A professor at the University of Houston, Robert Zaretsky is also a culture columnist at the Forward.
Robert Zaretsky
By Robert Zaretsky
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Culture The French Tucker Carlson is Jewish, xenophobic — and maybe a presidential candidate
France has lurched into its annual exodus known as la rentrée. It is the moment when the French, after a long summer at the shore or in the mountains, return to their offices and schools. Accompanying this vast population shift is la rentrée politique, when the nation’s politicians return to partisan sniping and intraparty squabbles,…
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Culture Can a visionary Jewish philosopher help us make sense of the chaos in Afghanistan?
As scenes of turmoil and terror in Kabul unfold on our screens, our politicians and pundits are in hot pursuit of those responsible for this nightmare. There is, remarkably enough, something of a consensus when it comes to an answer: President Joseph Biden. These critics may be right, but as the work of a Jewish…
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Culture In maskless Texas, a famed Jewish math whiz’s theories are playing out in real time — and it’s frightening to behold
Future historians of Texas might well puzzle over events now unfolding in our state. The fourth wave of the pandemic, whipped into a frenzy by the Delta variant, has crashed over Texans, filling emergency room beds and overwhelming medical personnel. Some hospitals, out of space, are transporting patients to others. Breakthrough cases among already vaccinated…
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Culture How Anti-Vax protesters use Nazi symbols — and pervert the ideals of ‘Liberté’
Last week, the Public Religion Research Institute released its study on the degree of vaccine hesitancy of American faith groups. The findings were, perhaps, not surprising: American Jews register, by far, the lowest degree of hesitancy towards vaccination. A study on the attitude of American faith groups toward the current political tensions in France over…
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Culture Adolf Eichmann is alive and well and living in America
In a recent column in the Washington Post, the conservative commentator Michael Gerson reflected on Republican opposition to the government’s efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19. Perplexed by the lies parroted by GOP politicians and pundits, he observed that neither opportunism nor fanaticism fully explained their behavior. “This is hard,” Gerson confessed, “to get my…
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Opinion What the Surfside tragedy teaches us about ‘critical maintenance’
While driving my daughter to her viola lesson this week, we heard a radio story about the condominium collapse in Surfside, Fla. — an event as absurd as it is agonizing. As one resident in the neighboring tower put it, these things are not supposed to happen in this country. As a structural engineer being…
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Culture Behind a viral slap, a disturbing antisemitic history
It was the face slap that launched a thousand video clips. During a visit last week to the southeastern French town of Tain-l’Hermitage, President Emmanuel Macron waded into a bain de foule or a “crowd bath” — the tradition of politicians walking the streets, greeting voters and shaking their hands. Rather than taking Macron’s hand,…
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Culture Why the new Israeli coalition seems like something out of an ‘Avengers’ movie
“Unusual,” “unprecedented” and “unlikely” are the commonly used adjectives to describe the uncommon coalition preparing to govern Israel. And their usage is perfectly understandable: If the current coalition survives the internal and external pressures it faces and takes office on June 14, it will truly be all of those un-words. Not only does the coalition…
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