Philip Gold

Philip Gold made Aliyah from the United States in 2010 after several decades as a writer, journalist, college professor and think tank pontificator/prognosticator. He’s the author of seven books, most recently Yom Kippur Party Goods (John Hunt/O Books, 2010) and over 800 articles, columns and reviews. He received his B.A. from Yale, his Ph.D. from Georgetown, and his real education in the Marines. Current writing projects include an Israel-and-America novel, The Former, and a philosophical meditation on weight loss, The Nomos Diet. Heavy stuff. Philip lives with his wife, writer Erin Solaro, and Samantha, their Yesh Makom cat, as in: She showed up at the door one morning and asked, “Yesh makom?” His son Jonathan, aka “My Son the Lawyer,” works for a major New York investment bank. Scary.

Professor Philip’s do-it-yourself brain fix

His final column

‘The Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala,’ fresco by Domenico di Bartolo, 1441–2

Introducing 'the lighter side'...

You're never too old to work on your own health.

‘Dr. Philip’s Coping Code: Part 2’


Getting sicker, getting older: You need a coping code

It is ridiculous how many chronically ill people utterly neglect proper nutrition, either in favor of sullen semi-fasting or “Now I can eat whatever I want” gorge fests.

Nutrition is important for a healthy life.

BarkSpeak, Part 2

BarkSpeak: the style in which, so often, members of the Israeli government and religious establishment address American Jews.

Three dogs

The Six Day War: Now it’s July

Soldiers’ Talk – later retitled The Seventh Day: Soldiers’ Talk about the Six-Day War – caused quite a furor.

Ernest Hemingway

The lighter side of stroke

A very mild stroke led to an astonishing revelation.

Brain scan (illustrative)

Israel and the Palestinians: Might a different perspective help? Part II

The Palestinian state that cannot be; the Palestinian canton that might.

Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl

Israel and the Palestinians: Might a different perspective help?

Zionism did not impose itself upon an indigenous people who’d been there for centuries; it was one of two simultaneous immigrations

Palestinian protest

Euthanizing Sally

She helped me write it. Perhaps she still is.

Cat illustration

Israel and America, Part I: National interests, national chaos

Consider. For more than 50 years, Israel has managed to avoid a significant scandal that would damage relations with America. Not that there haven’t been opportunities aplenty.

Netanyahu and Trump

Life Lessons: Adventures in anesthesia

‘They laid me on the table and explained that I was to be given general anesthesia...’

Medical office

American antisemitism: Necessary questions for now

As antisemitism and its manifestations increase, no doubt a lot of mixed families will have some thinking to do, perhaps some decisions to make.

Nefesh B’Nefesh