Gefen Bar-On Santor, at The Blogs

Sep 30, 2024, 4:17 AM

Maya Arad’s The Hebrew Teacher: The conscience and the tenure of a BDS professor

The American-based Israeli writer Maya Arad grew up in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which in 2023 was one of the tragic sites of the October 7 massacre. In her novella The Hebrew Teacher, Arad has crafted an unforgettable lesson about...

Aug 11, 2024, 10:15 AM

“Servire è l’arte suprema”

In Roberto Benigni’s movie Life is Beautiful, Guido’s uncle Eliseo teaches Guido to be a waiter in the hotel restaurant where Eliseo is the head maitre. In 1939, Guido comes to live in his uncle’s house in Arezzo, Italy. ...

Aug 6, 2024, 9:09 AM

Today’s Hep! Hep!

Threatening dark clouds covering the sky

Israel haters typically rationalize their indulgence in antisemitic tropes by uncritically accepting narratives of Israel as a Satanic oppressor of the Palestinian people. But is Israel also a sadistic oppressor of the people of Iran—a country that does not...

Jun 10, 2024, 8:08 AM

Jim, Boaz and the burden of virtue

Since October 7, Jewish people who love Israel have been gaslighted in myriad ways by haters of Israel who claim to not be antisemitic. One of these ways has been the implied “tribalism” accusation. Isn’t it tragic, some suggest,...

Apr 30, 2024, 11:29 AM

Wait with art

In this blog, I have written repeatedly about “the pleasures of Jew hate” as a major driving force behind the “criticism of Israel.” I regard the Palestinians as victims of Jew hate because the desire to experience the pleasures...

Apr 24, 2024, 10:40 AM

Will the social cues of ‘polite’ Israel hate survive Passover 2024?

This year, the Passover seder was on April 22. The importance of Passover for Jewish life is difficult to overestimate. Even the most secular of Jews likely has memories associated with the Passover seder going back to their childhood. ...

Apr 22, 2024, 12:40 AM

White wine for Passover?

Passover, taking place around the joyous arrival of spring, has historically been an especially terrible time for blood libels against the Jews. In the seventeenth century, the murderous violence against the Jews during the Chmielnicki Revolt was so bad that...

Apr 17, 2024, 1:59 PM

Seduced by justice?

I recently spoke with an Israeli friend living in the United States who has been taking the admirable initiative of going to anti-Israeli demonstrations and starting dialogues with the people who stand against the Zionist state. I do not...

Mar 24, 2024, 7:36 AM

Gamed by Haman?

March 24 this year is the Jewish holiday of Purim and time to read the book of Esther—about the failed plan of the minister Haman in ancient Persia to murder all the Jews by manipulating the rather foolish and...

Feb 26, 2024, 4:40 PM

Is October 7 an empirical fact?

What did you do on October 7? For many people in Israel, the plan was likely to get together for a holiday lunch (it was the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah). But on October 7, time stopped in its...

About Me

Gefen Bar-On Santor teaches English at the University of Ottawa, as well as adult-education literature courses at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre in Ottawa, Canada. She is an enthusiastic believer in life-long learning and in the relevance of fiction to our lives. She also writes at https://oldwildhorses.substack.com/.