I will not accept a proposal to end the war that will end the war, and that's that.

I think about this every day now...and what it says about the state of the USA in 2024

If you wonder what it’s like when Cambridge makes you redundant, every email from HR begins “I am sorry that this automatic email must feel rather impersonal.”

Lucid dreaming and divination from a ~900-year-old Judaeo-Arabic manuscript: "This is the vision of Suwayd YHWDYN.... Suwayd is an old, sallow, slender man who comes to you in your dreams and answers whatever you ask. If you wish to perform this..." geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents/3…

You may lack the time, energy, and motivation to complete writing your already overdue article, but have you considered the fact that you’re getting paid zero dollars to write it?

Scribe beautifully positioned the layout of previs pages so he could start this page with ولا and pool of this cool parallelism across the five lines. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv…

This 8th-c. papyrus comes from a book of liturgical poetry by the 5th-c. Jewish poet, Joseph ben Nissan. It’s the only papyrus item in the Cairo Genizah, the only known papyrus book in Hebrew, and probably the oldest Hebrew codex in the world. And it's our new book (link in bio).

Students protested the killings in Gaza today. Counter-protesters waved flags, laughed, jeered. Other students easily walked around both groups. A group of us faculty watched for 2 hours. It was peaceful. Then DPSS attacked and dragged away at least 2 of our University of Michigan students. 1/2

A thrilling recent find: a copper box with 9 golden Fatimid dinars from ~11th century Egypt, found during rainwater pit excavation in Ponmala, Kerala. onmanorama.com/news/kerala/20… 👉

Ponmala is only 70km away from Fandarayna (Koyilandy), one of the bases of the Jewish trader Avraham ben Yiju Here's a letter to him from an associate in Aden, 1133 CE, reporting on purchases and deliveries to him in India, including Egyptian gold dinars geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents/5…

what's insane about this is that the democratic voters, activists, and majority of voters who want this aren't asking for her to create any new policy, they're asking her to follow existing law that prohibits sending weapons to countries that are committing war crimes

I recently joined the iBookBinding team to discuss bookmaking (and magic, printing, AI, palimpsests, and Qur'ans) in Genizah history and give them a sneak preview from my advance copy of 'The Illustrated Cairo Genizah' (link in bio). Recording here! youtube.com/watch?v=jxr-q7…

A brand new Palestinian owned cafe in Uptown had their front window smashed last night. No fundraising link for repairs has been shared, but please be ready to support Nabala. At the moment, owner is focused on getting window repaired so they can reopen ASAP.

A lot of people in the US don’t seem to know what Israel did to Palestinians before Oct 7. Here is a quick rundown.🧵

American teacher Amado Sison after being shot by Israeli forces as he protested illegal West Bank settlements: “If Israeli soldiers are willing to shoot a non-violent unarmed American citizen…imagine the level of violence they direct at Palestinians when no one is there…”

16 yr old girl. Shot in the head. Through a window

A bit after the fact, but here's the video of the panel on the 50th Anniversary of the Genizah Research Unit that SolomonBenJudah, Rebecca Jefferson, and I did for Assn JewishLibraries. I talked about printed(?!) books. Thanks to Haim Gottschalk for moderating. youtube.com/watch?v=oIlgeB…