Todd L. Pittinsky, at The Blogs

Nov 26, 2024, 7:35 PM

This week the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes in Gaza. On the surface, this announcement projects an image of legal...

Mar 22, 2024, 10:01 AM

Queen Esther and the IDF

The Jewish holiday of Purim, starting Saturday evening, centers on the biblical Book of Esther. Set during the Persian Empire (modern-day Iran), the story recounts how King Ahasuerus marries the beautiful Esther unaware of her Jewish identity. Haman, a...

Feb 7, 2024, 3:18 AM

Mazi’s Moment

Journalists like to put people in their place—that is, in a particular category. She is a feminist icon; he is a far-right firebrand. Mostly, we tend to go along with that, but it’s exciting when someone just can’t be...

Dec 22, 2023, 7:39 PM

Palestine Will Never Be from the River to the Sea

When college students protest, they often do so with a naive conviction that they can make the world the way they think it should be by yelling at it. This can be an endearing—even admirable—rite of passage. But when...

Dec 13, 2023, 7:25 AM

Doug Emhoff’s Instructive Ignorance

Doug Emhoff, husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris—and one of the administration’s leads for combatting antisemitism—recently made a strange error in a social media post about Hanukkah. In a short post, Emhoff botched the Hanukkah story both historically...

Nov 21, 2023, 7:29 PM

The ADL’s Apathetic Allies

Many Jewish-Americans have had a nagging feeling since October 7 that many of the people and institutions we thought were steadfast allies are not speaking up against the explosion of Jew hate across our country. I feel that way. But...

Jun 20, 2023, 11:34 AM

Featured Post

Spread hummus, not hate

Israeli chefs haven’t stolen Palestinian cooking any more than Americans have stolen pizza from Italy

Oct 14, 2022, 8:04 PM

Fight antisemitism never mind who’s next

A New York Times editorial reasons that an increase in antisemitism is important to pay attention to because it “may be considered the canary in the coal mine for a range of minority groups”—groups including Blacks, Latinos, and gays....

About Me

Todd L. Pittinsky is a professor at Stony Brook University (SUNY). Prior, he was an Associate Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he also served as Research Director for the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. Todd was a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center (2020-2022) and a Faculty Fellow of Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College (2018–2020). He has published in leading academic journals and has authored or co-authored general audience pieces in outlets including The Atlantic, the Boston Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, The Jerusalem Post, New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times, Phi Delta Kappan, Science and The Wall Street Journal. Todd’s most recent book is “Leaders Who Lust: Power, Money, Sex, Success, Legitimacy, Legacy” (with B. Kellerman, Cambridge University Press).