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Samuel Heilman

Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus CUNY

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May 21, 2024, 1:48 PM

We are All Hostages of the War in Gaza

I do not want to minimize the horror and pain the October 7th hostages and their loved ones are currently experiencing and have since that dark day, but in many ways we on whose homes and public spaces this...

May 13, 2024, 3:42 PM

To the current government: How do I resent thee?

With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, here are my feelings to the current government and its leader. How do I resent thee? Let me count the ways. I resent thee making the top item on your agenda after coming to...

May 12, 2024, 5:51 PM

The Fundamentalists of the War

Before retirement, I taught Sociology and Jewish studies, specializing in the subject of religious fundamentalism. Jews and Jewish behavior have a place in the American Academy in general and sociology in particular. My latest book, Following Similar Paths is...

Apr 17, 2024, 4:58 PM

Dangerous Iran: A Way Out

Make no mistake, the Iranians wanted and expected to inflict major damage on Israel and its citizens. This was not simply a case of slowly traveling drones. Iran fired 110 of its fast flying 500 kilogram ballistic missiles that...

Apr 16, 2024, 12:10 AM

Bibi Take the Win, and Then Go Home

It’s the morning after the first ever direct attack by Iran on Israel, with about 300 launches of a combination of drones and missiles against Israel. In our home in Jerusalem, my wife and I have slept in our...

Feb 25, 2024, 11:06 PM

Enough already: The people who brought us this war need to go

In almost everything the Netanyahu government does, and particularly the PM himself, they demonstrate their ineptitude and their mendacity when it comes to dealing with the Palestinians. Mostly, this is expressed by comments made by officials of the government...

Dec 6, 2023, 12:59 PM

Forget a Ceasefire — Go for Peace

The just-ended truce between Israel and Hamas is a bit like a Rorschach inkblot: what you see in it depends on who you are or more precisely from where you are coming. For Israelis it demonstrated the mendacity of...

Nov 28, 2023, 2:57 PM

Helplessness and Hope

The IDF in its battles with Hamas appears to be making progress, albeit at a very high price. Fifty-one Israeli hostages have been returned, and another twenty are promised in the next two days, also at a high price....

Nov 6, 2023, 10:19 PM

Caring for the innocent civilians in this war: Separate, but not equal

In synagogues throughout Israel and many if not most throughout the world, prayers are being recited not only as always for the welfare of the State of Israel and its armed forces but also now for the 241 (as...

Oct 27, 2023, 6:40 PM

Repeatedly we hear the accusation that the war in Gaza is a result of what Secretary General of the UN Antonio Gutteres referred to as the “suffocating occupation” by Israel. This echoes many similar assertions by others who have...

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About Me

Until his retirement in August 2020, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College CUNY, Samuel Heilman held the Harold Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center. He is author of 15 books some of which have been translated into Spanish and Hebrew, and is the winner of three National Jewish Book Awards, as well as a number of other prestigious book prizes, and was awarded the Marshall Sklare Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, as well as four Distinguished Faculty Awards at the City University of New York.He has been a Fulbright Fellow and Senior Specialist in Australia, China, and Poland, and lectured in many universities throughout the United States and the world. He was for many years Editor of Contemporary Jewry and is a frequent columnist at Ha'Aretz and was one at the New York Jewish Week. Since his retirement, he and his family have resided in Jerusalem.

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