Herschel Hepler

Hebrew book culture, cultural heritage, etc. 🟧🟧

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

1. Iraq did a beautiful thing in 2013, creating space for a Jewish community to ceremonially bury sacred manuscripts. This act epitomized the human rights-based approach to cultural heritage. Here’s why. 🧵

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

I love this whole thing.

[Alex @ajak1033]

https://t.co/Ch3JruSEaT

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

@hjluks What do you think is happening with increased Achilles ruptures in the NBA? Shoes? Game pace?

[Lynne O'Donnell @lynnekodonnell]

American Journalist @shellykittleson Kidnapped in Iraq Is Freed https://t.co/jNx1VSqaJo

[Mustafa Akyol @AkyolinEnglish]

For centuries, again and again, Jews and Judaism escaped persecution in Europe and found refuge in Muslim lands.

One relic of this much-forgotten, if not denied, truth is the Sarajevo Haggadah, which survived both the Inquisition and the Holocaust thanks to Bosnian Muslims:

[Noa Tishby @noatishby]

An Iranian missile just struck Jerusalem’s Old City near the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, some of the holiest sites to Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

[USCIRF @USCIRF]

Cmmr @StephenSchneck: “In 2025, the Iraqi government imposed more restrictions on religious freedom, such as changes to personal status laws, while failing to curb the abuses of the state-affiliated militia network of the Popular Mobilization Forces.” https://t.co/WrjnGQ0d9A

[USCIRF @USCIRF]

Cmmr Soloveichik: “The @StateDept should place Egypt on the Special Watch List. Additionally, prior to the next Foreign Military Financing designation, Congress should hold a hearing on religious freedom conditions in Egypt to address attacks on & forced disappearances of Copts.”

[USCIRF @USCIRF]

Chair Hartzler: “Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan are dire, as the Taliban continues to enforce – with horrendous penalties – their interpretation of Islam that erodes the rights of all Afghans.” https://t.co/cJR9lF5nnl

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

Deeply appreciate @60Minutes and @michaeldweiss for their tenacious dedication to exposing this awful story of USG betrayal and cover-up.

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

CBS doing the journalism. A lot of US service members further validated here.

[60 Minutes @60Minutes]

Three sources tell 60 Minutes that undercover agents purchased a miniaturized microwave weapon from a Russian criminal network. Secret U.S. military lab testing of the device on rats and sheep has resulted in symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome, a confidential source says. https://t.co/APrnWVh6FP

[Simon Maghakyan @simonforco]

🆕 My first book (a @Cambridge_Uni Element) is now out open-access! Sovereign Heritage Crime: Security, Autocracy, & the Material Past offers a brief intro to a new theoretical framework on state-sponsored cultural erasure:
https://t.co/UoBA1UV7cG

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

‘The war took his mother and two siblings, Mr. Himayat said, but at least he was fighting for a cause — the establishment of Taliban rule. Now that it is here, “there is nothing for us.”’

[Elian Peltier @ElianPeltier]

In December, we drove Highway 1 in about 18 hours. The trip can now be done in eight, but we opted for an overnight stay at a roadside motel. https://t.co/vqrXOzwiTA

[USCIRF @USCIRF]

Chair Hartzler: “We welcome @SecRubio’s appointment of @StateDRL Asst. Sec. Riley Barnes as Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. We look forward to expanding our work w/ him to confront China’s FoRB violations that brutally try to destroy Tibetan Buddhists’ faith & culture.”

[Mark Dubowitz @mdubowitz]

Wait — Tucker Carlson lied about Israel?

I am absolutely stunned. Let me sit down for a minute.

[USCIRF @USCIRF]

Chair Hartzler: “This weekend, we remember the 21 Coptic Christians kidnapped by ISIS & brutally murdered on a Libyan beach in 2015. Their courageous last stand in the face of terror strengthens our resolve to advance religious freedom for all.”

[Uzay Bulut @bulutuzay_]

In Egypt, Muslim converts to Christianity are stripped of their most basic human rights as they are both silenced and persecuted. 

Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek, a 30-year-old Egyptian citizen born to Muslim parents, serves as an example. Said embraced Christianity in 2016 and has been arbitrarily detained in Cairo (Egypt's capital) since July 15, 2025.

Since his 2016 conversion, Said has endured severe persecution. This includes arbitrary arrests, torture, abuse, forced divorce, separation from his young son, prolonged surveillance, denial of legal access, repeated attempts to coerce him into renouncing his faith, and ongoing punishment for peacefully exercising his freedom of belief. 

In Egypt, a female Muslim “believer” cannot remain with an "apostate" husband. Children born in Muslim wedlock are classified as Muslims for life. According to sharia (Islamic law), Said's wife was required to divorce him, and he subsequently lost custody of his child. 

The organization @CoptSolidarity is campaigning for Said's release.

My latest:

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

@RealEmirHan Negan also broke the show. Once the tension between Rick and Negan resolved, the show lost its way.

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

Very excited about this.

[Noah Feldman @profnoahfeldman]

Welcome to my Substack newsletter.

I’m Noah Feldman. In my day job, I’m a professor at Harvard, where I teach classes on topics like free speech, constitutional law, power, ethics, religion, technology, and the meaning of life.

Read more:
https://t.co/ONyDwd4DJh

[Herschel Hepler @morecodices]

@USCIRF Get the Bassatine cemetery genizah documents back for the Jewish community so it can be imaged and protected.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

101-year-old Holocaust survivor Jack Waksal gives the Priestly Blessing to U.S. Representative Brian Mast, a double amputee who lost his legs serving in Afghanistan, asking God to lift him, protect him, and grant him peace.