“Amidst The Wreckage of Neoconservatism” (1 of 4)

Posted on by under activism, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Ukraine, War with Iran

I recently attended a webinar, “Amidst the Wreckage of Neoconservatism: Jewish Progressives and the American National Interest,” organized by The Forum for Critical Jewish Thought (FCJT). The speakers were Suzanne Schneider, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research; Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Adviser under President Obama; and Eliyahu Stern, Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at Yale. (The discussion was moderated by Ezra Tzfadya.)

I enjoyed the conversation, and agreed with a great deal of what Schneider and Rhodes had to say, but in what follows, I want to lay out some criticisms of all three speakers’ presentations. I’ll devote one post to each speaker, starting with Schneider, and end by describing a problematic common to all three.

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Question Time for Nassau Hall

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Princeton University

After two delays due to work conflicts, I’ve finally decided to take time off from work to attend the November 9 meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) this Monday. The gist of my question: The University refuses to disclose the nature of its investments in military matters, and claims the prerogative to refuse to disclose unless nearly impossible conditions are met. Meanwhile, it asks alumni to “stand up” for it against attacks by the Trump Administration. It seems an illegitimate demand. How can the University ask us to “stand up” for it when it refuses to disclose what it stands for?

Standing up for disclosure, dissociation, and divestment, New York Marriott Marquis, April 16, 2026 (photo: Rabbi Gil Steinlauf)

West Orange: The Triumph of the Undeserving

Posted on by under character based voting, Electoral Ethics and Politics, MTSP Discussion: George Sher's Desert, West Orange

Leave it to West Orange to have elected two of the least deserving candidates for office, Justin Goldsman for Council and Joyce Rudin for Mayor, in one of the filthiest, most debased, and most incompetently reported election campaigns in recent memory. Congratulations, I guess. Well deserved.

St Cloud School, West Orange

I Told You, West Orange, You Fucking Fools

Posted on by under Electoral Ethics and Politics, Fatwas, West Orange

About a month ago, I invited the candidates up for election in West Orange to denounce the bigotry of one of their colleagues, Justin Goldsman (see here and here). Not one of them did. A few months before that, I had a conversation with West Orange Councilman Joe Krakoviak about the Mt Laurel inclusionary housing doctrine. The conversation touched on the prevalence of racism in the housing market. Krakoviak told me with great confidence that racism was a thing of the past.

Now, West Orange is in the midst of a sordid but utterly predictable scandal: both of the African American candidates in the election have been on the receiving end of racist comments designed to drive them, by intimidation, from the electoral field. Now, everybody is convinced that racism is a problem. And of course now everybody is doing their best to out-do their rivals in voicing their supposed abhorrence for racism, and their abhorrence of the failure to take a stand against it. But where were they a month ago?

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Is Being Right Enough?

Posted on by under Guest Post

The following guest post, a contribution to Buddhist philosophy, is by Huideng Chanyu.

Truth, Benefit and the Timing of Speech in Majjhima Nikaya 58
By Huideng Chanyu (慧灯禅语)

A correction can be accurate and still be an act of humiliation. A reassurance can be welcome and still leave someone dangerously mistaken. Neither observation tells us exactly when to speak. Together, however, they suggest that truth and a listener’s reaction are different considerations. The Abhaya discourse, Majjhima Nikaya 58, makes their relationship a subject of explicit examination. Its answer raises a further difficulty: who is entitled to decide that unwelcome words are beneficial?

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Open Borders and the Problem of Evil

Posted on by under migrant defense

It’s now become a kind of axiom in American politics that “open borders” are an absurd idea. Even Analilia Mejia, the left-most candidate among New Jersey’s Democrats, is quick to disavow the idea. “How do you have a country without borders?” she asks. Since you can’t, we can’t have open borders. Open borders means no country; no country means chaos. We can’t have chaos, so we must disavow open borders.

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Whose Streets?

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, princeton

Permits, Nazis, and the Reclamation of Public Space

A pointed question came up during Public Comments at Princeton Municipal Council a few weeks ago, namely: “Why was a neo-Nazi group ‘allowed’ to march in Princeton despite lacking a permit?” As I’ve suggested here before, this is the wrong question to ask. It also diverts attention away from a series of questions that badly need asking.

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