Sam Hilt

Born in Munich, Germany, through no fault of my own, I grew up in Newark, NJ. Graduated Cum Laude from Brandeis University in ’69 with Honors in Comp. Lit. (Russian and French), went on to Univ. of Toronto for my M.A. (studied with Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye), then dropped out of my Ph.D. program and homesteaded in California for several years, raising chickens and goats and selling redwood planter boxes at flea markets. An interest in depth psychology lured me back into academia for an M.A. at Sonoma State U. in CA where I met my wife. An extended honeymoon in Italy provided the opportunity for me to fall in love with Renaissance art and to pursue a Ph.D. That led to three books on art and Italy, and to establishing a tour company featuring cultural travel in Italy, France and Spain (now in its 28th year). Fast forward, the organized diffusion of virulent antisemitism has pulled me ever further away from the glories of the Renaissance and ever deeper into the challenges facing the Jewish world today. This culminated in a decision to make Aliyah, and to write 'Paradigm Wars', a book about the role of the Jews in the culture wars which are currently roiling the planet.