Shylock: An Unlikely Jew Named Jacob
Victor M. Erlich offers insight into an infamous Shakespearean character.
The “Genesis” of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Eileen Watts examines the similarities between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Rav Soloveitchik's Lonely Man of Faith.
Rav Kook’s Space Odyssey
Bezalel Naor offers a stirring, other-worldly rendition of Rav Kook's poem "The Conversation of the Angels"
We Are All Ozickians Now
Ari Hoffman on the most important living Jewish writer.
Bernard Malamud’s “The German Refugee”: A Parable for Tishah Be-Av
Eileen Watts explores how Bernard Malamud's "The German Refugee" amplifies the themes of Tisha B'Av.
Goodbye, Philip: A Hesped
Dr. Ari Hoffman eulogizes Philip Roth.
Unhappy Families: Elhanan Nir’s Rak Shnenu
The Agnon scholar, Jeffrey Saks, sees some Agnonian work in modern Israeli literature.
A Return to Jewish Roots in Nicole Krauss’ Forest Dark
The question of whether or not your writing is Jewish is not up to you, because writing ultimately belongs to the reader. Krauss’ avatar answers Ozick perfectly: “Jewish literature would have to wait, as all Jewish things wait for a perfection that in our hearts we don’t really want to come.” In the end, perhaps all we can do is kvetch and vacillate between different answers to the question of what is Jewish literature—because, of course, the answer was never the point.
The Simple Judaism of a Rosh Yeshiva-Novelist
In a continuing series on great, modern Israeli thinkers, Joe Wolfson explores the powerful themes in a novel by Rav Haim Sabato.
Chabon, Safran Foer, and the Great Jewish American Novel
Ari Hoffman explores the expansive visions of Jewish peoplehood embedded in two major, recently published novels
