William Kolbrener is a professor of English at Bar Ilan University in Israel, and executive director of Writing on the Wall, a virtual space for “expression, creativity and community” started after Oct. 7.
William Kolbrener
By William Kolbrener
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Opinion Edward Said tried to erase Jews. So do the pro-Palestinian Columbia protesters citing his legacy
I studied at Columbia with Said. His anti-colonial philosophy depended in part on pretending Palestinians were the real Jews
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Opinion The Israeli-Palestinian discourse on campus is even more terrifying than the Hamas attack
Fundamentalism has taken over the humanities. Curiosity has been replaced by closed-mindedness; creativity stifled by uniformity
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Opinion What the Talmud can teach Amy Coney Barrett about ‘Originalism’
During the course of her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court seat left open by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Amy Coney Barrett was often asked about her judicial philosophy, which she summed up over and over as “Originalism.” It’s a view of the law which was favored by Judge Barrett’s mentor, Supreme Court Justice…
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Opinion BDS Is Waging War Against Liberal Democracy
Anti-Semitism is a non-sectarian project. Left and Right converge in their embrace of the world’s oldest hatred. It’s something American Jews are keenly aware of, as evidenced by a recently published AJC poll about anti-Semitism. The poll found that 89% of US Jews believe the anti-Semitism of the “extreme political right” represents a threat, while…
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Opinion Can Barack Obama Turn Israel Into a Blue State — With Benjamin Netanyahu’s Help?
Of all of the gestures performed during Barack Obama’s trip to Israel, that of the president of the United States bowing to the president of the State of Israel as the former accepted the Presidential Medal of Distinction was among the more extraordinary. But even before that, there was another moment of symbolism when the…
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Opinion Poetry Can Wait, the Siren Is Blaring
In the middle of a class I was giving on Renaissance poetry, the students uncharacteristically started checking their phones all at once. Another siren, I learned afterwards, was warning of an incoming missile, this time one fired at Jerusalem. My day had passed at Bar Ilan, the university where I teach near Tel Aviv, surprisingly…
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Opinion Father’s Lament for Son Who Should’ve Served
My oldest son, now 19, studies in yeshiva full time. I ask him, almost every day: “When will you do army service?” I say: “A person with an iPhone or laptop should be in the army!” This is my common refrain, one my children have heard so many times at the table on Saturday afternoons…
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Opinion The Courage to Embrace Imperfection
On March 21, I chose to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. I gave our 9-year-old son, Shmuel, an extra hug and kiss. But now, with a test called MaterniT21 developed by the biotech company Sequenom, the days for those who want to celebrate Down syndrome may be numbered. MaterniT21 provides an alternative to the older…
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