Jacob Ari Labendz (Lion Swan)

@labendz.bsky.social

3065 Followers 1786 Following

We published a new book: "Keeping Contact: Jewish Cultural Initiatives across Cold War Borders" (https://www.press.purdue.edu/9781626712645) Jewish, Czech & Cold-War hist: https://tinyurl.com/36zsaffc Jewish claymation: OyKay Torah: https://www.oykay.tv

Picture of a mustache mug (with a guard so one does not soak their mustache). It's fairly unique looking. Olive green with a swirled design that looks like a flour de li. Sorry. I cannot spell.
Graphic advertising a book signing by Yasmine Rana for her book, "Another Spring and Other Plays." It will take place on July 9 at 6:30 pm at Barnes & Noble in Paramus.
Connections by NYT: answer key. Green: Tightly Packed (+ four synonymous) Yellow: Computer Peripherals (+ four examples) Blue: Hazardous Elemental Metals (+ four examples) Purple: Starting with Bird Homophones Cranium, Croquette, Ductile, Hockey
Plate with a single fried egg.
Sign in doctors office: Due to a recent mandate by the State of New Jersey, all patients who are prescribed ADD/ADHD medications or opioid medications are required to be seen in person at least once every three (3) months. Please ensure you are scheduled appropriately to avoid any interruption in your prescriptions. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Sign with a hand with an outstretched pointer finger and the words “please feel free to touch the foot.”
Walkway along a fenced cemetery.
18th hole of a mini-golf course with a two-legged tower in the distance
Mug of beer with a huge head and communist-era apartments in the background.
Grave of the Baruch Tam, covered in notes. Some list names of ill people.
A small red statue of a dog with mirrored sunglasses and a mirror tie, standing on a stoop next to the word tattoo
Highly ornate grave of Bedřiška Reichnerová.
Camel cigarette box with a picture of a baby smoking a cigarette through a pacifier.
Brown paperback. Karel Kreibich, “Jak došlo v Německu k fašismu”
Picture of a brutalist building in the distance, shot through the window of a car.
Quote from the article: Bartov argues, accordingly, that "the focus on the functional reality of [Zionist] settlement in Palestine largely misses the ideological and emotional motivations of this [Zionist] movement, as well as the underlying self-perception of generations of Zionist activists and supporters." Within this narratives, the victims of Zionism—now in its genocidal phase—have erred by judging Zionism through their lived experience of its dispossession and violence; instead, they should have been sufficiently "attuned to the aspirations of Europe's Jewish refugees." This framing renders the Palestinian and Arab anti-colonial struggle—beginning with the Arab Revolt of 1936, or even earlier—a hostile act of aggression against Jewish settlers in Palestine, thereby creating a false equivalence between the colonized and the colonizer."
Full-page newspaper ad from the editors, offering a prize of 50 lbs for predicting how WWI will end. (“The Bystander” August 12, 1915), page 232.
Graphic in support of the ASHRU Fund. "I'm supporting survivors of sexual trafficking, violence and exploitation through the ASHRU Fund because this obligation must be met; because I was a Wexner Graduate Fellow; I trust the administrators." ASHRU Fund, Advocacy for Survivors for Healing. Repair and Understand. Join me! ASHRUFund.com. Ashru hamotz: "Advance the cause of those who are harmed." (Isaiah 1:17)
Article thumbnail from stopantisemitism the title of which is “ nurse fired for rant against Israelis in Times Square as Spider-Man tries to stop confrontation.” there is a picture of a pro Palestinian rally.
An article in Y-Net News: “Why waiting to buy [property, illustrated with a picture of Tel Aviv] could cost you more than acting now.”
High school students sitting around a table in a large hall, listening to a man with grey hair speak
Observations from Gaza: First-Hand Account of Genocide. Rasha Abousalem presents an account of her recent field experience in Gaza: the continuing genocide and on the ground community response. Suggested donation of $10 via Venmo to @Rasha_Event_March29 with comment “Sunday@ 3PM Sunday, March 29 Porter Square, Cambridge Address provided upon RSVP RSVP (QR Code) or https://tinyurl.com/2ujkeavb Bunch of logos.
Polymarket @Polymarket G.. BREAKING: Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety. 12:29 PM • Mar 6, 2026 • 668.8K Views
Hot pink JewBelong billboard, high in the light blue sky with wispy clouds. It reads, “You don’t have to be Jewish to protect Jews. You just have to be Christian.”
FB ad for “Oxytocin Calming Cream.”
Inside an arena at a show. The stage is covered by a black curtain that looks like a box. White letters shine through, “NIN”
Card for an article in Politico.eu. Graphic is black and white picks of Rubio, Macron, Starmer, and Schulz (sp… right?). It reads “America is not in a civil war with Europe, says US Senator — live updates.
ASEEES Colleagues! I'm trying to put together a panel that focuses on the intersections and tensions of symbolic biography and ideology in Cold-War Central Europe. I would present about a Bohemian-German communist who remained in Czechoslovakia after the war. His marriage to a Jewish woman, active in Jewish affairs, was positioned to symbolize the overcoming of racial animus under Communism. In the immediate postwar years, he expressed shock at the tacit embrace of Zionism in Jewish communal life (despite the communist transition). Yet he then fell from grace due to his opposition to the Slansky Trials, in which the state levied false and antisemitic accusations of Zionism against Jewish communists in a Stalinist purge. My colleague would present work on a Polish-Jewish communist and labor Zionist, who reached important heights before 1968, but then too found what had been a useful biography turned on its head with the anti-Zionist campaign of that year. We'd love a third. We're both men, so we highly encourage fem scholars to apply. Hit me up!
Meme of Dennis Prager with the quote, “When a nation gets antisemitic, it will self-destruct. I don’t know of any exception to that rule.”
Cover of a book: “Escape from the Holocaust” by Kenneth Roseman. The art is a rowboat filled with refugees in the water at night.
Silver Tesla shot from behind at night, showing NJ license plate, “B81 RAW”
Cover of "Lost Synagogues of Europe: Paintings and Histories" by Andrea Strongwater. It depicts a water-color painting of a synagogue interior in so-called "Moorish" style.
White pit bull in a pistachio sweater, lying in a rug.
White pit bull with a giant head and tiny body in a pistachio sweater, looking up.
Two dogs on a concrete landing standing in front of the back door to a house. The white pit is wearing a green sweater. The Black cattle-dog mix is licking his lips. It’s snowy in the background
Pick bulk inn a green sweater. She is white.
Picture of my face in front of a large, electric menorah made of metal, in a white marble lobby, with a Christmas tree in the background.
Fortune cookie fortune: “the month of June will be filled with laughter and fun.
Book cover. Keeping Contact: Jewish Cultural Initiatives across Cold War Borders, eds., Rebekah Klein-Pejšová and Jacob Ari Labendz (Purdue, 2026) The centerpiece of the cover is a collage produced for the volume by Moshe Peter Shamah.
Doormat featuring the seal of the Towaco Fire Dept. it features an “Indian head” with plains feather dress, along with a ladder and a hydrant.
A black and white photograph of Bonnie and Richard z"l Fertel in cocktail attire. She is leaning into him and staring into his eyes, with her hand on his torso. They are both smiling widely.
Vending machine. The bottom row has a bag of beef jerky dangling down because it did not fully vend.
A memorial featuring a rectangle standing on its short side reaching up to the skies. There is a split like a mouth in the middle. At the top, there is a large silver ball or tear drop.
Screenshot from an email from the ADL HMMMM: Columbia is also testing an Al-powered debate platform intended to match students from opposite sides of the Israel-Palestinian discussion and other divisive topics in the hopes that the 'bot moderator will inspire more civil and constructive discussions than actual human-driven conversations have been able to achieve lately.
Children of the Holocaust For the Children of Holocaust Survivors Workshop Announcement Presenting Your Family's Survival Story Join us for a five-part workshop that will help you narrate your family story and teach techniques for effective storytelling. Qualify for our speakers bureau. Thursday evenings, October 16 - November 13 7:00 - 9:00 pm via Zoom RSVP to holgen@ramapo.edu Only five spaces remain. Suggested donation $180. Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Ramapo College of New Jersey 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ, 07430 201.684.7409 or holgen@ramapo.edu www.ramapo.edu/holocaust
Picture of a man in a suit standing at a podium against a purple-lit room. This is a title card for a JTA article entitled, “LA Holocaust Museum retracts social media post that said, ‘never again can’t only mean never again for Jews.’l“
Postage stamp. Beige with green print. Woodcut of bucolic scene with the word “Theresienstadt” in block letters.
Counter display for Koyach brand energy shots at a gas station.
Two dogs cuddling in the back seat of a car. A white pit bull and a black cattle dog with grey whiskers. They both have their tongues out.
Postage stamp printed in green ink on off-white paper. It looks like a woodcutting of a bucolic landscape with two mountains in the background. It says, "THERESIENSTADT," in block letters on the bottom.
Screen grab from FaceBook. It shows two comments. The post was from me about my birthday. Ralph Labendz (my father who died years ago): You made me a mom lo those many decades ago. I made a donation last week! Celebrating you and your creativity. [Silly emoji] Jacob Labendz: Mom. You're using dad's account again, but I accept your warm wishes nonetheless.
Picture of an open book. It is the correspondance of Weitzmann. He wrote a letter to a man with my name.
Death announcement in Polish for a man named Jakub Łabędź.
White pit bull yawning with her mouth wide open and her eyes bugging out. She is sitting on grass next to a plastic fence.
Fresco painting on a building of a young white girl with blonde braids, using the Ukrainian flag to provide shelter for herself and famous cartoon characters rendered in he size of medium sized dolls.
Torso and head of a black dog. It is sitting in a fenced in backyard. Cool shadows.
View of waterfall from the top. Green brush in the foreground
Toy stationary bicycle on a grassy curb next to a kid’s basketball hoop, lain on its back.
Clip from article: Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said Columbia's actions were an overdue step to protect Jewish students from harassment. He dismissed faculty concerns about the HRA definition, which he said would "provide clarity, transparency and standardization" to the university's effort to root out antisemitism. "There are undoubtedly some Columbia professors who will feel they cannot continue teaching under the new regime," Marcus said. "To the extent that they self-terminate, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be so bad for the students at Columbia University." But Hirsch, the Columbia professor, said she was committed to continuing her long-standing study of genocides and their aftermath.
Retweet of this post by Joel Swanson, “ ‘The atrocity is not happening’ seems to pair very easily with, ‘They deserve for the atrocity to happen.’” He was quoting a post by @repfine (on Twitter) which both condoned starving Gazans and denied the fact of their starvation.