the letters of recommendation i will be writing……

Massive faculty walkout at Columbia University opposing the university’s decision to call in NYPD on Palestine solidarity protests:

beginning my favorite holiday at a seder led by our brave, moral, brilliant students at the encampment

“We do not say, ‘Let our people go.’ We say, ‘We have already gone. And your kids? They’re with us now.’” -Naomi Klein at the Jewish Voice for Peace NYC seder last night

wrote a sort of drash about Passover, Columbia, and what the student activists understand about escalation and liberation. up at The Baffler, with photos by HLFR thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

"The youth are no longer asking. They are demanding. They are putting their own bodies on the line; they are walking into the water." A gorgeous & forceful exploration of Exodus & the campus protests from Hannah Gold my former student & forever teacher thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

This extraordinary piece by Hannah Gold, who teaches at Columbia and is also an alumna, details some of her experience at the encampment, notably at a Seder on the first night of Passover where students made 'zine Haggadah and it's so beautiful and deep I am weeping. Please read

I'm ugly sobbing my eyes out. This isn't a quick read, but if you're going to read anything today make it this.

Across the U.S., university students have created a sustained spectacle in support of Palestine. They do so at a scale previously unimaginable—a testament to just how many Americans now disapprove of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

This is a brilliant essay by ⁦Hannah Gold⁩ that incorporates Jewish textual exegesis with sharp political analysis of the encampment at Columbia. Another powerful example of Jews showing up as Jews in solidarity with Palestinians. thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

Please read Hannah Gold's essay in the Baffler, "Parting Waters: Passover at the Columbia encampment" thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

“The youth are no longer asking. They are demanding. They are putting their own bodies on the line; they are walking into the water.” Parting Waters: Passover at the Columbia Encampment by Hannah Gold for the Baffler thebaffler.com/latest/parting…

Just going to leave this here.

"But did my students, I worried, understand that these lessons weren’t taught for the sake of memorizing history, or even for the purpose of honoring elders, but to give them skill sets and playbooks that could be acted upon for their own pressing causes?" Beautiful essay.

I think this attentive report/liberation exegesis by Hannah Gold will be a definitive text from this awful period (which feels especially awful and hopeless today)

written twenty years ago: "oh rafah. aching rafah. children of rafah exploded. children of rafah deafened: deafened to tank wheels. deafened to explosions gunshot music shocking claps drones." --from Rachel Corrie's journal electronicintifada.net/content/oh-raf…

Columbia University’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” has been re-erected, just in time for Alumni Weekend:

come honor kathy this thursday 🖤

BREAKING: University President Minouche Shafik resigned from her post on Wednesday, Shafik wrote in an email to the Columbia community. The announcement marks the end of a tumultuous year in the position. columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/08/1…

“We are a gentle, angry people and we are singing for our lives. We are mourning our loved ones, and we are signing for their lives” Governor Kathy Hochul - your inaction is our loved ones. #EndOverdoseNY