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 How an extremist Jewish politician has become the ‘auteur’ of his own demise
The fate of Éric Zemmour has surprising parallels to the films of the French New Wave
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Culture Why Don McLean’s pro-NRA stance is head-spinning but unsurprising
50 years after 'American Pie,' the songwriter has become another good ole boy drinkin' whisky and rye
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Culture What we talk about when we talk about Uvalde
While politicians seem useless in the face of the latest horrific tragedy, the works of the ancient Greeks provide more useful insights
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Culture If you think racism and violence aren’t part of America’s soul and character, you don’t know your history
Joe Biden has said that instances of mass violence are aberrations from our true character, but maybe this is wishful thinking
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Film & TV The greatest Jewish superhero on television isn’t who you think it is
Moon Knight’s superpowers pale in comparison to the skills of a stand-up comedian
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Culture Why it matters whether we describe Putin’s appalling crimes against humanity ‘genocide’
The horrors produced by Russian soldiers in Bucha and Borodyanka have spurred countless commentaries on two concepts: crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide. Commentators rightly note that these notions differ not on the heinous nature of certain acts, but on how they should be defined. But often missing from these discussions is the…
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Culture Like Albert Camus, Zelenskyy has learned to resist the plague of the absurd
When the novel coronavirus claimed the world’s attention in 2020, so too did a novel by Albert Camus. With the quickening of the pandemic, “The Plague” became an item almost as essential as toilet paper and facemasks on both sides of the Atlantic. In France, 1,700 copies of “La Peste” were sold in January 2020…
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Culture Why we must keep talking about the horrors of Toulouse — even if we still can’t comprehend them
“Ten years have passed.” With these four words, French president Emmanuel Macron began a speech yesterday in the southern city of Toulouse. Using a biblical cadence, over the course of his speech, Macron repeated these four words, which formed a leitmotif, one that announced both a matter of fact and a fact that will always…
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