November 2, 2022

Like all issues of SAPIR, the cancellation issue sparked many thoughts and ideas. All the articles are incredibly valuable. But the one by Felicia Herman struck a chord in me as the CEO of a Jewish organization. The sad paradox is that the realities that Felicia describes (CEOs and communal professionals afraid of “saying the wrong thing”) doesn’t affect those on the extremes but those of us who try to “hold the center” and defy the dogmatism of both sides.

November 2, 2022

Reading Bret Stephens’ thoughtful piece on cancel culture, especially the passage about the victim-oppressor model which it utilizes, brings to mind one issue that was not addressed in SAPIR’s last volume about education. That is the drive to bring Ethnic Studies—specifically of the flavor known as Critical Ethnic Studies, which is built on this victim-oppressor model—into public school K-12 education.

November 2, 2022

I have enjoyed reading the articles in the Cancellation issue (as I have enjoyed all of the issues to date) with one caveat: while presenting accurately the problems with “wokeness” and “cancel culture,” I think the essays underplay or outright ignore that both, while at times overreaction, began as a necessary response to language and demeanor that were hateful, hurtful, and inconsiderate.