Adjacent Thinkers

Note on Intellectual Engagement
The thinkers, theorists, and writers listed here have shaped my symbolic, intellectual, and methodological sensibilities — not necessarily through agreement, but through resonance, provocation, or meaningful divergence. They appear as mirrors, guides, and interlocutors across different stages of my work.

Inclusion does not imply alignment on all fronts. Where figures adopt frameworks that erase Jewish self-determination — particularly via anti-Zionist narratives, BDS advocacy, or reductive colonial paradigms — I diverge clearly and unequivocally.

Media, Identity & Urban Theory

Stuart Hall · Dick Hebdige · Paul Willis · Raymond Williams · Myria Georgiou · Richard Dyer · Lev Manovich · Michel de Certeau · David Harvey · Henri Lefebvre · Doreen Massey · Manuel Castells · Sara Ahmed (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Pierre Bourdieu · Jean Baudrillard · Anthony Giddens · Zygmunt Bauman

Psychoanalysis & Inner Life

Donald Winnicott · Marion Milner · Adam Phillips · Nancy Chodorow · Jessica Benjamin · Judith Butler (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Patrick Casement · Thomas Ogden · Julia Kristeva · James Hillman · Carl Jung · Clarissa Pinkola Estés · Abraham Maslow · Karen Horney · Erich Fromm · Bessel van der Kolk · Stephen Porges · Tara Brach · Rebbe Nachman · Abraham Joshua Heschel · Alice Miller · Gabor Maté (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Avital Ronell

Narrative, Myth & Liminal Inquiry

Victor Turner · Gloria Anzaldúa (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Carolyn Dinshaw · Aviva Zornberg · Jonathan Lear · Dan McAdams · Laurel Richardson · Hélène Cixous · James Hillman · Sylvia Wynter (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Poetic-Spiritual Influence

Rebbe Nachman · Abraham Joshua Heschel · Tara Brach · Aviva Zornberg · Sylvia Plath · Emily Dickinson · Rachel Elior

Archetypal & Mythopoetic Thinkers

James Hillman · Carl Jung · Hélène Cixous · Michael Taussig · Gloria Anzaldúa (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Clarissa Pinkola Estés · Sylvia Wynter (noted: divergence re: Israel)

Israeli Thinkers & Democratic Imagination

Einat Wilf · Gadi Taub · Gidi Grinstein · Yossi Klein Halevi · Micah Goodman · Tal Becker · Shany Mor · Adi Schwartz · Daniel Gordis · Amichai Magen · Matti Friedman

I hold the view that Israel’s existence as both a Jewish and democratic state is not only legitimate, but vital — and that its sovereignty remains its greatest legal, moral, and political strength.
Efforts to frame Israel as a colonial project are not merely false; they erase the historical reality of Jewish refugees, indigenous return, and national self-determination — and in doing so, perpetuate a form of symbolic violence.

Several leading Israeli thinkers — including Einat Wilf, Gadi Taub, Yossi Klein Halevi, Micah Goodman, Tal Becker, Shany Mor, Adi Schwartz, Daniel Gordis, Amichai Magen, and Matti Friedman — engage critically yet unapologetically with Zionism.
Their work, spanning political philosophy, historical analysis, and narrative strategy, reflects and reinforces elements of this conviction: affirming Israel’s democratic foundations while systematically challenging global mischaracterizations.

In my advocacy and strategic consulting for Israeli institutions, I have worked to strategically foreground these realities — showcasing Israeli democracy abroad, particularly in intellectual and cultural spaces where narratives of delegitimization are most aggressively advanced.
I believe it is essential to meet these arenas on their own terms: leveraging the language of critical theory to expose distortions, confront symbolic violence, and reaffirm Israel’s narrative of return, resilience, and rightful sovereignty.

Symbolic Thinkers of Illness & Embodiment

Arthur Frank · Susan Sontag · Rita Charon · Alison Kafer · Lennard J. Davis · Julie Livingston · Cheryl Mattingly · Tobin Siebers · Bessel van der Kolk · Thomas Hübl

Jewish-Diasporic Thinkers & Moral Imagination

Amos Oz · Yehuda Elkana · Daniel Boyarin (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Aviva Zornberg · Rebbe Nachman · Abraham Joshua Heschel · Ilan Troen · Shulamit Almog · Anita Shapira · Moshe Halbertal · Rachel Elior · Rachel Adler · Galia Golan · Tamar Hermann · Gershon Baskin · Alon Ben-Meir · Eva Illouz · Hadar Galron · Ruth Gavison

Feminist & Cultural Thinkers

Laura Mulvey · Angela McRobbie · bell hooks · Audre Lorde · Sara Ahmed (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Beverley Skeggs · Clare Hemmings · Judith Butler (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Sadie Wearing · Shani Orgad · Ruth Calderon · Amal Elsana Alh’jeeh · Aviva Zornberg

Cinematic & Aesthetic Influence

Chantal Akerman · Michael Haneke · Claude Chabrol · Céline Sciamma · Mia Hansen-Løve · Claire Denis · Lucrecia Martel · Todd Haynes · François Ozon · Lynne Ramsay · Joanna Hogg · Nuri Bilge Ceylan · Krzysztof Kieślowski · Ingmar Bergman · Naomi Kawase · Jane Campion · Ari Folman · Elia Suleiman · Nadav Lapid · Alice Rohrwacher · Apichatpong Weerasethakul · Hirokazu Kore-eda

Writers & Reflective Stylists

Anne Carson · Clarice Lispector · Rachel Cusk · Sylvia Plath · Rebecca Solnit · Maggie Nelson · Emily Dickinson · Louise Glück · David Grossman · James Baldwin · Rainer Maria Rilke · Susan Howe · Hélène Cixous · Lauren Berlant (noted: divergence re: Israel) · Tara Brach · Carl Jung · Aviva Zornberg