writer Peter Beinart faces BDS backlash over Tel Aviv University event
Despite Saying He Supports 'Many Forms' of Boycott Against Israel, Beinart Defended His Decision to Speak at the Event, Emphasizing the Importance of Engaging With Israelis. He Previously Criticized B...
www.haaretz.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A strange headline for a story that contradicts it. Beinart has never supported the academic boycott. When he started boycotting settlements, I think he may have even cheekily called it "Zionist BDS."
I completely forgot there is a conspiracy theory that JVP was founded by non-Jewish Arabs, and the origins for this is in Hatem Bazian hitting a share on twitter button for a JVP petition.
November 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I completely forgot there is a conspiracy theory that JVP was founded by non-Jewish Arabs, and the origins for this is in Hatem Bazian hitting a share on twitter button for a JVP petition.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
While the situation in Gaza remains desperate, the biggest short term risk is in the West Bank. The settlers'+IDF relentless campaign of terror, and the PA weakness could lead to sudden collapse and dramatic escalation in ethnic cleansing and carnage.
Sobering findings of @ecfrmena.bsky.social report by @tahanimustafa.bsky.social & @hlovatt.bsky.social about Palestinian politics in the West Bank. ecfr.eu/publication/...
November 25, 2025 at 5:04 PM
While the situation in Gaza remains desperate, the biggest short term risk is in the West Bank. The settlers'+IDF relentless campaign of terror, and the PA weakness could lead to sudden collapse and dramatic escalation in ethnic cleansing and carnage.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
Great example of what I was talking about, here is Hen Mazzig saying something he knows is untrue but that he thinks you'll believe.
In 1988 the Jordanians ceded its claims on East Jerusalem and the West Bank with the expectation that the Palestinians would soon receive their state.
In 1988 the Jordanians ceded its claims on East Jerusalem and the West Bank with the expectation that the Palestinians would soon receive their state.
November 24, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Great example of what I was talking about, here is Hen Mazzig saying something he knows is untrue but that he thinks you'll believe.
In 1988 the Jordanians ceded its claims on East Jerusalem and the West Bank with the expectation that the Palestinians would soon receive their state.
In 1988 the Jordanians ceded its claims on East Jerusalem and the West Bank with the expectation that the Palestinians would soon receive their state.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
The Israeli police raided today the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem, and prevented a children play from going ahead.
November 24, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The Israeli police raided today the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem, and prevented a children play from going ahead.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
Everything wrong with political journalism in one graf. This is not a policy proposal that exists but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that someone “won” by asking it bsky.app/profile/larr...
What a strange framing and characterization. How does one describe his blatantly dishonest, racist question about taxes as “press[ing] the Mayor-elect on his policy proposals”? In what way does this lying troll emerge as a “winner“?
November 24, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Everything wrong with political journalism in one graf. This is not a policy proposal that exists but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that someone “won” by asking it bsky.app/profile/larr...
Why stop at taking away phones, or high school? Only send them to colleges where they will hear the party line and be protected from reality. Make sure they're transported from home to school in windowless cars. Lock them in the basement. Screen all potential friends and partners for wrongthink.
Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz says Jewish students shouldn’t have smartphones until they finish high school — so they don’t see the “carnage” Israel and the U.S. have carried out in Gaza.
Video: Mel via X (@Villgecrazylady)
Video: Mel via X (@Villgecrazylady)
November 24, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Why stop at taking away phones, or high school? Only send them to colleges where they will hear the party line and be protected from reality. Make sure they're transported from home to school in windowless cars. Lock them in the basement. Screen all potential friends and partners for wrongthink.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
Elon Musk donated $277 million to Trump so he could steal the federal government’s data, dismantle the nation’s infrastructure, and stop foreign aid from going to nonwhite people. It’s a quid pro quo breathtaking in scope, corruption, and damage, & completely unprecedented in American history.
Bye bye, “DOGE”.
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
November 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Elon Musk donated $277 million to Trump so he could steal the federal government’s data, dismantle the nation’s infrastructure, and stop foreign aid from going to nonwhite people. It’s a quid pro quo breathtaking in scope, corruption, and damage, & completely unprecedented in American history.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
The media doesn't treat the Trump regime's allegiances with neo-Nazis like Nick Fuentes as antisemitism, but Zohran's belief in Palestinian liberation is treated as antisemitism.
It's completely backwards and insane. Zohran will protect American Jews; the fascists will target American Jews.
It's completely backwards and insane. Zohran will protect American Jews; the fascists will target American Jews.
WELKER: What is your message to Jewish New Yorkers who feel you won't be tough enough in your response to antisemitism?
MAMDANI: That I am looking forward to being the next mayor and fulfilling the commitment I've made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them
MAMDANI: That I am looking forward to being the next mayor and fulfilling the commitment I've made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them
November 23, 2025 at 5:21 PM
The media doesn't treat the Trump regime's allegiances with neo-Nazis like Nick Fuentes as antisemitism, but Zohran's belief in Palestinian liberation is treated as antisemitism.
It's completely backwards and insane. Zohran will protect American Jews; the fascists will target American Jews.
It's completely backwards and insane. Zohran will protect American Jews; the fascists will target American Jews.
I hope someone better equipped than me responds to Susan Neiman's awful essay on "wokeness" in the New York Review of Books in which she casually butchers postmodernism, postcolonialism, Agamben, the history of post-dictatorship Chile, and—worst of all—trivializes struggles for dignity and equality.
November 22, 2025 at 11:11 PM
I hope someone better equipped than me responds to Susan Neiman's awful essay on "wokeness" in the New York Review of Books in which she casually butchers postmodernism, postcolonialism, Agamben, the history of post-dictatorship Chile, and—worst of all—trivializes struggles for dignity and equality.
Something here is weird. David Koch has been dead for several years and his name is on the ballet theater, not the opera house.
Protesters Interrupt a Performance of ‘Carmen’ at the Met Opera
www.nytimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Something here is weird. David Koch has been dead for several years and his name is on the ballet theater, not the opera house.