Open Search form

Michael Shandler

Explorer of lineage, loss, resilience, and the search for belonging.

Apply for a Blog

Apr 23, 2026, 3:51 PM

Fanatics do not wrestle – an American witness

I keep returning to a line from Amos Oz. Fanatics do not wrestle. Only those who can hold complexity wrestle. The sentence has been echoing in my mind as the war with Iran expands and new layers of the story surface. My reaction...

Apr 6, 2026, 6:39 PM

Distance and Pursuit: From the Intimate to the International

There is a familiar story told in the world of family therapy. A couple comes in for help. The wife speaks first: “I walk as fast as I can, but he always walks faster.” The husband shakes his head: “No matter how slow I...

Apr 4, 2026, 8:48 AM

Responsibility is not enough

For many years, in my work with leaders and organizations, I used a simple but demanding idea: 100%–0% Response-Ability. Even if it’s not entirely true, I would ask people to take 100% responsibility for how they respond to their situation—and 0%...

Feb 10, 2026, 5:49 PM

Jacob, the Saint, and the Wisdom of Weathering

For much of my life, without ever naming it, I carried a particular spiritual image in my mind: the saint. Not a plaster figure or an icon, but a human being shaped by aspiration — someone steadily refining the self,...

Jan 26, 2026, 9:11 PM

Jacob’s Family Karma: Wrestling into Dignity

Jacob is not an easy biblical character to like. He is a deceiver, a thief, a manipulator — a man who schemes his way into birthright and blessing, leaving behind anger, rupture, and exile. Traditional readings tend to judge him...

Dec 15, 2025, 4:43 PM

Gene Migration — How the Past Moves Through Us

A few days ago, I wrote about the sound outside my window — a cry that felt both immediate and ancient, arriving from the present but echoing across centuries. After publishing that piece, I found myself needing to step...

Dec 12, 2025, 8:02 PM

The Cry Outside My Window

Author’s note: This piece was written in the diaspora, not in Israel. The “noise outside my window” refers not to rockets or sirens, but to the chants, slogans, and public atmosphere many Jews are encountering far from the front lines....

Nov 26, 2025, 5:07 AM

The Arc of Belonging

What does it mean to belong as a Jew? I have been circling that question since childhood in apartheid South Africa, where being Jewish meant occupying a narrow, precarious space. I grew up among white privilege, yet never fully inside...

Load more

About Me

Michael Shandler is a South African–born Jewish writer and author of the award-winning memoir Karma & Kismet. His work explores identity, Israel, trauma, and belonging, drawing on his family’s refugee past and decades of inquiry into the emotional patterns we inherit.