Alex Gordon

The Neuroses of Sigmund Freud

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — Ernst Jones, one of Sigmund Freud’s few non-Jewish students, wrote in an obituary that his teacher’s achievements would not have been possible without his national characteristics, among them “a special national insight” and “a skeptical attitude toward illusions and deception.” Psychoanalysis shaped a new way of thinking that made […]

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Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Opinion

The Red Terror of the Pacifist

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was the most important political assassination of the twentieth century, for it was the trigger for World War I. However, this assassination, committed in 1914, was not the only resounding political assassination in the

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Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History, Opinion

Jewish Fiction: The Yiddishe Mama Complex

My grandfather Yaakov, my mother’s father, had seven brothers and one sister. At that time Jews in Russia gave birth to many children, because it was God’s will. Then God was forbidden in the Soviet Union, and there were fewer and fewer children. In our family there was less obedience to God’s commandments and fewer children were born. My grandmother Rosa gave birth to only two daughters, the eldest Leah and the youngest Dora, my mother. As in other Jewish families, the mother’s role grew as the number of children decreased. [Alex Gordon, Ph.D]

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Alex Gordon, Jewish Fiction

History: Bavaria’s Revolutionary Jewish Prime Minister

This man fulfilled the typical dream of Jews who wanted to remake the world and their country of residence ‒ he became prime minister of a European state. Unlike Disraeli, he was not a baptized Jew.  Born May 14, 1867, in Berlin to a Jewish family, Kurt Eisner became prime minister of Bavaria at age 51. [Alex Gordon, Ph.D]

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Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History

One Handshake Away From Albert Einstein

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The narrow corridor of the Physics Department of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, was strewn with doors all bearing plaques with the names of professors in Hebrew. I walked down the corridor, seeing “Professor …” everywhere. When I reached the very end, I noticed a

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Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Science, Medicine, & Education

80 Years On, Remembering ‘French Suite’ Author and Holocaust Victim Irène Némirovsky

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — Johann Sebastian Bach composed six French Suites that began to be performed decades after the death of their author. In 2004, the non-musical French Suite, a novel about World War II, was published by the publishing house Denoel, translated into 38 languages. The book won France’s second most prestigious

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Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Opinion