@arethmann.bsky.social
Postdoc at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Theory and History of Human Rights, Political and Legal Theory
And here is the link to the Haaretz article cited above: t.ly/f4tCI
10.02.2026 13:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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.
09.02.2026 10:10 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
“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."
30.01.2026 12:14 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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.
28.01.2026 20:06 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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.
13.01.2026 12:13 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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.
18.12.2025 14:49 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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.
15.12.2025 06:33 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
A small and quiet Chag Sameach while waiting for the rain to stop.
15.12.2025 12:45 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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...
both inside and outside Israel. Episodes like this are quickly instrumentalized to portray Israeli universities once again as a bastion of "leftist extremists," with all the political consequences such labeling entails. It is a shame. (3/3)
27.11.2025 06:42 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0(if it can even be called self-criticism rather than outright self-flagellation)—is on full display here. It illustrates the cult-like dynamics that have taken hold within the BDS movement. What worries me now is that the TAU administration will come under full attack from right-wing groups (2/3)
27.11.2025 06:42 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0It 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)
27.11.2025 06:42 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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
to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960 after a federal court order to desegregate. She also spoke about her teacher, Mrs. Henry, who supported her by teaching her alone for an entire year.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbaH... (2/2)
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)
15.11.2025 07:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
This is good news: The Max Planck Center for Democracy, Security and Human Rights is being established at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — joining the network of only 19 such Centers worldwide.
@maxplanck.de
“Did you stop to ask yourselves what change your decision has truly achieved?”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/w...
In his talk, Dan Diner exemplified much needed restraint—avoiding hasty analogies—through Camus’ unfinished Der erste Mensch. He saw it as a masterly reflection on the tension between moral universalism and particular belonging. A novel that teaches without prophesying.
www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...
Breaking the rule of law in the name of the rule of law.
Recommend this Haaretz podcast with Eran Shamir-Borer — for over 20 years in the IDF’s International Law Dept, now heads the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
