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Hande Gençünal

Hande Gençünal

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

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The Turning Point, Germany’s Rearmament and Israel

On February 27, 2022, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood before the Bundestag and used a single word, Zeitenwende,...

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The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Israel, The Name That Outlived Ruin

Israel, The Name That Outlived Ruin

When we look at a name, we usually stop at its meaning and go no further, rarely asking where it came from. I prefer the opposite, tracing a name back...

previous day 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

The Silent Veto: Qatar’s Enduring Structural Power

In April 2026, Volkswagen and Rafael signed a letter of intent. The German company’s struggling Osnabrück plant would produce components for...

04.08.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Shin, The Letter Two Sources Tell Differently

In Kabbalistic tradition, letters are never treated as mere linguistic tools. Among the twenty-two letters, Shin (ש) carries some of the most layered...

02.08.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Competing Fields, Young American Jewish Identity

I used Cameron Bernstein’s sentence in my last piece, she prays for the people on that land but doesn’t need to pray for the state. I read that...

28.07.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Borrowed Garments, Buried Dead on Tu B’Av

I described the longing I feel walking through Jerusalem in my last piece, being among the stones without ever quite arriving at the city itself. Six...

26.07.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

The Invisible Donation, Israel’s Diaspora Bond

In the early 1990s Benedict Anderson proposed a concept, long-distance nationalism. The politics of communities who stay attached to a territory...

20.07.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Broken Vessels, a Burning Temple, on Tisha B’Av

I miss Jerusalem, even when I’m standing in it. I know that sounds like a strange thing to say, missing a city while walking its own streets. But as...

19.07.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Not at the Table: The Sociology of Israel’s Own War

Being inside a field and sitting at the table where that field’s rules get written are not the same thing. Bourdieu’s distinction is simple but...

13.07.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

The Woman Who Chose the Broken Road

What the Book of Ruth reveals about love, loyalty, and the hidden architecture of the soul Here is the paradox that has followed me through years of...

12.07.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Borrowed Legitimacy: Israel and the US Since 1967

In the first days of June 1967, before the war had even ended, something was already shifting in a far quieter place than Israel’s front lines: its...

07.07.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Love Strong as Death

What the Song of Songs knows about longing, the divine feminine, and the ache at the center of existence There is a question I return to often, both...

05.07.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Who claims victory?

Loneliness, Narrative Power, and the Cost of Silence in Asymmetric Alliances When Trump and Vance began blaming Israel in an effort to pave the way...

30.06.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Know That

וְדַע, כִּי טֶרֶם שֶׁנֶּאֶצְלוּ הַנֶּאֱצָלִים וְנִבְרְאוּ הַנִּבְרָאִים Know that...

28.06.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

We Will Do and We Will Hear – Na’aseh ve-nishma

Certainty is the analyst’s greatest trap. The willingness to keep asking is the mark of intellectual honesty. In my work with people, what I kept...

21.06.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande Gençünal

Tolkien’s Hidden Story – Restoration and Mercy

1. Introduction Tolkien scholarship has historically advanced along two dominant axes. The first is Christian theology and the second is Northern...

15.06.2026 80

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande gençünal

Hope from Pain

The Jewish People’s Centuries-Long Trial Yakov · Moshe · David · Shlomo · Exile · The Cost of Pain · Holocaust · Today On the bank of the...

11.06.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande gençünal

Challah & Gematria: Sacred Symbolism

The braided loaf placed on every Shabbat table the challah is far less simple than it appears. When read through the lens of the Hebrew alphabet and...

08.06.2026 90

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hande gençünal