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 …
Alan Mintz, ז”ל
Like so many of his colleagues and students I am still stunned by the sudden passing of Alan Mintz. He was …
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 …
A Cipher and His Songs
If you are a lover of Israeli music then you certainly know Avraham Halfi (1906–1980), though perhaps not by name. …
Why Are There No Great Israeli Superheroes?
Age of Ultron, this year’s Avengers film sequel, has generated $1.4 billion worldwide at the box office so far, a …
Philadelphia Story
Dan Burt’s memoir of Jewish Philadelphia in the 1940s and 50s is a tale of immigrants, brawlers, cops, and crooks. …
A Response to “The Spirit of Jewish Conservatism”
Eric Cohen’s call for “a new Jewish conservatism” is constructive and forward-looking, which is as it should be. While it …
In the Crucifix Kingdom
In a dark Yiddish masterpiece that predated the Holocaust by two decades, the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg envisioned the annihilation …
