Emily Tamkin
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emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Emily Tamkin
@emilyctamkin.bsky.social
9.7K followers 1.1K following 2.2K posts
Writer, reporter, editor, all-around delight. Work lots of places. Author of THE INFLUENCE OF SOROS and BAD JEWS. Working on new book on Holocaust remembrance. Don’t yell at me. emilyctamkin@gmail.com. emilyctamkin.substack.com.
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emilyctamkin.bsky.social
“Sen. Ted Cruz tells Fox News the protest is 'organized by Soros operatives and funded by Soros money'”
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
“I’m not sure, honestly. But I will note that Fuentes, in addition to his more openly hateful comments, also uses terms like “globalists” as a dog-whistle word for Jews and Jewish control. So do a lot of Republicans. To my mind the more long-term threat is not Fuentes, but the people who are able to carefully repackage the same message – that America should be for white Christians – in such a way that it’s slightly more palatable. Having said that, it should be the easiest thing in the world to say not just “I didn’t know who this person was”, but to add “and I am ashamed to have had a person who regularly espouses such views in my presence”. But Trump didn’t? No. And what does that tell us? I leave that up to you.”
November 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
“I know that not every Jewish woman will agree with me. Many of the rabbis who signed the letter warning against Mamdani were women. I know that there will be those who say that this is irrelevant, or not a Jewish issue. I know there will be others who feel, even if they wouldn’t say so, that Jewish women should, in this instance, place concerns tied to their womanhood behind concerns tied to their Jewishness. But I can’t untie the two. And I can’t understand why so many leaders in my community seem not to have even considered the possibility that the return to power of an accused serial sexual harasser might be relevant to Jewish safety and dignity.”
October 28, 2025 at 5:55 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
emilyctamkin.substack.com/p/on-village...
“Or let us consider the current New York mayoral election. For all the talk of whether Zohran Mamdani’s campaign threatens Jews - are the same people saying that we need to pay attention to Jewish safety also calling out the conservative Jewish radio host who said Mamdani would celebrate 9/11, or Andrew Cuomo for going along with the comment? I think some will read this and say that I am putting other communities ahead of Jews. In fact, I am making the exact opposite case: that to bolster support for your own tiny minority requires standing with others as though they were your own. I also think we should denounce this ugly Islamophobia because it’s right in and of itself. But I want to push back on the idea that not doing so is somehow pro-Jewish. It isn’t smart and self-interested to expect others to listen to your pain, your hurt”
October 26, 2025 at 4:53 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
And also to quote myself:
“To be clear: I am not saying that there is a straight line between Trump’s claims about Soros and the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history, or that Trump is responsible for the Tree of Life shooting. He was not; the shooter was. We do not need to wonder, however, if antisemitic conspiracies about Jewish degradation of the nation could be dangerous. We already know that they are deadly. For all of Trump’s talk of Jewish safety, this rhetoric and this thinking has tangibly made Jews less safe.”
September 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Wrote about Long Story Short and why I liked it so much and also about www.haaretz.com/news/tv/2025...
“It sometimes feels today, at least to me, that there is a temptation being extended to Jews, and certainly to Jews in the United States, to think of ourselves as so different that we are illegible to anyone else. We're a religion and a set of ethnicities and a culture – how different! Antisemitism is the oldest hatred – unique! Who could understand all that? At its worst, this thinking is divisive and counter to solidarity across differences. It's an isolating, lonely framework. But even if it weren't, it would still be incorrect. We are special and different and unique. But doesn't every identity and culture have special and different and unique elements? And isn't grappling with them part of having an identity? Specificity is universal.”
September 1, 2025 at 11:03 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
For the morning crowd
“Trump’s rhetoric divides the country between its rightful owners, who deserve to be free and breathe, and those who threaten them. These threats may appear to be your neighbors, but are actually lunatics doing the bidding of an all-powerful Jew. This framework is not only paranoid and divisive, but encourages violence, even as it purports to try to stop it. And we know by now that Trump knows all this, too. It has been years of this rhetoric landing in manifestos. Since we cannot know his heart or mind, it’s impossible to say that he knows the dangerous impact of his words and doesn’t care. But perhaps we can make an educated guess.”
August 28, 2025 at 11:07 AM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
She is a good girl
A photo of my dog, Shiloh, a good girl
August 19, 2025 at 9:28 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Relatedly forward.com/opinion/7626...
“I read Levi’s meditations on fascism and historical memory. “Everybody must know, or remember, that when Hitler or Mussolini spoke in public, they were believed, applauded, admired, adored like gods,” he wrote. Days after I read those words, President Donald Trump ordered that Confederate statues be put back up in Washington, D.C., where I live. Shortly after, he took over the city’s police force, alleging that violent crime is up, even though statistics clearly show it to be down. What would my son someday come to think about the summer of his birth, I wondered? What would I teach him about our country? Was I trying to find the teachings in these books?”
August 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
August 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
For Tisha B’Av
August 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
as is this
"The one step the organization took pains to avoid, at least publicly, was examining how the Israeli government’s actions might be fueling a global movement against it. Not in the war’s opening days, when Netanyahu drove more than a million civilians out of northern Gaza. Not the next year, when videos appeared to show Israeli soldiers throwing corpses off a roof, or when Israeli drones attacked a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers, killing seven. Not when people such as Mahmoud Nafez al-’Aidy of Rafah awoke in hospitals and soon learned that their entire families had been wiped out. “I’m alone in the world now,” al-’Aidy told the Israeli human-rights organization B’Tselem. “Everything I cared about is gone.”"
August 1, 2025 at 4:54 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
In honor of Primo Levi’s birthday hold onto universal human dignity
July 31, 2025 at 9:48 AM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
The past isn’t even the past
July 7, 2025 at 12:23 AM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
For the Fourth
July 4, 2025 at 9:22 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
As a beautiful woman once wrote
Excerpt from my book, Bad Jews, on how people try to disqualify Jews so as not need to argue on the merits
June 30, 2025 at 4:55 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
This gentleman came up in my piece yesterday forward.com/opinion/7320...
“City Council member Shahana Hanif was harshly criticized for not taking antisemitism seriously enough because she didn’t use the word “antisemitism” in a post decrying vandalism of an Israeli restaurant; once shared a post that included the phrase “globalize the intifada”; and has posted in support of pro-Palestinian protest. Andres Spokoiny, head of the Jewish Funders Network, said her post about the vandalism “reeks of panic” and that it was “worthless.” Brooklyn BridgeBuilders, a political action committee, said of Hanif, “Any leader who advocates violence — such as ‘globalizing the intifada’ or is indifferent towards antisemitism — should not hold office in a city as diverse as New York.” Is this how we get people to care about antisemitism? By telling them they don’t care, after they’ve repeatedly said that they do?»
June 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Not to quote myself yet again but forward.com/opinion/7320...
“There was a productive conversation that could, theoretically, have been had in response to Mamdani’s answer. Perhaps someone could have asked him what he’s taken from his outreach to different New York Jewish communities; perhaps he could have been pressed on the blind spots some Jews still fear he has. Perhaps he could have been invited to talk about how being Muslim, and the victim of Islamophobic threats, shapes his response to religious and political strife at this particular juncture. And perhaps those of us asking him to take antisemitism seriously could interrogate whether we were holding the Muslim mayoral candidate to a different standard, and ask whether we ourselves have spoken out, or would speak out, with similar seriousness against Islamophobia.”
June 25, 2025 at 7:26 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
As a beautiful woman (me) once wrote (on Friday) forward.com/opinion/7307...
“It would be more honest and productive if those interested in Holocaust memory and consciousness admitted that, more often than not, they’re upset not that a comparison is being made at all, but rather by the specific comparison that is being made. I don’t think Katz and Netanyahu are wrong to make any comparisons to Hitler or the Holocaust, ever, but I take issue with these recent instances. I think they are making these comparisons to cast their opponent as the ultimate evil, in order to justify anything and everything they might wish to do in the present conflict.”
June 22, 2025 at 12:35 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Some context on ol’ Mike slate.com/news-and-pol...
“Of all the people in the United States, the president-elect has settled on Mike Huckabee as his nominee for ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist, has said he does not believe in the West Bank as a concept and that it is Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the region) and that Palestinians as a people are not real. He has also put on campaign events from the West Bank. After Donald Trump’s announcement, Huckabee was asked whether West Bank annexation was possible during the coming presidential term. “Of course,” he replied. (Huckabee is a Christian Zionist, which is to say he believes that Jews should be in Israel—an area he deems to include the West Bank—so as to trigger the Second Coming, after which Christians can inhabit the land.)”
June 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
It's like he didn't even read my op-Ed, you know? forward.com/opinion/7227...
"Conversely, Israeli leaders are already blaming international critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza for the attack. Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli said on X, “Let us be absolutely clear: ‘Free Palestine’ is not a cry for liberty — it is a cry for murder. That was proven in blood today.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked historical antisemitism, saying, “Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood,” and Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar said, “When irresponsible and disgraceful politicians slander Israel with false accusations of genocide and war crimes, it’s no wonder antisemitism rises and Palestinian terrorists feel emboldened to carry out attacks.” It’s wildly inappropriate to accuse people of bearing responsibility for this heinous attack because they engaged in peaceful protest against the war, or because they accused Israel of war crimes. Not only because this behavior assigns blame to political opponents who did not actually go to the museum and kill two people, but because it suggests that a country’s actions can’t be judged. All countries, with governments and armies and power and policies, are open to criticism. And that criticism doesn’t give people license to shoot others. Peaceful protest and speech are the routes people should take to speak up and out against U.S. and Israeli policies and the governments carrying them out."
May 28, 2025 at 11:18 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
In fact, and with apologies for quoting myself, forward.com/opinion/7227...
“All countries, with governments and armies and power and policies, are open to criticism. And that criticism doesn’t give people license to shoot others. Peaceful protest and speech are the routes people should take to speak up and out against U.S. and Israeli policies and the governments carrying them out.”
May 23, 2025 at 1:41 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Me for the @forward.com on events this week at Columbia and how Trump's plans to "fight antisemitism" — and going along with the farce that that is indeed what he's trying to do — have made matters worse
"So Columbia has been compelled to fire researchers pursuing important scientific projects; is still facing a Trump attempt to secure federal oversight of the university; and may well be confronting a new wave of high-profile efforts to deport international students involved in Wednesday’s protest. Such is the prize for winning the game of continuing to pretend that the Trump administration is truly trying to improve the campus environment for Jews."
May 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
The past isn't even the past.
Lena Dunham on why she left New York. Some hot 20 somethings on why they moved to one neighborhood in New York.
May 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
emilyctamkin.bsky.social
Or, to quote myself:
Passage from my book about the searching that comes from living in “diaspora”
May 1, 2025 at 4:36 PM