Open Search form

Harold Behr

Apply for a Blog

Jun 2, 2026, 11:59 AM

Satan visits South Africa

Satan was getting bored. He had spent several weeks idly twirling his globe of the world, noting with glum satisfaction the number of countries which had recently fallen under his sway, but now he was beginning to feel that...

May 30, 2026, 7:50 PM

What’s the harm in a postponed lecture?

The British Museum in London has postponed, at short notice, a lecture on ancient Jewish history which was to have been given by Paul Collins, the museum’s keeper of the Department of the Middle East, after it became known...

May 10, 2026, 1:14 PM

What it means to be a Jew in Britain today

The British Jewish community has become understandably edgy about the spate of antisemitic attacks in recent months. This edginess is now spilling over into the sense that not enough is being done to protect the community, despite robust efforts...

Apr 9, 2026, 10:12 PM

Look back in languor: A South African Jew visits the languages of his childhood

I was born into the South Africa of the apartheid era, where every white child was educated in two spoken languages - English and Afrikaans. The latter was a language which unfurled itself from its Dutch origins at the...

Mar 6, 2026, 7:44 PM

My adventures at the piano keyboard

My mother being a piano teacher and my sister an accomplished pianist, I grew up to the sound of classical piano music. However, my own attempts to master the instrument were not successful, despite strenuous efforts on the part...

Feb 22, 2026, 7:06 PM

The language of antisemitism

My woodwork teacher in a Johannesburg high school, Mr Richards, a small, blond-haired man with a ginger moustache, occasionally admonished the boys (mostly gentile) not to complain ‘like little Jewboys’. So too did his fellow manual training teacher, Mr...

Feb 4, 2026, 8:54 PM

Why we celebrate Purim

‘Purim’ is plural for ‘lot’ as in the casting of lots. It’s actually a form of gambling but then, as now, very few people had qualms about it, because any choice made by casting lots was seen as God’s...

Jan 21, 2026, 1:34 AM

His Yiddishe momma: The tale of Moisie Rubinsky’s formative years

Once upon a time, in a faraway land known as Dorem Afrika, a little boy was born into a family of refugees from Plotnik in Eastern Poland. Actually ‘Moisie’ was only one of seven names he carried with him....

Jan 18, 2026, 2:18 PM

Israel and the Diaspora: a war on two fronts

Before the eighteenth century, wars were mostly pitched battles between uniformed armies hacking and blasting each other to pieces at prearranged sites. However, this did not mean that civilians escaped unscathed. Most of the local populace were caught in...

Jan 11, 2026, 5:45 PM

Britain and Israel: Two democracies resisting the tug towards autocracy

Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom, is a politician who respects the democratic tradition. He is the epitome of an old-fashioned English gentleman - tight-lipped, well mannered and courteous, but abysmally lacking in insight into the gangster...

Load more

About Me

I was born in South Africa in 1940 and emigrated to the U.K. in 1970 after qualifying in medicine. I held a post as Consultant Psychiatrist in London until my retirement in 2013. I am the author of two books: one on group analytic psychotherapy, one on the psychology of the French Revolution. I have written many articles on group psychology published in peer-reviewed journals. From 1979 to 1985 I was editor of the journal ‘Group Analysis’; I have contributed short pieces to psychology newsletters over the years.