Beth Shakman Hurd
@bethhurd.bsky.social
Professor of Global Politics & Religion at Northwestern. New book: Heaven Has a Wall
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo248382196.html
Elizabethshakmanhurd.com
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo248382196.html
Elizabethshakmanhurd.com
Please donate to support our neighbors who are under attack by the government.
Donate to Emergency Financial Relief for Chicago Landscapers, organized by Elizabeth Clarke
Project FISCAL:
Financial Initiative Supporting Chicag… Elizabeth Clarke needs your support for Emergency Financial Relief for Chicago Landscapers
www.gofundme.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Please donate to support our neighbors who are under attack by the government.
Washington has approached at least 58 governments about accepting deportees. . . Nearly all the countries involved – including Eswatini, South Sudan and El Salvador – feature in state department reports for serious human rights abuses.
US has sent $7.5m to Equatorial Guinea to accept noncitizens deportees
Country is one of world’s most repressive and corrupt, raising concerns over rights abuses of those deported
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Washington has approached at least 58 governments about accepting deportees. . . Nearly all the countries involved – including Eswatini, South Sudan and El Salvador – feature in state department reports for serious human rights abuses.
Yes. 👇
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Yes. 👇
“It’s great that you go to ‘No Kings’ protests, but who is paying for the bombs that had been raining on Gaza?” As Dekel pointed out, “Trumpism and Bibism are joined at the hip.”
@mashagessen.bsky.social
@mashagessen.bsky.social
Opinion | How to Be a Good Citizen of a Bad Country
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:24 PM
“It’s great that you go to ‘No Kings’ protests, but who is paying for the bombs that had been raining on Gaza?” As Dekel pointed out, “Trumpism and Bibism are joined at the hip.”
@mashagessen.bsky.social
@mashagessen.bsky.social
Evanston mayor Daniel Biss: “our community is under attack from armed federal agents and our police department is in a very tough position of having to do our best to keep our residents safe from our federal government,” said Biss. “It’s awful, it is obscene.”
Watch the video.
Watch the video.
New policy will dispatch police supervisors to federal agent activity in Evanston
The City of Evanston is implementing a new policy to dispatch a police supervisor to reports of incidents involving federal agents in the community.
www.nbcchicago.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Evanston mayor Daniel Biss: “our community is under attack from armed federal agents and our police department is in a very tough position of having to do our best to keep our residents safe from our federal government,” said Biss. “It’s awful, it is obscene.”
Watch the video.
Watch the video.
At last, a nuanced, compelling piece on the campaign of Zohran Mamdani amid the vast diversity of New York’s Jewish communities. I’ll be assigning this one to my students. Thank you
@noayachot.bsky.social
@noayachot.bsky.social
Jewish New York’s reckoning with Zohran Mamdani: ‘He’s become a vehicle for our tensions’
A tour of the mayoral hopeful’s Jewish outreach reveals an electorate fractured over Israel and grappling with his historic candidacy in radically different ways
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:04 PM
At last, a nuanced, compelling piece on the campaign of Zohran Mamdani amid the vast diversity of New York’s Jewish communities. I’ll be assigning this one to my students. Thank you
@noayachot.bsky.social
@noayachot.bsky.social
Read this piece if you want to know what’s really happening in Chicago. We are under attack, and we are fighting back. @dannypostel.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
Chicago Is Pushing Back Against Trump
The spectacular repression of ICE is leading ordinary residents of the Windy City to protest and activism
newlinesmag.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Read this piece if you want to know what’s really happening in Chicago. We are under attack, and we are fighting back. @dannypostel.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
To our students: your resistance matters. You are right to refuse this training, and we stand with you in demanding a university worthy of your commitment to truth and justice.
We won’t give in. It won’t stop here.
We won’t give in. It won’t stop here.
Opinion | LTE: We support NU students boycotting the ‘Anti-Bias’ training
Opinion Contributors Michael Peshkin and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd show support for students boycotting an 'Anti-Bias' training.
dailynorthwestern.com
October 8, 2025 at 11:47 AM
To our students: your resistance matters. You are right to refuse this training, and we stand with you in demanding a university worthy of your commitment to truth and justice.
We won’t give in. It won’t stop here.
We won’t give in. It won’t stop here.
“It would be a mistake to view the plan as a historic breakthrough for Palestine. Trump’s vision is yet another American-Israeli concoction cooked up without any input from Palestinians that would retain Israel’s perpetual control over Gaza’s future.”
A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu
For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe
www.theguardian.com
October 6, 2025 at 12:32 PM
“It would be a mistake to view the plan as a historic breakthrough for Palestine. Trump’s vision is yet another American-Israeli concoction cooked up without any input from Palestinians that would retain Israel’s perpetual control over Gaza’s future.”
Please watch to see what’s happening at the protests against ICE near Chicago, where immigrants are being violently detained and Turning Point supporters are lionizing Kirk.
How Chicago is resisting Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown | Anywhere but Washington
YouTube video by The Guardian
youtu.be
October 4, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Please watch to see what’s happening at the protests against ICE near Chicago, where immigrants are being violently detained and Turning Point supporters are lionizing Kirk.
“We’re losing this country,” Newsom said. “We’re losing it in real time. This is a chaos presidency. He is a wrecking ball. This is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetime. It is code red. No time for neutrality. It’s time to stand up, pick a side, and be firm and resolute.”
Calling a ‘code red,’ Newsom says universities must reject Trump’s compact
The governor applied more pressure on USC, which received a proposal this week to cooperate with the Trump administration.
www.politico.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:01 AM
“We’re losing this country,” Newsom said. “We’re losing it in real time. This is a chaos presidency. He is a wrecking ball. This is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetime. It is code red. No time for neutrality. It’s time to stand up, pick a side, and be firm and resolute.”
Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd
The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:51 AM
The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
“A show of force for nothing.”
Border wall slicing through Arizona wildlife corridor begins construction: ‘A show of force for nothing’
The 30ft-high wall between the US and Mexico will cut through one of the last unbroken grasslands in the west, leaving residents alarmed over the potential impact on wildlife and water use
www.theguardian.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:20 AM
“A show of force for nothing.”
The opinion on Tuesday left no doubt that Judge Young came away from the trial convinced of the core point made by the academic associations: that the Trump administration had successfully turned an obscure element of immigration law into a cudgel to intimidate opposing voices.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech
www.nytimes.com
October 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
The opinion on Tuesday left no doubt that Judge Young came away from the trial convinced of the core point made by the academic associations: that the Trump administration had successfully turned an obscure element of immigration law into a cudgel to intimidate opposing voices.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Thank you @ulrich-schmiedel.bsky.social !
My review of @bethhurd.bsky.social's Haven Has A Wall (@uchicagopress.bsky.social): "captivating reading, a tour de force in political theology. ... Hurd shows clearly and compellingly that religion animates what appears as secular. Whether revered or reviled, religion is to be reckoned with.”
Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States
Published in Journal of Contemporary Religion (Ahead of Print, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Thank you @ulrich-schmiedel.bsky.social !
“The antisemitism in Northwestern is not where I was told it would be,” (student Holly) Simon said. “The students and faculty organizing for Palestinian freedom and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have continuously welcomed me as my full Jewish self.”
I stand with these students.
I stand with these students.
Northwestern Graduate Workers for Palestine protest bias training
Around a dozen graduate and undergraduate students gathered in front of Technological Institute on Friday to protest a controversial bias training required for all Northwestern students. The news conf...
dailynorthwestern.com
September 28, 2025 at 12:30 PM
“The antisemitism in Northwestern is not where I was told it would be,” (student Holly) Simon said. “The students and faculty organizing for Palestinian freedom and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have continuously welcomed me as my full Jewish self.”
I stand with these students.
I stand with these students.
Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd
U.S. support for Israel isn’t just foreign policy, it’s a political religion. Rooted in Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism, it blurs borders until America and Israel are imagined as one, argues Elizabeth Shakman Hurd for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
American Support for Israel Is a Political Religion
US policies reflect the entangled destinies of the two countries — as if they were merged into one
newlinesmag.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:00 PM
U.S. support for Israel isn’t just foreign policy, it’s a political religion. Rooted in Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism, it blurs borders until America and Israel are imagined as one, argues Elizabeth Shakman Hurd for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd
NEW: What makes the relationship between the U.S. & Israel unique, one that can’t be captured by ordinary frameworks? It’s as if the two were a single entity - “AmericaIsrael” - which functions like a political religion, argues @bethhurd.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/argument/ame...
newlinesmag.com/argument/ame...
American Support for Israel Is a Political Religion
US policies reflect the entangled destinies of the two countries — as if they were merged into one
newlinesmag.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:45 AM
NEW: What makes the relationship between the U.S. & Israel unique, one that can’t be captured by ordinary frameworks? It’s as if the two were a single entity - “AmericaIsrael” - which functions like a political religion, argues @bethhurd.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/argument/ame...
newlinesmag.com/argument/ame...
Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd
Palestinian students who were admitted to American universities are now trapped in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed most schools.
Gaza Students Found a Lifeline to U.S. Colleges. Then Trump Shut the Door.
Palestinian students who were admitted to American universities are now stuck in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed most schools.
interc.pt
September 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Palestinian students who were admitted to American universities are now trapped in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed most schools.
The border no longer divides only countries. It snakes between white and brown, between families and neighbors, between citizens and the rights they once thought were inviolate.
Opinion | The Border Is Invading America
www.nytimes.com
August 29, 2025 at 12:41 PM
The border no longer divides only countries. It snakes between white and brown, between families and neighbors, between citizens and the rights they once thought were inviolate.
Reposted by Beth Shakman Hurd
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis across the world are speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
nyti.ms
August 26, 2025 at 11:55 AM
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis across the world are speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
The university’s trustees and leaders view it as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal. We are simply choosing not to be a university.
The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump
The University of Chicago is in crisis. Under extraordinary financial strain, it has diminished its faculty-student ratio and hired hundreds of “lecturers”: teachers whom it pays little and whom it do...
www.compactmag.com
August 23, 2025 at 1:18 PM
The university’s trustees and leaders view it as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal. We are simply choosing not to be a university.
While new collaborations between Israeli and U.S. universities lack widespread buy-in from American faculty and students, framing them as redress for supposed discrimination against Jewish or Israeli students, “is a cynical but very effective way to make sure these partnerships are untouchable.”
After crushing dissent, U.S. universities deepen ties with Israeli academia
Israeli universities regularly collaborate with the military, which has destroyed all academic life in Gaza. That's done nothing to slow U.S.-Israeli partnerships.
www.972mag.com
August 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
While new collaborations between Israeli and U.S. universities lack widespread buy-in from American faculty and students, framing them as redress for supposed discrimination against Jewish or Israeli students, “is a cynical but very effective way to make sure these partnerships are untouchable.”
It’s harder and harder for Democratic politicians who want to position themselves as sensible, moderate liberals to defend a country that carries out such grotesque crimes against its stateless and rightless noncitizen subjects.
The Problem With Israel Is So Much Bigger Than Netanyahu
Increasingly, mainstream Democrats have sought to carve out a space for “acceptable” Zionism by saying that they support Israel but oppose Bibi Netanyahu. But the horrors of Gaza are a result of proce...
jacobin.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:02 PM
It’s harder and harder for Democratic politicians who want to position themselves as sensible, moderate liberals to defend a country that carries out such grotesque crimes against its stateless and rightless noncitizen subjects.
The problem with Antisemitism Here/Now is that its tendentious and simplistic approach to enormously complex histories, including the history of Zionism, is at odds with the mission of the university: to teach, not to indoctrinate.
www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...
www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...
Northwestern’s Inane — and Controversial — Bias Trainings
Indoctrination is not education.
www.chronicle.com
August 9, 2025 at 12:32 PM
The problem with Antisemitism Here/Now is that its tendentious and simplistic approach to enormously complex histories, including the history of Zionism, is at odds with the mission of the university: to teach, not to indoctrinate.
www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...
www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...