My article "The Death Penalty and the Future of Law in Israel" has been published in "K. – Jews, Europe, the 21st Century" and is also available in French and Italian. Many thanks to the editors and translators. k-larevue.com/en/2026/04/1...

Interesting detail: “The F-15E fighter jet was shot down in a region of Iran where there is significant opposition to the Iranian government. As a result, the airman may have been able to rely on locals for shelter and assistance.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/u...

This is a really lovely insight into the indeed very famous Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. No hip party scene, but people from the neighborhood and volunteers who did an amazing job cleaning up the space. Video by unpacked.media

Photo by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, taken in Tel Aviv on Monday morning.

It is important that any discussion about how this war is unfolding includes these voices. Arash Azizi spoke with several Iranians about how they see the war and what they fear. t.ly/kYT8e

While we were sitting in the shelter in #Jerusalem last night, I was reading news from #Tehran. I don’t have an answer. But it is difficult to speak about this war without also thinking of the mostly very young Iranians whose lives are at stake.

Something nice for a change today: alongside this image, Paul Celan's voice in Jerusalem, 1969: www.dichterlesen.net/veranstaltun...

Blick in die Forschungswerkstatt: Im neuen Blogbeitrag habe ich umrissen, welche Erkenntnisse die Veröffentlichung der #NSDAP -Karteien in den National Archives für das #HASAG- Projekt mit sich bringt. Es geht um Parteimitglieder in der "Betriebsgemeinschaft", neue Daten und Fotos zu NS-Tätern. ⬇️

Since the 1970s, Schohreh Baddii has campaigned for a free Iran. In 1992, her husband was murdered in Berlin by the mullah regime. In the video, she shares her—and many Iranians'—view on the current war. Full interview (in German): archive.md/1GoyD www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SMp...

So the humanities, and philosophy in particular, are back—not on the sidelines, but as another battlefield. In this case, the battle can be won. It may take a few rounds, but Larijani isn't the first to try to enlist Kant in the service of an antihumanist philosophy. A great article. t.ly/QjBgU

In 2012, Jürgen Habermas delivered the first Martin Buber Memorial Lecture at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities: "A Philosophy of Dialogue." He died today at 96, one of the last representatives of a generation that sought to rethink Germany's intellectual life after 1945. t.ly/uwQBT

Wie immer klug, Ronya Othmann. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

Broad Jumper is still one of my favorite pictures for March 8. #InternationalWomensDay

"Sein Begriff von Kultur und Geschichtsverständnis weist darauf hin, dass er der falsche Mann am falschen Platz ist. Um es gelinde zu sagen." (Jürgen Kaube über Wolfram Weimer am 27.04.2025, FAZ) www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bezir...

Alongside Reza Mosayebi's article that I posted two days ago, I would also recommend a very worthwhile piece by Resa Memarnia, which places the question of human rights at the center of the debate around the war in Iran and critically questions a rigid, formalistic reliance on international law.

1938 beginnt für Walter Grab das Exil. Jahrzehnte später wird er Professor für Deutsche Geschichte in Tel Aviv. Im #MON_Mag erzählt Shelly Kupferberg seine Geschichte. Beitrag zur Ausstellung #LiteraturHaltung, ab 20. Mai. @alfredlandecker.bsky.social​

Bringing Human Rights Theory Back In: A highly recommendable interview with @r-mosayebi.bsky.social on the current war against the Iranian regime and on whether the allegations of breaches of international law by the U.S. and Israel are as legally unambiguous as many claim.

The sky over Jerusalem is beautifully blue this morning after a short night. News keeps arriving without pause: images of a destroyed building in Tel Aviv, an endless stream of commentary about what may come next. I do not know. And I cannot bring myself to say that this will inevitably end (1/2)

The relativization and marginalization of both the Holocaust and antisemitism are recurring phenomena across different countries and political milieus, in the past as well as today. Of course, Germany has its own history of subsuming distinct historical experiences under broader, (1/2) t.ly/fR4Lz

#Iran www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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For those who are on Mount Scopus once in a while.

Germany has never lacked narratives about itself. One of the newest – shared by the domestic far right and by transnational activist milieus – is that Germany has become a country of censorship. Yet many of the same actors still seek institutional support. Everyone wants to be an underdog. (1/2)

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about this event on HaGalil (www.hagalil.com/2025/12/mich...). The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has published a short reel today showing the beginning of Michael Walzer's talk. A full recording is available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=urSB...

Interesting take, and a thought-provoking reflection by Len Gutkin in The Chronicle of Higher Education. www.chronicle.com/article/what...

Eine lesenswerte Intervention von @ronyaothmann.bsky.social, die der allzu euphorischen Begeisterung für die Damaskus-Buchmesse widerspricht. Sie kritisiert v.a. die romantisierende, orientalisierende Perspektive, mit der manche im Westen auf die Region blicken. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

The mobilization by the European Iranian diaspora in #Munich was genuinely impressive. It should not be interpreted as the glorification of one individual, nor as an attempt to restore a Shah-style monarchy, but rather as an effort to build effective forces both inside and outside #Iran. (1/2)

The nuclear program is secondary. “‘We are already in a war with our own government—there has been so much death,’ he said. ‘These people will take the hand of anyone offering to pull them from drowning. Literally anyone.’”

I've never thought about it this way, but even the cultural boycott seems to have had an unintended positive effect: as a recent Haaretz article noted, it pushed the Israel Museum to open up its storerooms. The result looks pretty amazing. www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitio...

A highly readable portrait of Yair Golan, one of the leading voices in Israel’s opposition to the current government.

“Whatever the final number proves to be, it may have carried out one of the worst state-sanctioned massacres of unarmed civilians anywhere in nearly a half century in order to survive.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...

What kind of deal can follow after a regime has killed up to 30,000 of its own civilians within just two days and continues to hold more than 40,000 people in prison, many of them facing execution? 😔 #Iran

An Arte report traces Iran’s renewed uprising since late 2025. Protesters speak of fear, repression of unprecedented brutality, and the hope that drove them into the streets. It ends with their gaze toward the sky—waiting for international support. www.arte.tv/de/videos/12...

I'm grateful to be included in this German-language edited volume, "Contested History: Interventions against the Reinterpretation of October 7," edited by Klaus Bittermann and Christoph Hesse, published by Edition Tiamat. My contribution is titled "In the Name of Morality. Academic Boycott Calls."

Grateful to contribute a short guest piece to the Wiener Library for the Study of the Nazi Era and the Holocaust (TAU) on Franz R. Bienenfeld's "The Religion of the Non-Religious Jews": from humanistic conviction to law, institutions, and Zionism after the Shoah. en-cenlib.tau.ac.il/wiener/archi...

At the Hebrew U, as elsewhere across the country, banners calling to bring the hostages home were taken down after the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, were brought back to Israel. More than two years had passed. The cats are still there, walking through the hallways alongside the students.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, haGalil has published a slightly expanded version of my recent talk at the Wannsee Conference Memorial @wannseekonferenz.bsky.social, in both German and English. www.hagalil.com/2026/01/erin...

Ulrich Gutmair berichtet in der heutigen taz über die Veranstaltung "Erinnern als Staatsräson?" am 20. Januar an der Gedenkstätte @wannseekonferenz.bsky.social, bei der neben Jacob Eder, Ronen Steinke, Mascha Wilke und Christian Heldt auch ich gesprochen habe. taz.de/Achtung-Staa...

This coming Tuesday, an event marking the 84th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference will take place at the @wannseekonferenz.bsky.social. Simultaneous German–English translation will be provided. It would be lovely to see some of you there. #HausderWannseeKonferenz #Erinnerungskultur #Staatsräson

Seeing the shocking death toll in Iran, I understand why people in the diaspora call on Trump to intervene—despite the fears this entails. It echoes recent months in Israel: calling on a president who undermines democracy in his own country for help. The world is what it is.

Hillel Cohen's Army of Shadows will appear in German translation in spring 2026. It is a thought-provoking book. For readers seeking a concise entry into Cohen's argument, an interview with him from November 2024 is particularly illuminating and timely: blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-fantasy-...

Vielen Dank an @wannseekonferenz.bsky.social für die Einladung zur Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung zum Jahrestag der Wannsee-Konferenz. Ich freue mich auf das Gespräch mit den anderen Teilnehmenden und dem Publikum unter anderem über Staatsräson – einen der derzeit wohl umstrittensten Begriffe.

Theater als Recherchekunst, Therapie, Mittel zum Comic Relief – es gehört in Israel (wieder) zum Alltag und sucht den internationalen Austausch, den Europa leider gerade meidet. Am härtesten treffen die Boykotte regierungskritische Künstler*innen.

A small and quiet Chag Sameach while waiting for the rain to stop.

I read a nice interview with Volker Weidermann about his new book on Mascha Kaléko's difficult return to Germany in the 1950s. It led me back to her poems, and it brought to mind this one, which feels perfectly attuned to this moment in my day. www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/masch...

Yesterday, Michael Walzer spoke at the Van Leer Institute for his 90th birthday. Among the well-wishers was @faniaoz-salzberger.bsky.social. He remains an important American voice—and someone who will not apologize for speaking in Jerusalem. I wrote a note about it. www.hagalil.com/2025/12/mich...

It is almost painful to read Peter Beinart's public statement on X in which he apologizes for having given a talk at Tel Aviv University. The degree to which one can submit oneself to humiliation—what a friend aptly described as a Stalinist-style exercise in self-criticism (1/3)

All the luck to them! "In Jerusalem, there are people whose pub is their synagogue. They are familiar with it, they have been drinking there for 15 years." www.haaretz.com/life/2025-10...

Impressive collection of Israeliana at Harvard. But there is also truth in how the article ends: "'In the present atmosphere, the thought that material like this is also in the hands of a foreign university, which completely controls its exposure and use, is somewhat disturbing.'" t.ly/HrFnW

Sometimes all it takes is one person who refuses to join a boycott. Yesterday, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting posted part of a November 14, 1997 interview with Ruby Bridges, in which she recalled how white parents boycotted the school when she became the first Black child (1/2)