Dear Rep. Omar: Can We Talk About Anti-Semitism?

Her words enter a public sphere that is already populated with ideas and agendas and history

Over the past two weeks my newsfeed has been taken over by Ilhan Omar stories. And just as it has divided the left of the political spectrum, it has also divided my carefully curated cohort of lefty friends. But something about the back and forth has felt very off to ...
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Dear Rep. Omar: Can We Talk About Anti-Semitism?

In Defense of Ilhan Omar, Again

Did the House pass such a full-throated Resolution about anti-Semitism after Charlottesville, or after the recent Pittsburgh synagogue massacre?

Ilhan Omar is again at the center of controversy, this time for remarks she made last week at a panel discussion at Busboys and Poets, a Washington, D.C. bookstore and restaurant. Omar’s “offending” comment was a reference to “the political influence in this country that says that it’s ok for ...
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In Defense of Ilhan Omar, Again

Democracy in Israel/Palestine Today

Ethnic Democracy or Ethnocracy?

During a roundtable debate on Israeli television in the last election cycle, the major candidates, excluding the two major parties Likud and Labor (as is the custom), offered final word after a vigorous exchange of ideas. Centrist Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”) party began his ...
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A Multi-Campus University in Exile

Then and now

The New School opened on February 10, 1919 in the name of academic freedom -- a cause it heroically defended a second time when Hitler rose to power. In April 1933, Alvin Johnson, the New School’s director, called on American intellectuals to protest the dismissal of hundreds of professors in ...
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A Multi-Campus University in Exile

How to Live One’s Values in All The “Little” Choices

A Review of Making History, Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America

Living in interesting times is reputedly a curse, but Mickey and Dick Flacks tell a story of such times that makes them positively charming. The title suggests a voyage of discovery, both of each other and of national experiences and values, but the book itself has less to say about ...
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How to Live One’s Values in All The “Little” Choices

What’s So “Jewish” About The New School?

Inventing a parable of pluralism

So what’s so Jewish about The New School? Well, it depends on what you mean by “Jewish.” The simplest -- and most awkwardly Nixonian -- way to answer the question is to count the Jews. When King David tried to do that in 2 Samuel 24, God smote the Israelites with three ...
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What’s So “Jewish” About The New School?

Howard Schultz, Gay Priests, and Ted Bundy

Past Present Episode 165

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss Howard Schultz’ presidential bid, gay men in the priesthood, and the enduring fascination with serial killer Ted Bundy. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has announced he is running for the presidency in 2020. Natalia referred ...
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Howard Schultz, Gay Priests, and Ted Bundy

The Politics of Female Sexuality in ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’

What a recent Bollywood film can tell us about risk, pleasure, desire and feminism.

In an advisory issued by the Information and Broadcasting ministry in December 2017, the Indian government banned the telecast of condom advertisements across all television channels until 10 pm on the contention that some of them were “indecent and can impact children.” The implicit idea behind the advisory is that anything involving ...
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The Politics of Female Sexuality in ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’

Nazis in Squirrel Hill and Slonim

On how remembering the past has taken on renewed relevance

Consistent with the aftermath of most national tragedies, the reductive takes have come fast and furious. Political narratives have focused on the emboldening of the alt right’s violent fringe; religious arguments have pointed to the omnipresence of anti-Semitism, even in areas where Jews feel most comfortable; regulatory discourse has predictably ...
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Constructing the Neoliberal-Neoconservative Alliance in Israel

The Role of American-funded Think Tanks

On October 15, 2010 Roger Hertog, Chairman of the New York based Tikvah Fund, gave a remarkably revealing speech. The occasion was his acceptance of the William E. Simon Prize, an award granted annually to prominent philanthropists who invest heavily in promoting free enterprise, and in the speech he laid bare the principles ...
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Constructing the Neoliberal-Neoconservative Alliance in Israel

Why Nationalists Insist on the Gender Binary

The attack on transgender people is part of a bigger plan to reverse gender justice

Since 2012 religious groups of many stripes have started to use the term “gender ideology” as a means to polarize the conversation about gender justice, especially in relation to non-binary individuals. What Catholics like the German sociologist Gabriele Kuby want to see is a return to what is “normal” and ...
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Why Nationalists Insist on the Gender Binary

I Was Primed for Sex & Secularism

Reflections on Joan Wallach Scott

When I was young, I wanted to understand how one became secular. At first, I had no word for the change I sought. What I wanted– not so much to know as to do – was leave religion behind. I had been religious. I now was not. Getting there was ...
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I Was Primed for Sex & Secularism