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Moshe Manheim

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Jun 16, 2026, 8:35 PM

When Stability Becomes the Goal

President Trump says an agreement with Iran is imminent. Tehran appears less certain. Whether a deal is signed tomorrow, next week, or next month may ultimately prove less important than the assumptions driving the negotiations themselves. Diplomacy is often evaluated...

Jun 2, 2026, 5:48 PM

Why Open Societies Argue With Themselves

An old psychotherapy joke says that therapists are excellent at guiding others toward change, so long as the therapist does not have to change. The joke endures because it reflects a larger truth: people instinctively prefer stability to uncertainty,...

May 27, 2026, 8:20 PM

When Words Become Moral Certainties

I practiced and taught psychotherapy for over 40 years. Over time, I learned that repeated narratives can acquire weight of established truth independent of evidence. People do not simply experience facts. They experience interpretations, fears, memories, identities, and emotional...

May 20, 2026, 8:01 PM

When Democracies Hesitate

Democracies are deeply conflicted creatures. Their greatest strength is restraint: restraints on power, restraints on leadership, restraints on the use of force. Yet that same restraint can become dangerous when societies struggle to recognize when a threat has evolved...

May 14, 2026, 9:52 AM

Can the Holocaust survive as a universal metaphor?

The controversy surrounding the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies’ recent seminar, “Nakba and Holocaust as Cultural Traumas,” is not simply about one event in one country. The sharper question is what increasingly happens to Holocaust memory when...

May 10, 2026, 11:14 AM

Israel’s Constitutional Question Never Really Went Away

Israel’s recurring political crises are often discussed as clashes of ideology, personality, or policy. But beneath those battles lies a deeper issue: the country never fully resolved the constitutional questions present at its founding. That omission made sense in 1948....

May 1, 2026, 5:59 PM

What Would You Have Israel Do?

Since October 7, the conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran has generated no shortage of commentary and concern. It has also generated a striking absence: a serious answer to what should be done. Commentary and concern, however...

Apr 26, 2026, 3:09 PM

When “All You Need Is Love” Meets Reality

For much of the postwar era, the West operated on a quiet but powerful assumption: that shared humanity would, over time, bridge even the deepest political and cultural divides. It was not always stated explicitly, but it shaped everything...

Apr 21, 2026, 1:49 PM

When ‘Defense’ Means Absorbing Fire

In recent debates over military aid to Israel, a new distinction has taken hold: support for defense, but not for offense. At first glance, it sounds reasonable—even principled. Defensive systems save lives. Offensive weapons escalate conflict. Who wouldn’t prefer one...

Apr 13, 2026, 1:07 PM

The Toxic Cocktail Blinding the West

This article was posted on the JNS website on April 12, 2026: The Toxic Cocktail Blinding the West By Moshe R. Manheim The criticism of the war against Iran reflects a misreading shaped by three reinforcing factors. It is the product of...

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About Me

Bio: Moshe Manheim practiced and taught psychotherapy for over 40 years. He is the author of Elsie’s Boys and has written on culture, antisemitism, language, and public discourse for numerous outlets.