In the shadow of the recent military confrontation between the United States and Iran, these are some of the people sentenced to death in Iran. They are very young, and this gives a sense of who took part in the January protests.
Anne Rethmann
@arethmann.bsky.social
Postdoc at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Theory and History of Human Rights, Political and Legal Theory
According to The Economist, Anthropic's Claude draws on Kant and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of its constitutional framework. I wonder how AI would change if it also incorporated Adorno's Negative Dialektik and Probleme der Moralphilosophie. Article: archive.md/zTzSJ
Mit Ernst Noltes Deutung, der Holocaust sei primär eine Reaktion auf sowjetische Verbrechen, begann der Historikerstreit. Für Habermas war diese Sicht revisionistisch. Im Gespräch erläutert der Historiker Dan Diner die Frontlinien des Streits. shorturl.at/mUvik
Dan Diner: „Habermas winkte wütend und zeigte an, dass es einen Skandal gebe“
Mit Ernst Noltes Deutung, der Holocaust sei primär eine Reaktion auf sowjetische Verbrechen, begann der Historikerstreit. Für Habermas war diese Sicht revisionistisch. Im Gespräch erläutert der Historiker Dan Diner die Frontlinien des Streits und die Präzedenzlosigkeit der Schoah.
shorturl.at
My dissertation, The Nonidentical of Human Rights: The Individual and the Concept of Dignity after 1945, has been shortlisted for the Körber Foundation Dissertation Prize. I am very grateful to the jury for this recognition. Further information: t.ly/HrR1E #DeutscherStudienpreis #HumanRights
Looking forward to presenting in Berlin next week. My paper explores how early postwar Jewish engagements with human rights complicate the opposition between universalism and particularism that continues to shape debates about human rights, memory, and the Holocaust. t.ly/pN7QC
ASSESSING THE STATE OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES IN THE MID-2020s
Symposium
barenboimsaid.de
My article "The Death Penalty and the Future of Law in Israel" has been published in "K. – Jews, Europe, the 21st Century" and is also available in French and Italian. Many thanks to the editors and translators. k-larevue.com/en/2026/04/1...
The Death Penalty and the Future of Law in Israel
On March 30, 2026, the Knesset passed the “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law.” Anne Rethmann, a researcher in the history and theory of human rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem…
k-larevue.com
Interesting detail: “The F-15E fighter jet was shot down in a region of Iran where there is significant opposition to the Iranian government. As a result, the airman may have been able to rely on locals for shelter and assistance.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/u...
U.S. Rescues Downed Air Force Officer Deep Inside Iran, Trump Says
nytimes.com
This is a really lovely insight into the indeed very famous Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. No hip party scene, but people from the neighborhood and volunteers who did an amazing job cleaning up the space. Video by unpacked.media
Photo by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, taken in Tel Aviv on Monday morning.
It is important that any discussion about how this war is unfolding includes these voices. Arash Azizi spoke with several Iranians about how they see the war and what they fear. t.ly/kYT8e
‘You Want to Leave Us Alone With Mojtaba?’
I’ve spoken with more than a dozen Iranians since the start of the war. Most are terrified, and some are losing faith in America.
t.ly
While we were sitting in the shelter in #Jerusalem last night, I was reading news from #Tehran. I don’t have an answer. But it is difficult to speak about this war without also thinking of the mostly very young Iranians whose lives are at stake.
Something nice for a change today: alongside this image, Paul Celan's voice in Jerusalem, 1969: www.dichterlesen.net/veranstaltun...
Blick in die Forschungswerkstatt: Im neuen Blogbeitrag habe ich umrissen, welche Erkenntnisse die Veröffentlichung der #NSDAP -Karteien in den National Archives für das #HASAG- Projekt mit sich bringt. Es geht um Parteimitglieder in der "Betriebsgemeinschaft", neue Daten und Fotos zu NS-Tätern. ⬇️
Millionen neue Puzzleteile: Die HASAG in den Karteien der NSDAP
Vor kurzem hat die US-Amerikanische National Archives and Records Administration eine vollständige digitale Kopie der mikroverfilmten NSDAP-Zentralkartei sowie -Ortsgruppenkartei veröffentlicht. Damit...
hasagpuzzle.hypotheses.org
Since the 1970s, Schohreh Baddii has campaigned for a free Iran. In 1992, her husband was murdered in Berlin by the mullah regime. In the video, she shares her—and many Iranians'—view on the current war. Full interview (in German): archive.md/1GoyD www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SMp...
Iranische Oppositionelle im Interview | Iran-Krieg, Diaspora, Berlin
YouTube video by Tagesspiegel
youtube.com
So the humanities, and philosophy in particular, are back—not on the sidelines, but as another battlefield. In this case, the battle can be won. It may take a few rounds, but Larijani isn't the first to try to enlist Kant in the service of an antihumanist philosophy. A great article. t.ly/QjBgU
Ruthless leader, brilliant philosopher: Ali Larijani, Iran's most powerful man
He Orchestrated Iran's Massacre of Protesters. He Is Also a Philosopher Who Has Written Books on Kant. The Writings of Ali Larijani, the Islamic Republic's Top Security Official, Reveal an Elusive and...
haaretz.com
In 2012, Jürgen Habermas delivered the first Martin Buber Memorial Lecture at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities: "A Philosophy of Dialogue." He died today at 96, one of the last representatives of a generation that sought to rethink Germany's intellectual life after 1945. t.ly/uwQBT
Wie immer klug, Ronya Othmann. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...
Luftanschläge im Iran-Krieg: Zu viele Tote Winkel
Ständig erreichen einen neue Nachrichten auf dem Handy, was seit den amerikanischen Luftangriffen auf Iran passiert. Der Blick der Welt konzentriert sich aber nur auf einen Bruchteil der betroffenen R...
faz.net
"Sein Begriff von Kultur und Geschichtsverständnis weist darauf hin, dass er der falsche Mann am falschen Platz ist. Um es gelinde zu sagen." (Jürgen Kaube über Wolfram Weimer am 27.04.2025, FAZ) www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bezir...
Kritik an Ausschluss von Buchhandlungspreis: „Wir würden gerne wissen, welche Erkenntnisse der Verfassungsschutz angeblich hat“
Kulturstaatsminister Wolfram Weimer hat den „Buchladen zur schwankenden Weltkugel“ in Prenzlauer Berg vom Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis ausgeschlossen. Die Buchbranche reagiert mit Unverständnis.
tagesspiegel.de
Alongside Reza Mosayebi's article that I posted two days ago, I would also recommend a very worthwhile piece by Resa Memarnia, which places the question of human rights at the center of the debate around the war in Iran and critically questions a rigid, formalistic reliance on international law.
Philosophie Magazin@philosophiemagazin.bsky.social · 5mo agoDer Angriff auf die Islamische Republik Iran stellt einen wichtigen Schritt zur Befreiung dessen Bürger dar, meint Resa Memarnia. Wer die Menschen ernst nimmt, müsse ihnen die Fähigkeit zutrauen, einen freien und demokratischen Staat aufzubauen. is.gd/Nd6gj6
1938 beginnt für Walter Grab das Exil. Jahrzehnte später wird er Professor für Deutsche Geschichte in Tel Aviv. Im #MON_Mag erzählt Shelly Kupferberg seine Geschichte. Beitrag zur Ausstellung #LiteraturHaltung, ab 20. Mai. @alfredlandecker.bsky.social
Walter Grab – Exil, Rückkehr und eine geistige Heimat
Flucht, Exil und Neubeginn: Walter Grabs Weg von Wien nach Palästina.
mon-mag.de
Bringing Human Rights Theory Back In: A highly recommendable interview with @r-mosayebi.bsky.social on the current war against the Iranian regime and on whether the allegations of breaches of international law by the U.S. and Israel are as legally unambiguous as many claim.
DIE ZEIT@zeit.de · 5mo agoFür den Philosophen Reza Mosayebi muss Irans Regime fallen. Um jeden Preis. Und dann? Er hofft auf Reza Pahlavi. Mit Sehnsucht nach Monarchie habe das nichts zu tun.
The sky over Jerusalem is beautifully blue this morning after a short night. News keeps arriving without pause: images of a destroyed building in Tel Aviv, an endless stream of commentary about what may come next. I do not know. And I cannot bring myself to say that this will inevitably end (1/2)
The relativization and marginalization of both the Holocaust and antisemitism are recurring phenomena across different countries and political milieus, in the past as well as today. Of course, Germany has its own history of subsuming distinct historical experiences under broader, (1/2) t.ly/fR4Lz
Poland’s Jewish museum director returns, 7 years after being pushed out by nationalist politics - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Dariusz Stola called his return to the Polin Museum "a victory of justice and rule of law."
t.ly
Germany has never lacked narratives about itself. One of the newest – shared by the domestic far right and by transnational activist milieus – is that Germany has become a country of censorship. Yet many of the same actors still seek institutional support. Everyone wants to be an underdog. (1/2)
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about this event on HaGalil (www.hagalil.com/2025/12/mich...). The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has published a short reel today showing the beginning of Michael Walzer's talk. A full recording is available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=urSB...
Interesting take, and a thought-provoking reflection by Len Gutkin in The Chronicle of Higher Education. www.chronicle.com/article/what...
Opinion | What’s Max Weber Doing in the Columbia Antisemitism Report?
The great sociologist knew that activism can be a threat to scholarship — and so can government.
chronicle.com