Margaret Litvin

Tweet from the ADL: "Today is #Purim — a holiday when we celebrate the thwarted plot to annihilate the Jewish people of Persia, modern-day Iran, and the courage of those who stood up against hatred. This year, the Purim story feels closer than ever. The former Iranian regime's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — a man who openly and obsessively called for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel and the death of Jews worldwide — is a stark reminder of how the themes of this holiday echo into the present day. In Judaism, we are taught to cultivate joy even in the darkest of times. Joy and grief coexist, and we hold space for both. So, as we rejoice this Purim, we recognize the dangers and uncertainties of this moment. We are praying for the safety of American service members in harm's way, Israeli civilians and soldiers, our partners and friends in the Gulf and all others in the region who have already been targeted."

We need to separate Jews from the gov of Israel in critiquing this war with Iran. By saying that fighting Ayatollah Khamenei is fighting Haman, linking the war to Purim, the ADL is actively effacing that difference. Not only are they not effectively fighting antisemitism; they're making it worse.

Today!

Beyond Zionism: After Gaza, the American Jewish left rethinks Jewish identity A Boston Conference Last Week Highlighted American Jews' Internal Divisions Over Israel Since October 7 and the Gaza War, but Also Their Intensified Commitment, and Even Hope. 'People Are Hungry – Des...

People are hungry – desperate, even – for a place to be Jewish' outside of Zionism.

@haaretzcom.bsky.social @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social

Beyond Zionism: After Gaza, the American Jewish left rethinks Jewish identity A Boston Conference Last Week Highlighted American Jews' Internal Divisions Over Israel Since October 7 and the Gaza War, but Also Their Intensified Commitment, and Even Hope. 'People Are Hungry – Des...

So proud to work with @menchik.bsky.social and my other visionary colleagues at @bostonu.bsky.social: www.haaretz.com/jewish/2026-...

Thank you @jewishcurrents.bsky.social, you're the best! And I'm very excited to meet @arielleangel.bsky.social and @peterbeinart.bsky.social at The Jewish Left www.bu.edu/cura/recent-... this Thursday.

Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist The secret life of a Palestinian Communist activist during the leadup to World War II.In the public eye, Najati Sidqi was known as a journalist and writer, a...

Juicy details of Sidqi's life in 1910s Jerusalem, 1920s Moscow, and the Spanish Civil War (plus lots of contextualizing info and new research on the family) at a 30% discount using the code UTXSIDQI: utpress.utexas.edu/9781477333228/

Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist Najati Sidqi’s reminiscences, which chronicle the upheavals of the early 20th century, resonate with shocking familiarity today.

Unpaywalled! Read an excerpt here: jewishcurrents.org/memoirs-of-a...

Member Session: Margaret Litvin and Joel Beinin on Najati Sidqi’s… Join Jewish Currents on Friday, February 20th, at 1 pm ET for a virtual conversation about the Palestinian activist and intellectual Najati Sidqi, whose…

Excited to join Joel Beinin on Feb 20 to talk Najati Sidqi and the sad parallels between 2023-24 and 1929-30. (Including: both split the Left.) Jewish Currents has unpaywalled the excerpt; UTexas Press has a 30% discount on the book for attendees. Details below. jewishcurrents.org/event/member...

Conference on the Jewish Left, Feb. 12, 2026 at Boston University http://www.bit.ly/jewishleft

In 7 days . . . @arielleangel.bsky.social @peterbeinart.bsky.social @fadiqu.bsky.social @dovekent.bsky.social @academicsforpeace.bsky.social @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social @splcenter.org @jfrejnyc.bsky.social @ifnotnowmovement.org @rabbis4ceasefire.bsky.social

Register: www.bit.ly/jewishleft

After a year of Trump's cynical exploitation of Jewish fear, this should all be obvious, if it wasn't before. Yet the local pushers of IHRA and anonymous denunciation hotlines aren't stopping. Insta reel below; if you prefer to read, here's the essay again: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

About the project to translate Gazan author Heba Al-Madhoun's surviving poetry manuscript; some backstory and a glimpse at the emerging work.

www.naamagoldstein.com/post/green-b...

#Gaza #Palestine #Palestinianwriters #Literature #Poetry #Writers #Writingcommunity #Translation

These experiences have convinced me that policing “antisemitic” speech about Israel is not only unjust but deeply counterproductive: it breeds suspicion between well-meaning people, making it harder for us to unite when genuine neo-Nazism rears its head. You can’t stamp out antisemitism, fear of Palestinians, or any other prejudice; only slow heart-changing conversations can melt it away. So, to foster a campus climate of real inclusion, we need to convene and converse, not record and report. The details are tricky, but teachers and students can figure them out together. Our administrations and governments just have to give us the respect, job security and academic freedom to do so.

mic drop from the brilliant @margaretlitvin.bsky.social co-founder of @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social modeling how we lead with humanness. (no surprise from the humanities).

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

A Better Way to Approach Antisemitism on Campus (opinion) Policing speech about Israel is counterproductive.

Our co-founder @margaretlitvin.bsky.social on how to combat antisemitism by bringing students together rather than turning them on each other.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

A Better Way to Approach Antisemitism on Campus (opinion) Policing speech about Israel is counterproductive.

What every humanistic educator knows: you can't stamp out prejudice; you have to melt it. My report from the field.

Of course, this profoundly unserious Commission has helped.

A moment of pride amid the endless torrent of sludge coming at us: founded just this year, @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social has managed to articulate the Jewish community's deep and wide dismay at simplistic J=Zi conflation. This is not a one-sided story with an asterisk anymore.

“The Resolution states that “protections of Title VI apply to all individuals equally,”…and yet goes on to single out Jewish students for a special, disputed definition of their group membership (“shared ancestry”) and special protections.”

This kind of “protection” makes everyone less safe.

Psst... A quien le apetece leer las memorias de un señor palestino muy bien peinado que, entre otras cosas, luchó en el bando republicano? 👀 🙋🏻‍♀️

Ironically, my contribution to this uncontroversial seminar on antisemitism (watch and see) was *about* the need for thoughtful face-to-face discussion: "We need to convene and converse, not record and report." Not everyone got the point. Glad @bostonu.bsky.social and Mass @aaup.org chapters did.

On Nov. 22, Vahid Abedini, an Iranian Studies professor at University of Oklahoma, was boarding a flight to attend the Middle East Studies Assn mtg in Washington, D.C. when he was detained by ICE.

OU Prof Joshua Landis says "he has been wrongfully detained because he has a valid H-1B visa."

Because snarky leftist infighting is always in style!

Troubling to see members of the MA Special Commission on Combatting #Antisemitism unable even to abstain, let alone vote no, on a report some of whose provisions made several of them visibly and audibly uncomfortable. Troubling but not surprising, the way this process has gone.

Palestinians fought against fascism in Spain. Here’s their story Palestinians have a rich pedigree in anti-colonial struggles, just look at the Spanish Civil War and the life of Muhammad Najati Sidqi, says Vijay Prashad.

Palestinians have a rich pedigree in anti-colonial struggles, just look at the Spanish Civil War of 1936, and the life of Muhammad Najati Sidqi

Entre ellos destacaría Muhammad Najati Sidqi. Encarcelado y deportado en 1936, llegó con la misión de hacer propaganda antifascista entre los marroquíes en las tropas de Franco. También de alentar una sublevación nacionalista en el Rif. Ninguno de los planes saldría adelante.

‘The Arab “Left” Nationalist Movement’ by Mustafa Sadi (Najati Sidqi) from Communist International. Vol. 7 No. 13. December 1, 1930. Najati Sidqi was a young Palestinian when he spent three years, from 1925-8, at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, returning to Palestine to become the leading Arab voice in what …

‘The Arab “Left” Nationalist Movement’ by Mustafa Sadi (Najati Sidqi) from Communist International. Vol. 7 No. 13. December 1, 1930.

Najati Sidqi was a young Palestinian when he spent three years at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East...
revolutionsnewsstand.com/2025/02/15/t...

Lutka and Najati: Love and Communism in British Mandate Palestine Palestine’s post-Ottoman history is one of a native society who faced the challenge of absorbing Jewish migrant-settlers from Europe. Under British colonial patronage, these migrants built a separate ...

Apparently the communist intellectual Najati Sidqi was born 100 years ago exactly today.
I wrote about him and his wife, the rabblerouser Lutka Lorberbaum, a Polish Jew who studied Arabic to preach communism in the Palestinian countryside. ayinpress.org/lutka-and-na...

Palestinians fought against fascism in Spain. Here’s their story Palestinians have a rich pedigree in anti-colonial struggles, just look at the Spanish Civil War and the life of Muhammad Najati Sidqi, says Vijay Prashad.

Palestinians have a rich pedigree in anti-colonial struggles, just look at the Spanish Civil War and the life of Muhammad Najati Sidqi, writes Vijay Prashad ⬇

Surge in antisemitism investigations at US universities after October 7 attacks, data shows A report shared exclusively with the Guardian documents how a civil rights law has become a tool to impose ideological priorities on US schools

In a number of cases, anonymous single-paragraph complaints, with no supporting evidence provided, spurred full-scale Title VI investigations.

“Government civil rights enforcement is now being driven by the equivalent of a YouTube comment section.”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The AAUP and MESA continue their important work: