Unhappy Families: Elhanan Nir’s Rak Shnenu
The Agnon scholar, Jeffrey Saks, sees some Agnonian work in modern Israeli literature.
Daniel Deronda and Fate and Destiny: Reflections on Zionism and Feminism
What do you get when you read George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda alongside Rav Soloveitchik’s Kol
Dodi Dofek? A cross between Zionism and feminism, argues Eileen Watts.
Shadal, García Márquez, and the Stain of Honor
Daniel Klein on how violence in the Bible plays out in the writings of Shadal and Gabriel Gárcia Márquez
Forging a Judicious Spectator: The Legacy and Influence of Herman Wouk
Jeffrey Kobrin comments on the work and influence of Herman Wouk.
“I Am Building a City”: A Reflection for Agnon’s 50th Yahrtzeit
50 years after his passing, Agnon is as relevant as ever. Agnon expert and Lehrhaus Consulting Editor Jeffrey Saks explains.
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.
Tzaddik ve-Ra Lo: Revisiting the Problem of Evil in Chaim Grade’s My Quarrel with...
Marina Zilbergerts presents the philosophical questions posed by Chaim Grade's “My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner,” and compares his arguments to those of other major thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche.
The Grand Conversation: Bringing Jewish Ideas to the Literature Classroom
In this essay, Edelman and Steinberg argue for a literature curriculum that integrates Jewish thought.
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.
“Endless Light” and Boundless Soul
A review of Yehoshua November’s The Concealment of Endless Light.