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 In ‘The Third Man,’ a disturbing and cautionary tale for American politicians
At a press briefing on Monday, Mar. 29, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control, went off script. With the growing number of states now reopening for business, she warned this would lead to a growing number of deaths. Speaking not as the CDC director, but as a wife, mother and daughter—one who,…
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Culture How Ted Cruz and Rick Perry have redefined Texas chutzpah
In his book “The Joys of Yiddish,” Leo Rosten famously defines chutzpah as “gall” or “effrontery.” By way of illustrating this quality, he retells a story. A man has murdered his father and mother. Hauled into court, the parricide throws himself on the mercy of the judge because…wait for it…he’s an orphan. I know —…
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Culture What Donald Trump’s acquittal teaches us about empathy and compassion
The vote that ended Saturday’s second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump will have, at least in the short term, clear political consequences for the country. What might seem less clear, though, but no less important, are the philosophical consequences. By their failure to convict their party’s leader, 43 Republican senators have just reminded…
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Culture How will history judge Trump and his enablers? You’re asking the wrong question.
From the day Donald Trump was ushered into the White House to the day he was ushered out, commentators have found comfort in the phrase “history will judge.” If they mean that historians will not look kindly on Donald Trump and his enablers, they are probably right. But right or wrong, their “judgment” will probably…
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Culture With huckster Trump in charge, the carnival goes on — and on and on
One of the few things Fox News and the Guardian newspaper agree upon is Donald Trump’s resemblance to a carnival huckster. This indelibly American image brings to mind Harold Hill, the fast-talking trickster who steals the show — and very nearly the savings of a small Iowa town — in “The Music Man.” Yet, for…
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Culture Why the Dreyfus Affair has now become our affair
This year marks the 125th anniversary of Alfred Dreyfus’ arrival at Devil’s Island. On April 14, the former captain in the French army, found guilty of treason a few months earlier by a military tribunal, began his life sentence as the sole prisoner on this malarial rock off the coast of French Guiana. As guards…
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Culture 125 Years Later, The Dreyfus Affair Remains Unfortunately Relevant
One hundred and twenty-five years ago, on the morning of October 15, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a staff member of the French military high command, kissed his wife and children good-bye at their Paris apartment. Neither he nor his family suspected they would not again see one another for four years. Ordered to report to…
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Culture Le Corbusier — Revolutionary Architect, Nazi Apologist
“I am quite simple, even transparent. It’s the events swirling around me that are twisted.” When he wrote these words late in life to a friend, the world-renowned architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, seemed to anticipate the controversies that his revolutionary ideas and crowded life would eventually inspire. In light of a…
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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Fast Forward Rep. Ritchie Torres, outspoken pro-Israel advocate, is dropping hints that he could run for NY governor
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Fast Forward Ursula Haverbeck, infamous German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma,’ dies at 96
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Fast Forward A Jewish museum in Tulsa held a funeral for remains of Holocaust victims it kept for years
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Sports Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes his first taste of DI college football — and the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews
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