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.
No, no, no!
Raskin: We are a big tent. We must be a huge, vast tent. I say this is a party that’s got room for Marjorie Taylor Greene if she wants to come over.
November 17, 2025 at 5:42 PM
No, no, no!
Since it was a campaign pledge, and Mamdani is presumably more serious about them than your typical NYC politician, I think he needs to make a good faith effort to keep Tisch. But she needs to agree to implement Mamdani's policies to the letter. The Mayor is not the one who should be compromising.
Keeping Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner is an unforced error for reasons concerning her specifically, the NYPD broadly, and the moment that we're in politically. An ICE collaborator cannot be trusted to protect New Yorkers. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social should make her a different offer.
Mamdani's NYC Can't Afford NYPD Commissioner Tisch
With ICE on its way, how can we expect an ICE collaborator to protect New Yorkers? Here's a compromise: make Tisch sanitation commissioner again
www.forever-wars.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Since it was a campaign pledge, and Mamdani is presumably more serious about them than your typical NYC politician, I think he needs to make a good faith effort to keep Tisch. But she needs to agree to implement Mamdani's policies to the letter. The Mayor is not the one who should be compromising.
As I was saying, Epstein seems to have attracted successful people who thought they deserved more money than they were being paid.
November 17, 2025 at 5:09 PM
As I was saying, Epstein seems to have attracted successful people who thought they deserved more money than they were being paid.
Late millennial confession: I discovered Tom Petty through this movie.
i'm watching the 2008 HBO movie RECOUNT about the 2000 presidential election like i'm mark wahlberg talking about 9/11. "yeah if i had been there, gore woulda been president"
November 16, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Late millennial confession: I discovered Tom Petty through this movie.
Nothing like reading old state of the field review essays that prove way off. 'You might want to read this Philip Foner guy, but he's probably not going to have a huge influence going forward.'
November 16, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Nothing like reading old state of the field review essays that prove way off. 'You might want to read this Philip Foner guy, but he's probably not going to have a huge influence going forward.'
Also: Most professional actors and athletes are not wealthy.
beyond just being wrong on the merits, the thing that bugs me about people dismissing actors and athletes as labor is that, historically, they’ve been at the forefront of a lot of labor victories that have helped labor more broadly
November 16, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Also: Most professional actors and athletes are not wealthy.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
in the production of Western ideologies & systems of dominance. I appreciated the way Hebh Jamal frames ‘Jewish supremacy’ within these broader Western systems open.substack.com/pub/hebhjama...
Zionism, Jewish Supremacy, Imperialism in the German context
The threat of our movement inching to the right means we must have solid framing and understandings of anti-colonial struggles.
open.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:28 PM
in the production of Western ideologies & systems of dominance. I appreciated the way Hebh Jamal frames ‘Jewish supremacy’ within these broader Western systems open.substack.com/pub/hebhjama...
If Nick Fuentes wasn't openly antisemitic, he probably would be welcome in "mainstream" Republican circles. Hard to argue with this.
Nick Fuentes, who has praised Hitler and is openly antisemitic, says Republicans are hypocrites for “tolerating cruelty and abuse” toward Muslims, Black people, and other minorities while drawing the line at antisemitism. He argues his own politics are simply the logical end point of that bigotry...
November 16, 2025 at 4:27 AM
If Nick Fuentes wasn't openly antisemitic, he probably would be welcome in "mainstream" Republican circles. Hard to argue with this.
This is not the creation of academics but of donors.
May I humbly suggest that the insanely long titles that academics have bestowed upon themselves, especially the weird NASCAR sponsor "chairs," should be ditched, at least in any kind of media accounts.
November 16, 2025 at 3:03 AM
This is not the creation of academics but of donors.
This is Larry Summers, a man who occasionally pops up to lecture college students about their morality.
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 12:46 AM
This is Larry Summers, a man who occasionally pops up to lecture college students about their morality.
As is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Let's not forget this is a person who harassed children who survived school shootings.
Watching right-wingers suddenly discover that Trump is a bad person is wild
November 15, 2025 at 10:38 PM
As is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Let's not forget this is a person who harassed children who survived school shootings.
Not the point of the post, but worth noting that the 92Y held a panel titled, "Does Zionism Have A Future on the Left?" with two centrists, two neoconservatives, and one Trumpist.
Just a few weeks ago, Batya was speaking at 92Y alongside Kathy E. Manning, Yehuda Kurtzer, James Kirchick and Bret Stephens. I'm guessing she's spinning up a book tour about her upcoming book. If and when you see other institutions choosing to platform her, please remember this exchange.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Not the point of the post, but worth noting that the 92Y held a panel titled, "Does Zionism Have A Future on the Left?" with two centrists, two neoconservatives, and one Trumpist.
It would be a great tragedy if any academic association—but in particular the one to which I belong, the American Historical Association—takes this methodologically shoddy and tendentious "report" by the ADL seriously.
www.adl.org/resources/re...
www.adl.org/resources/re...
November 14, 2025 at 10:23 PM
It would be a great tragedy if any academic association—but in particular the one to which I belong, the American Historical Association—takes this methodologically shoddy and tendentious "report" by the ADL seriously.
www.adl.org/resources/re...
www.adl.org/resources/re...
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
All I have to say about the Nuzzi profile is that at the end of it she jokes about how she destroyed her life. In fact she did not do that. She has a book, a magazine job, this lovely profile. People’s lives are being destroyed by this administration, however, including by -well, you know.
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 PM
All I have to say about the Nuzzi profile is that at the end of it she jokes about how she destroyed her life. In fact she did not do that. She has a book, a magazine job, this lovely profile. People’s lives are being destroyed by this administration, however, including by -well, you know.
"Settler violence is antithetical to the Zionist ethos." Sure. If you say so.
I don't mean to pick on the URJ but the way they've been messaging about Israel since Oct. 7 is... somewhat confounding.
Like the actual substance of this piece is a pretty intense condemnation of settler violence but it's couched in sort of goofy terms (it's the Wild West — Bank!)
Like the actual substance of this piece is a pretty intense condemnation of settler violence but it's couched in sort of goofy terms (it's the Wild West — Bank!)
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 PM
"Settler violence is antithetical to the Zionist ethos." Sure. If you say so.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
Just a few weeks ago, Batya was speaking at 92Y alongside Kathy E. Manning, Yehuda Kurtzer, James Kirchick and Bret Stephens. I'm guessing she's spinning up a book tour about her upcoming book. If and when you see other institutions choosing to platform her, please remember this exchange.
November 14, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Just a few weeks ago, Batya was speaking at 92Y alongside Kathy E. Manning, Yehuda Kurtzer, James Kirchick and Bret Stephens. I'm guessing she's spinning up a book tour about her upcoming book. If and when you see other institutions choosing to platform her, please remember this exchange.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric
"Barely legal" running into George Carlin's "near miss" problem.
Megyn Kelly: "I know somebody very close to this case…Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls…He wasn't into like 8 year olds…There's a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old."
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
"Barely legal" running into George Carlin's "near miss" problem.
Kevin Roberts was once a serious and sensitive scholar of enslavement.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
November 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Kevin Roberts was once a serious and sensitive scholar of enslavement.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Jeffrey Epstein seems to have attracted highly successful people who thought they deserved more money than they had. Very few of the people in these emails are genuine surprises.
November 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Jeffrey Epstein seems to have attracted highly successful people who thought they deserved more money than they had. Very few of the people in these emails are genuine surprises.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
The main thing I want you to understand is that if you're like an unironic Bluesky liberal the people who control the heights of American culture and the intelligentsia genuinely despise you and would prefer the company of fascist pedophiles.
November 12, 2025 at 5:02 PM
The main thing I want you to understand is that if you're like an unironic Bluesky liberal the people who control the heights of American culture and the intelligentsia genuinely despise you and would prefer the company of fascist pedophiles.
Reposted by Abe Silberstein
This is genuinely funny coming from a guy whose entire life is an endless stream of bitching and moaning while he leads the party of divorced dads who are mad their families hate them
Trump: "If we die, we must die and we as men we die without complaining."
November 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
This is genuinely funny coming from a guy whose entire life is an endless stream of bitching and moaning while he leads the party of divorced dads who are mad their families hate them
Frankly, a major waste. Chi Osse is great and I will vote for him in the primary, but he will lose badly. Jeffries's seat is not competitive.
Hakeem Jeffries is about to get a primary challenger.
@chiosse.bsky.social will reportedly make an announcement about this in the coming weeks.
@chiosse.bsky.social will reportedly make an announcement about this in the coming weeks.
Against Mamdani’s Wishes, Gen Z Councilman Plans to Challenge Jeffries
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Frankly, a major waste. Chi Osse is great and I will vote for him in the primary, but he will lose badly. Jeffries's seat is not competitive.