Best Books of 2018
My picks–a novel, a poem, and a history of American sci-fi–in good company. Read the full list chosen by Mosaic …
Of Were-Owls and Wandering Jews
My fantasy reading this month included Jewish shape-shifters and “Pharisees,” Michael Moorcock and Rudyard Kipling, and a new Israeli novel …
Why Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver is Bad Jewish Fantasy
Sure, all this beats a pogrom. But given that Novik clearly intends the book to work as a commentary on …
The First-Ever Anthology of Israeli Science Fiction and Fantasy
And how it compares with a Jewish American anthology. Read the full review at Mosaic.
Israelis in America
New books by Maya Arad and Galit Dahan Carlibach portray Israelis making their way as best they can in America …
How American Jews Came to Believe That Tikkun Olam Was at the Core of Their Tradition
Tikkun Olam’s easy path to enshrinement as the Jewish truth has depended on the widespread ignorance among millions of Jews …
My Funny Levantines
Two new novels offer angles of vision into Jewish experience in the (pre- or non-Israeli) parts of the modern Middle …
Literary Currency
Simplicity, in poetry, is complicated. How do we translate the poet Rahel for English language readers? Read the full essay …
Out-of-Body Experiences: Recent Israeli Science Fiction and Fantasy
“Common themes exist among some if not all of these books: the fluidity of identity in our social media world, …
From King David to Larry David: A New Look at Jewish Humor
For better, and for worse, Jeremy Dauber’s Jewish Comedy: A Serious History tells the story of Jewish comedy as the story of …
Is French Postmodernism Good for the Jews?
“If you believe that liberal democracy is not to be cherished but overthrown, if you believe that moral value attaches …
Famous Amos
Judas, the latest novel by Amos Oz, is ostensibly an allegory about both the state of Israel and the betrayal …
Jonathan Levi’s Septimania
He is heir to the Islamic Caliphate, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Jewish kingdom of Septimania–but does he get …
Brave New Golems
As pop culture monsters, golems may not have the cachet of zombies or vampires but they haunt us nevertheless, as shown …
Shmatte Business
Why are Jewish children’s books so bad? Anyone seeking a perfect metaphor for the limitations of Jewish children’s literature will find …
What Happened When the Messiah Met Machiavelli
Reubeni, Prince of the Jews, a surprisingly contemporary 1925 novel by Kafka’s close friend Max Brod, reminds us of the perils …
The Inklings
Had you the good fortune of being present at a gathering of the Inklings, you might have witnessed J. …
What Does an Acclaimed Israeli Sci-Fi Writer Have to Tell Us about the Israel of Tomorrow?
“To this familiar Tel Aviv scene, however, with its characteristic mix of squalor and charm, Tidhar has added cyborgs, chip-implanted …
Why Won’t American Jews Learn Hebrew?
The stubborn American Jewish refusal to treat Hebrew as a language that can be learned, spoken, and used is nothing …
A Fraternal Note (by James Reiss)
One brother emigrated to Israel, the other remained in the United States. Both became poets, searching for words the other …
