The Worthy Dispossessed
This past week saw much coverage and commentary on Israel’s “pull-out” from the Gaza Strip. It was only a matter of time, I thought, before Elie Wiesel would weigh in on this “historic” occasion. Now…
On Gaza
Dear Jennifer, Thank you for your brilliant piece I found on Counterpunch. I will share it with many friends here in St. Louis and beyond. You tell the truth about the Gaza pullout. I spent…
A Jewish Theology of Liberation
A review of Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, 3rd expanded edition, by Marc H. Ellis. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2004. First Published in the Journal of Palestine Studies (2005). At the 60th anniversary…
Prologue: Writing/1
I knew it was coming, but I just kept putting it off. When I was an undergraduate, I suffered from the debilitating condition of not being able to get very far on an assigned composition…
Long Live Hybridity
On Edward Said, Freud and the Non-European Introduction b Christopher Bollas Response by Jacqueline Rose Verso, 2003 In Jacqueline Rose’s eyes, Edward Said’s reading of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism is “[a] political parable, then,…
Dangerous Solidarity
This week, March 24, marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of when El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass. A month before, he had sent a letter to then-president Jimmy Carter, imploring him to…
Being at the End of the Year: Reflections on Hope
For Andrew Wimmer Exuberance is Beauty. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell[1] It’s been a rough year. Just considering the big picture, to think of Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, and Rafah, is enough…
Joyfully Together
One of the recommendations I have given some of my students who want to move in the direction of a deeper commitment to social justice after university studies is: Find and nurture a community. Without other…
In Gratitude for Howard Zinn
The other night at the Webster University Film Series, I saw the documentary-tribute: Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. It is an inspirational portrait of a working-class Jewish man who served…
Righteous Jews
for Hedy Epstein A reflection on Roane Carey and Jonathan Shanin, ed., The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent (New York: The New Press, 2002). 1. When I came back from Palestine after working…