Kapos were Jews who served as lackeys of the Nazis and their role in the Holocaust has remained an open wound in Jewish memory. Regrettably, it has since been used to smear fellow Jews as traitors/betrayers of the worse kind. Right-wingers have used it to vilify and silence liberal Zionists who support peace and a two state agreement. read more

It may be the most beloved song in the entire Jewish tradition, Dayenu. It is, as Gavriel Rosenfeld points out in his introduction to What Ifs of Jewish History: From Abraham to Zionism (Cambridge University Press, 2016), edited by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Judaism’s first foray into counterfactual history, the exploration of how alternative pasts might lead to alternative presents and different futures. Rosenfeld is a reigning expert of counterfactual history, especially the enormous subfield of Nazi counterfactuals. (His recent book, Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture,   has to be the funniest title for any historical monograph in recent history.) read more

What would be worse? Allowing Trump to become president, and then watching him violate the rules, principles, and foundations of America’s democracy, or trying, democratically if possible, but extra-democratically if necessary, to prevent him from becoming president? I’m not sure how I would answer, but I never thought that I would ever be seriously asking this question. What a tragic day for America.

Here’s the situation: The Electoral College, or rather 51 mini-electoral colleges, in each state and the District of Columbia, will be meeting next Monday. They will almost certainly elect Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. Once the electors meet, and the House of Representatives ratify the result, legally, the only way to remove Trump will be by impeachment, finding him guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” read more

The paradox: Can a legitimately elected president be illegitimate? As Ian Millhiser has written, “to declare him illegitimate is to shake the foundations of the American system, to fail to do so is to risk leveling those foundations to the ground.” Both are terrible choices. He is legitimate because, under the rules (and they are of course remarkably stupid rules) governing the election of a president, he won the election. He is illegitimate because it seems clear that he does not feel bound by the rules, written or unwritten; regulations; customary practices and the like that have governed the presidency. Beyond the groups that he has announced he will target, especially undocumented residents and Muslims, the rights of everyone is at risk. He will make the press a frequent target of his attack, and he will ruthlessly attack critics—never has the term “bully pulpit” been more appropriate, and he will use every tactic and gambit available to maintain his power, and vaingloriously magnify himself, a Caligulan presidency. read more