Jeff Melnick
@melnickjeffrey1
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Recent: see link below for Manson book! Current: “Boston Sounds: Music in the City, the City in Music” ; UMass Boston American Studies; Anti-Zionist 🇵🇸
Boston, MA
Joined November 2016
Older kid just taught me to make "fuck" a contact in my phone so it stops autocorrecting me to "duck" when I text. I believe that children are the future.
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I’m asking this as a historian and not, you know, as a fan—but what was the last political assassination that was so roundly applauded by, you know, “the people”?.
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My neighbor is a Little Free Library and yes she is giving out books
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"There is a fairly high likelihood I will be fired today. I can't sit here and watch this anymore.". Chills.
Associate Dean for Graduate Education Elizabeth Dunn spoke at the faculty gathering.
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After my first full-time semester, my chair took me aside and said "you gave more As this semester than the rest of the department put together. What do you think that means?". And I looked right at him and said "I am apparently a much better teacher than the rest of you.".
I've never understood the logic of "you shouldn't give too many As in your class." . First, idk if grades should exist. But if we have them, it's my job to ensure everyone is set up to get an "A" because they understand the assignment and have the skills to complete it well.
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So this guy has clearly entered the pantheon of outlaw folk heroes, and as a cultural historian I just want to note that it is really up to the people to name him appropriately. It’s not like we can trust the tone policing media or political elite to do the job.
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Babies. With no heads. Should be. Everyone’s redline.
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From my daughter, in Free Derry today for the commemoration of Bloody Sunday: these words from the martyr Refaat Alareer
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Wait are Israeli Jews now gonna have intergenerational trauma because they *committed* a genocide?.
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Three months ago American college students were beaten, gassed and accused of antisemitism for protesting genocide. Today Israeli citizens rioted for the right to rape. It sometimes gives me the worst psychological vertigo.
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Jeff. Those "antisemitic thugs" include my Jewish daughter. You pernicious fuckwad.
The Jew-hatred is spreading to more left-wing campuses. Students at @MIT and @EmersonCollege are promoting their "solidarity" with the antisemitic thugs and bigots at @Columbia who have assaulted Jews, cheered Hamas, and called for Tel Aviv to be burned to the ground.
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My daughter just FaceTimed me on her walk home from the subway and some guy catcalled her on the street and without missing a beat she held up her phone to him and said “wanna talk to my Dad too?”.
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An active shooter alert, but the twist is that the school is the shooter.
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Got one of those precious "hey professor I was in your class 7 years ago and still think about how great it was" emails today and that blessed student has no idea how good his timing was.
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#1.Jewish dad picks his kid up after first day at Trinity Day School. Kid says to dad "I learned today that God is in three parts--the father, son, and holy ghost." Dad bends down to look child in the eye and says "Darling. There is only One God. And we don't believe in him.".
This is in my top three favorite Jewish jokes of all time.
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I don’t care what records he spun or movies he watched but I do want to know why Bernie freaked out Obama so much that he had to go ahead and ruin all of our lives for the foreseeable future.
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I know it's never just one guy's fault but seriously fuck Joe Biden.
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People. What is happening on US college campuses is an emergency. University leaders are trying to terrorize the very people--students--they are supposed to represent, support, nurture. I have literally not seen anything like this in my lifetime.
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This open letter from Jewish students just arrested at Brown made me actually cry. These are my Jews. So many of us. I'm so proud of them for standing up and sitting in.
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Amazing to see Colombia the country subtweeting Columbia the university.
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Are these students allowed to "feel" scared now? Or is that campus menu item offered only to Zionists who heard a chant?.
Two Columbia University students, both IOF soldiers, sprayed a chemical weapon on peaceful protesters. Skunk spray is used on Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation. It is known to cause nausea, abdominal pain, and vomiting. @Columbia must take action.
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VP of MIT grad union explaining that they are standing on a ladder because they have been banned from setting foot on campus
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God bless these neighbors who saw all the paint colors and chose this one
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I wrote a book about Charles Manson and I wrote a book about 9/11 but still nothing prepared me intellectually for how evil Eylon Levy is.
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I have commented lightly on the absurd propaganda about Jewish Zionist students feeling unsafe on US college campuses but want to make clear: pro-Palestine students and faculty are being punished regularly for their speech. Nobody else.
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I always feel like “Love you”—without the “I” in front—is the tell.
Happy birthday to the love of my life, @MichelleObama. You fill every room with warmth, wisdom, humor, and grace – and you look good doing it. I’m so lucky to be able to take on life's adventures with you. Love you!
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I don't want to unduly influence anybody's vote, but I live in Cambridge and my 22-year old daughter just reminded me that at least back when she used to trick-or-treat here Warren gave out full-size candy bars. So yeah.
NYT: Elizabeth Warren wants to return the wealth and power of America to the hands of the people, and yet she used to be paid for her labor.
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I've tried to keep my commentary on Our Brave Jewish Hero mocking b/c that's what he mostly deserves, but this is straight up racism and the kind of thing that has gotten Black men killed throughout US history. Shai Davidai needs to be stopped.
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This is getting a lot of traction so can I just, as a historian of American music, say that Mr. David doesn’t really know much about the history of country music.
On the "hick-libs." 🧵.Several years ago I was shocked when I heard that a Texas country singer whose music I really enjoyed was a Beto O'Rourke-supporter (Ryan Bingham). For the life of me, I couldn't understand how someone associated with rural West Texas could be on the left.
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Just want to get this straight; I’m supposed to be upset by Columbia students blocking Broadway but not by Israelis blocking humanitarian aid?.
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He turned out to be a horrible racist and serial sexual harassed who had been protected by colleague silence for years and I will say I gave him other reasons to dislike me.
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Ok I watched the Coates interview and once again my main reaction to seeing someone do such a good job of calmly stating the anti-Zionist case is: how do you stay so calm? . It is a tremendous gift and one I was not blessed with.
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From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Uh oh. Looks like my Jewish ass "must be condemned" for being antisemitic.
377-44-1: House passed a resolution that the "slogan, 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is antisemitic and its use must be condemned."
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I truly believe that genocide in Gaza and the US role in it is going to fundamentally reshape our culture. I give like half a fuck about political parties, I mean much more daily stuff: like would you let a family member who cheered the carnage babysit your toddler? Not me.
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#2 Two old Jews, walking on the boardwalk. Suddenly Morty collapses, flat on his back. Artie folds his windbreaker to make a pillow, places it under Morty's head, then loosens Morty's shoelaces and says, "Morty, are you comfortable?" . Morty looks up and says "I make a living.".
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Jew and historian who has actually published on antisemitism here. “Blood libel” has only recently become a colloquial term—and almost exclusively through its usage by Zionist propagandists, paid and unpaid.
Jew and history PhD here. Blood libel has become a colloquial term for when gentiles rush to accuse Jews of deliberately evil acts without proof. Antisemitism is when gentiles level criticism at Israel they do not at other countries. This is both.
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Gonna walk up by Columbia later and see if I can make Shai Davidai cry with my scarf and my sweatshirt. Back in the New York groove, baby!
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As a parent you don’t often get a chance to witness how your grown kids move thru the world and this was a true gift.
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A 🧵on math:. NY Times staff writer Jazmine Hughes got forced out of her job for signing a letter opposing Israel's genocide in Gaza. The Times' podcast guy Michael Barbaro broke their social media policy a few different ways yesterday--endorsing Shai Davidai---and crickets. .
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[I'm a scholar of Black-Jewish relations and finally have to say that I'm really uncomfortable with the whole minstrelized aspect of the whole "Notorious RBG" thing].
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I'm trying not to give him attention but the wild thing about Shai Davidai is how radically he is undoing the relationship between signifier and signified. He is sharing footage of campus and saying MY GOD LOOK. And then the camera cuts to one undergrad braiding another's hair.
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My partner grew up friends with a family whose four boys were named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Chester and remembering that fact gives me a little bit of a lift at least once a week.
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“My numbers are better in Israel than they are here”: in a nutshell, why I will not vote for this sick murderous fuck.
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Well, they forced Harvard's first Black President, Claudine Gay to resign. At least now I, a Jewish man, an alum of the grad school, and a long-time resident of Cambridge, can finally walk safely on campus again.
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I think this is my fourth time in this city and I’ll never stopped being moved by how the people of West Belfast insist on using their walls to remind us never to look away
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In addition to the usual teeth cleaning pain, my wonderful dental hygienist heard “Runaway Train” come on and said “oh I haven’t heard the Goo Goo Dolls in years” and it was like 5 excruciating minutes before I could sputter “Soul Asylum”.
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Harvard Dining Hall worker from Unite HERE outside Elizabeth Warren’s house tells us he’s Irish and teaches us some necessary lessons about colonialism
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I can't figure out how to say this w/o sounding judgmental--this is just how I'm living right now: I just can't find any pleasure right now in any of the highly orchestrated popular media events of the moment because the most highly orchestrated popular media event is a genocide.
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Just to try to cheer up academic twitter a bit: I was once up for a very good tenure track job, and the search committee liked my application materials so much that I was the *only* finalist. So the on campus interview was kinda pro forma and guess what: I didn’t get the job!.
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My daughter was a part of this. I can't imagine being prouder of her, ever.
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That baby dancing a little while she ate made me cry.
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A Brit, a Frenchman, and a Zionist walk into a bar. The Brit says "I'm tired and I'm thirsty I must have beer!" Then the Frenchman says "I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have wine." Finally, the Zionist approaches and says "I'm tired and I'm thirsty. I must have diabetes."
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I live 1.5 miles from Harvard and not too far from the med school. I'm thinking of starting a service where you contact me and tell me which ridiculous Harvard prof you are mad at and for a small fee I will find them and scream "Shame" at them like I am some rowdy back bencher.
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It just hit me that there is one guy we know for sure who said he could kill somebody on the streets of New York and get away with it.
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Today is one of those days when it hits me that I no longer fully understand English: I see “refugee camp bombed” or “bags of the remains of children” and I come to realize that the clarity I used to feel when reading has given way to bleary-eyed incomprehension.
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I've been working full-time in academia for more than 25 years and I've accrued virtually no wisdom to share, except this one very important thing: get it in writing.
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@pmgentry I recently said to an old college friend "Remember when we went to that Derrida talk senior year? My French was *really* not up to that." And my friend said "That was not in French.".
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Too many of us American Jews have been slow on the uptake that matters most—that this genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is a feature and not a bug of the fairytale politics we were raised inside of.
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So I'm not even gonna link to a story about it, but I just read in the local rag that Zionists have now raised over 200K for the non-Jewish Zionist who shot a Jewish anti-Zionist in Newton, MA a few days ago. Just so we remember who is playing on which team.
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@silkky_smooth Once had ID twins in a class and asked them the first day how to differentiate them and one said “it doesn’t matter”: horror movie shit.
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The "bring them home" chant at the DNC reminds me (again) that we really, really are not done with the captivity narrative--that crucial American form about a blameless sentimental hero abducted by a terrifying other. Wild that we are offering Israelis the starring role.
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I just don’t remember so many people being this fucking publicly bloodthirsty. We are in the midst of some great and terrifying decathexis.
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I don't know why it's so complicated to say what's right in front of us: Joe Biden is enthusiastically supporting the murder of Palestinians on a terrifying scale on purpose. Because he is a racist piece of shit.
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Uncle Shai keeping an eye on my kid and her oh so scary comrades
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Literally anyone who uses the word “pogrom” to describe what happened to Zionist football hooligans (there’s a phrase to haunt my nightmares) should not really ever be trusted about anything, anywhere, any time.
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Plenty of people (me!) have joked about Shai Davidai's hysterical antics. But for months he has been putting vulnerable students of color on his campus at great risk. It is beyond time for .@columbia to investigate his purposeful targeting of these students. .
unbelievably cruel. This professor at Columbia University is using his personal social media to bully my Palestinian friend who lost over 20 family members in Gaza. My friend spoke about his experiences growing up in a refugee camp. He is grieving & doesn’t deserve this.
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Zionist Jews applauding—or at best saying nothing—while our Jewish women elders are beaten by cops on the orders of college administrators is like Yiddish dictionary definition of a shonda.
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As this wicked, malignant, antihuman presidential race winds down it has become increasingly difficult to avoid calling out Islamophobia as a crucial organizing principle of the Harris/Walz campaign.
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He also reminded me that his then girlfriend was also in the class and loved it and reader, he married her.
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This just got very fucking personal.
BREAKING: The University suspended the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace on Friday following a Thursday walkout that drew hundreds of protesters to Low Steps. This is a developing story.
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All the stupid liberal fanfic about what Grandpa Joe is gonna do in his last month in office and turns out he’s gonna just keep on being number 1 fan of Bibi and the Butchers.
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@AlishaGrauso Elizabeth Warren gives out real candy bars (and not that "fun-size" bullshit) on Halloween. [This is actually true: I live in Cambridge and my 22-year old daughter recently reminded me of this fact].
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Dear Josh,. I am Jessie's dad and couldn't be more proud of her righteous activism and strong voice. Also: watch your fucking mouth when you talk to my daughter, okay?. Sincerely,.Jeff Melnick.
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@NathanKDay Like I always say, in our world, there are few limitless resources. A grades are.
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When the military of the Jewish State commits a massacre on Yom Kippur in the largest refugee camp in Gaza it becomes clear that we cannot pretend anymore to share a common moral language with these monsters at present. Or forever, really.
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Those MIT students turning Zionist pizza into political performance art is one of the great works of our time.
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This piece on the weaponization of "campus antisemitism"--by former director of Harvard Hillel--is astounding: . "Be boldly critical of Israel — not despite being Jewish, but because you are.".
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Hailing the ghosts of my ancestors to lay the darkest Yiddish curses on the Zionists who made this baby carry these cans, in this place.
A Palestinian girl carries cans to collect water as she walks by houses which were destroyed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Years ago I was on a search committee at Trinity College and we were puzzling over one letter of rec that seemed sort of lukewarm until my dear colleague Jerry Watts held it up and pointed at the signature line and said "She is British!".
American academics!. Is “I am pleased to warmly and enthusiastically recommend” still the right code for the strongest possible recommendation? Or did you lot come up with something even more bombastic while I wasn’t looking?.
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If you want to understand the cooked-up "campus antisemitism" crisis, it's really simple: the Zionist project simply cannot exist without regular infusions of "antisemitism"--real or imagined. It is literally the lifeblood of this political, cultural, and military formation.
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I honestly can’t start giving a shit about whether Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset or not unless we start asking whether John Fetterman is an Israeli asset.
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In Hebrew School I remember they taught us about the different levels of tzedakah. I just can't remember which kind of charity is the one where you stop feeding people because they disagree with you.
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Just remembered the one time I ever went to Midnight Mass--in high school, this cute Catholic girl invited me to join her. I kinda thought it was like a date? And then I got to the church to meet her, and like three other Jewish boys showed up as well. It was not a date.
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I get that Joe Biden is an Islamophobic piece of shit. I really do. But he's also been a canny political player for decades. So I'm left confused by why he's decided to end his career as a sick enabler of a genocidaires who cannot be bothered to hide their contempt for him.
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One interesting tell. The Zionists who attack me for "brainwashing" my (brilliant, 20something) daughter never seem to imagine that the teaching flow was in the other direction. My understanding of and politics around Palestine are very much the product of her guidance.
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Watching the joyous and loving celebration of Palestinians reuniting, returning home juxtaposed with Israelis whining that they were supposed to look more miserable is really a defining narrative of our historical moment.
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