Deleted my academia.edu account and you should too

Orly Noy doesn't mince words: "The urgent task now is to bring this holocaust to an end. But stopping it is only the first step. If Israeli society is ever to return to the fold of humanity, it must undergo a deep process of denazification."

The genocide grinds on. Israel is surrounding Gaza City, blowing up entire neighborhoods, blocking aid. 740,000 people are still in northern Gaza even as the conditions for life are deatroyed. Please help.

Please donate and share to help families being forcibly displaced from Gaza City chuffed.org/project/1494...

Please donate and share to help families being forcibly displaced from Gaza City chuffed.org/project/1494...

We have an open position for a pre-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ariane Sadjed's "Persian Jews – History, Community, Memory" team, looking at the Jewish communities of central Asia. See here for job profile and other details: applications must be in by October 1st. www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87...

Looking forward to giving this talk, on some of my latest work, at McGill later this month

If you do find your name, go here to file to get your money! www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

So excited about this new Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies role at the University of Minnesota! Come live in the Twin Cities and do cool work! ✨

In Arabic (and subsequently Persian and Urdu) نقد naqd connotes both cash and criticism. The connection lies in an earlier sense of the word: testing the authenticity of coins.

JOB POSTING Assistant Professor, Buddhist Studies Religious Studies Program, University of Minnesota Area, time period, and discipline are open and it's a great place to work!

Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...

A Thai word we should borrow into English is แซ่บ saep, meaning "tasty" or "deliciously spicy." It sounds like "zap!" and is really fun to say.

Please donate and share: Healing Hands Fund is sending a neonatologist to Gaza & raising money for baby supplies. They are a small grassroots organization of pediatricians and their colleagues who have expertise and experience getting crucial health supplies to Palestine. t.co/PD8lTbYccn

Please donate and share: Healing Hands Fund is sending a neonatologist to Gaza & raising money for baby supplies. They are a small grassroots organization of pediatricians and their colleagues who have expertise and experience getting crucial health supplies to Palestine. t.co/PD8lTbYccn

My NYT op-ed this morning I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

The Iranian Voices Missing From the “Regime Change” Debate Pro-war voices who insist the Iranian people would welcome a war that would spell the end of the Islamic Republic are deliberately ignoring the desires of actual Iranians. newrepublic.com/article/1970...

every single member of Congress should be pushing for Trump’s impeachment. and every single Democrat who isn’t calling for impeachment should be primaried

Bombing Iran is a terrible idea. It’s unlikely to work—and nothing could be more perilous to American democracy than going to war under Donald Trump, Robert Kagan writes.

Why everything Israelis think they know about Iran is wrong Lior Sternfeld, a historian of modern Iran, tells Orly Noy why Israel's fantasies of regime change ignore the reality inside the Islamic Republic — and risk repeating historic mistakes. www.972mag.com/why-everythi...

NO WAR ON IRAN

I cannot be hoodwinked by AI, NFTs, crypto, or any of these other stupid scams because I still remember how the Segway was supposed to change the world

"Some University of Minnesota faculty criticize hiring second-in-command without any public meetings. Unlike for past leaders, no public forums or interviews were held for the new provost. Some faculty worry about the lack of transparency and public trust." www.startribune.com/some-univers...

I don't think Jewish history is a moral teacher, nor do I think trauma is necessarily ennobling or enlightening. But I don't see how anyone can read this and not think about how, on certain holidays in the Russian Empire, mobs would march against Jews: www.france24.com/en/middle-ea...

When the Napalm Girl photo showed a child fleeing napalm in Vietnam, it fueled outrage and changed history. Today, the world watches Palestinian children burn on live stream as Israel’s final solution unfolds in Gaza, yet the west remains silent, inept, and indifferent.

I'm running a 5k to support mental health programs for Gazans. I'm almost at my goal so please donate or share getinvolved.unrwausa.org/fundraiser/6...

woah, thanks for sharing. this is amazing. it's even more powerful as a set. this link has the whole series: africa.si.edu/exhibits/sho...

Yinka Shonibare’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Australia), based on the famous 18th c print by Francisco Goya. Shonibare replaced the clothes w/ Indonesian batik fabric, which also became part of West African sartorial culture via colonial routes

There should be a vegan Jewish deli called Tofu va Vohu

Arabic idiom of the day: لا ناقتي في هذا ولا جملي "I have neither she-camel nor he-camel in this" = I have nothing to do with this

LRB printed my letter of correction, the day is saved

A poem for my daughter—just in time for her and her brother’s third birthday—from the June issue of the @newrepublic.com.

I am dangerously emboldened to announce I have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure

Maybe the first time emojis have appeared in print in the LRB? (3 April 2025)

"Check out this TikTok." No. I will never do that, I'm 43 years old.

We're in the running for a $1,000 prize this afternoon. From 4–5PM ET, the Education & Youth organization with the most unique donors will win. If you haven’t donated to MERIP yet, or can help spread the word, we’d be grateful. buff.ly/0gXHyve

BREAKING: Court orders Rumeysa Ozturk to be freed from ICE detention. The student was detained by the Trump admin six weeks ago for cowriting an op-ed urging Tufts to follow student resolutions to acknowledge genocide in Gaza & divest from companies tied to Israel. zeteo.com/p/breaking-t...

Action & Adventure 🤔

Persian word of the day: تندر tundar "thunder". The Arabic loanword رعد raʿd is more commonly used now, but tundar is an Indo-European word cognate with English thunder, tornado; German Donner, French tonnerre, etc. برق و تندر از تب و تاب درون آشیان جستند اندر بحر خون اقبال

Why Marxism has lost its appeal for Indian Muslims During the colonial era, Marx’s ideas left a deep impression on the community’s politics – and aesthetics. What has changed? scroll.in/article/1081...

Asked how the massacres of Jewish children could possibly be justified by “security,” he said that one day these children would grow up, remember what Germany had done to their parents, and seek revenge. Thus the “permanent security” of Germany demanded the elimination of this future threat. (3/5)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel will not withdraw from Gaza — even if there is another hostage deal, calling on Israelis to embrace “occupation.” “We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,'” Smotrich told Israel's Channel 12.

Reports say Israel now eyeing occupation of entire enclave, control of aid and possible expulsion of Palestinians.

“There’s no advice I can give them... In most cases, those patients die.” Horrific. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/w...

Duolingo is a waste of time www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...

From his résumé, Thomas from Tennessee looked perfect. A programmer for eight years—and he’d breezed through a coding test. In reality, Thomas is a North Korean IT worker, one of many deployed to work remotely for US companies in a global cybercrime op to bankroll the North Korean government.

Israel is dominated by a populist coalition, which coalesced around a vision of Jewish supremacy between the river and the sea. The US born Rabbi Meir Kahane laid the ground for this coalition. @joshualeifer.bsky.social piece on him is highly recommended. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...

The distress call "mayday!" has nothing to do with May. It's from French [venez] m'aider "[come] help me!" Sounds made up but it's true!

Started this and had to put it down right away because it was irremediably stupid. Reads like the script for a CSI episode about villainous Islamic Terrorists in like 2004. Is that why the French gave him so many awards?