Jeremy Menchik

If we have any hope of restoring democracy, we need to disestablish “democracy promotion.” This government project has been thoroughly corrupted by the Iraq war, 4 decades of failure, and a poverty of imagination. This stale essay could have been written 40 years ago. It was unpersuasive then, too.

Clash of Civilizations was absolute rubbish. The Huntington book that really anticipated the present moment was Who Are We, an anti-immigrant anti-Latino xenophobic screed that’s a blueprint for Trump’s assault on American society and ICE atrocities.

Cover Page Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff Shadow Report MA Antisemitism Commission

BREAKING: Shadow Report from @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social detailing how the #MA Antisemitism Commission is inviting an ADL/MAGA crackdown on civil rights and civil liberties. @marisakabas.bsky.social

www.concernedjewishfaculty.org/commission-s...

Just a note to say that the Journal of East Asian Studies @jeas-journal.bsky.social is now an open-access journal. Free to publish, free to read, for every author and every reader in the world. Thanks to @universitypress.cambridge.org for their support. Click here and have a look:

Does academic freedom exist in Jewish studies? 🤔

Word.

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

We are overdue for new democratic leadership. Move aside, please!

2 0 2 5 Updates Key Races N.Y.C. Mayor Va. Gov. County Margin Shift from 2024 pres. T Votes Loudoun Spanberger +29 * 12 pts. 164,366 Prince William Spanberger +34 × 16 pts. 161,419 Portsmouth Spanberger +47 * 8.1 pts. 29,956 Washington Earle-Sears +49 * 4.5 pts. 20,927 Louisa Earle-Sears +20 * 6.5 pts. 18,719 Orange Earle-Sears +15 * 9.3 pts. 17,127 Powhatan Earle-Sears +40 * 4.4 pts. 16,957 Pulaski Earle-Sears +38 * 7.1 pts. 12,466 Dinwiddie Earle-Sears +17 ~ 6.3 pts. 11,974 Harrisonburg Spanberger +41 × 15 pts. 11,753 Manassas Spanberger +30 * 16 pts. 11,514 Carroll Earle-Sears +57 ~ 6.1 pts. 11,277 Wise Earle-Sears +59 ~ 4.6 pts. 10,962 Fairfax City Spanberger +45 * 11 pts. 10,232 Fredericksburg Spanberger +43 * 11 pts. 10,191 Salem Earle-Sears +12 6.9 pts. 9,374 King William Earle-Sears +34 * 7.1 pts. 8,999 Russell Earle-Sears +63 * 4.9 pts. 8,860

Every single county in Virginia shifted Blue.

Social movement scholars need more studies like this on the origins, evolution, and changing tactics of the global right wing. Far too much research of our focuses on the left.

save that date. what a line-up!

@peterbeinart.bsky.social @dovekent.bsky.social @fadiqu.bsky.social @menchik.bsky.social

On September 8, CJFS members testified to the MA Special Commission on how to combat antisemitism without enabling the Trump administration's attacks on free speech and education.

See our testimony here: www.concernedjewishfaculty.org/video-testim...

Jeremy Menchik @menchik.bsky.social Boston University: "By over relying on data that is widely known to be unreliable and systematically biased, the Special Commission’s work thus far has misrepresented the character and severity of antisemitism in MA." static.wixstatic.com/media/d9078d...

State Department slashes its annual reports on human rights Required by Congress, the reports no longer single out things like rigged elections or sexual violence against children as human rights violations.

This story is a remarkable read. The State Department released its long-awaited reports on international human rights Tuesday, and they drastically reduce the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Trump deems worthy of criticism. www.npr.org/2025/08/12/n...

Gaza and the End of History - Boston Review The apocalyptic scale of death and destruction lays bare the contradictions at the heart of the liberal international order.

Some heartbreaking details about and cogent analysis of what is happening in Gaza.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/gaz...

Research Fellowships 2026 at University of Cambridge Discover Research Fellowships 2026 jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

Research Fellowships at Cambridge for the 2026 academic year, including in the areas of religion and theology.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA365/r...

Something has changed in public discussions of the genocide in Gaza. But it is not enough, it is not a ceasefire, and it is certainly not justice. Keep reading and keep speaking out. www.btselem.org/sites/defaul...

B'tselem, today:
"[T]he unequivocal conclusion [is] that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

www.btselem.org/publications...

Diet food store sign on top of a giant chili dog sign that says “EATS”

Senate Democrats urge U.S. to stop funding GHF, resume support for U.N. food distribution in Gaza as more starve Senate Democrats told the secretary of state they have "grave concerns" about the U.S. role in financing GHF, the main group distributing aid in Gaza.

Anthony Aguliar, US Army veteran & former contractor for GHF:
"In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population."

End this abomination!

www.cbsnews.com/news/gaza-st...

Anna Grzymala-Busse Receives the 2025 Heinz I. Eulau Award for American Political Science Review for “Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation Anna” The Heinz I. Eulau Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best article published in the APSA journal American Political Science Review Citation from the Award Committee: Anna Grzymala-Busse’s “Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation” challenges paradigmatic understandings of state development, according to which centralizing European states overcame fragmentation in the early modern era by consolidating strong states through warfare.

Anna Grzymala-Busse Receives the 2025 Heinz I. Eulau Award for American Political Science Review for “Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation Anna”

The Heinz I. Eulau Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to…

ADL is smearing the National Education Association.

Why?

Because NEA approved a proposal to not "use, endorse, or publicize materials" from the ADL or "participate in ADL programs."

Bravo NEA. In March, 3,400 Jewish higher ed workers made a similar plea to university leaders.

lnkd.in/ew8gvp4g

An unqualified president who came to power through not quite democratic means launched an illegal war supported by an zealous coalition of evangelicals, neoconservatives, and right wing Zionists based on false promises and doctored intelligence rather than strategy or an endgame. 2003 never ended.

We now have the foreign policy of a personalist dictatorship. @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

The Gaza Starvation Experiment | International Crisis Group Israel’s new U.S.-backed aid scheme in Gaza integrates food into military strategy. Since the war began, Israel has restricted aid, easing up when famine alerts appeared, tightening as attention faded...

www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

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Is antisemitism really at an all-time high? Prof. Jeremy Menchik (@menchik.bsky.social, Boston University) exposes the flaws in the ADL’s latest audit, from inflated numbers to unreliable data.

Steve Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die

"the U.S. is sliding toward a more 21st-century model of autocracy: competitive authoritarianism"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"A failure to resist... could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment"
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Poster for the Conference on the Jewish Left, featuring a field of poppies

I’m so excited for the 2nd Annual Conference on the Jewish Left! Last year’s event was amazing (and filled up fast). Register here for online or in-person: www.bu.edu/cura/recent-...

Founded in 2024, Boston University’s annual “Conference on the Jewish Left” gathers together the scholars, students, and global partners of the Jewish left. Register now and join us online or in person February 28: www.bu.edu/cura/recent-...