To My Friends by Primo Levi
Dear friends, and here I say friends the broad sense of the word: Wife, sister, associates, relatives, Schoolmates of both sexes, People seen only once Or frequented all my life; Provided that between us, for…
Category: Jewish Tradition
Share the Wealth with Johannes Wich-Schwarz: German-Jewish Poetry after the Holocaust
“The Not-Word: German-Jewish Poetry after the Holocaust” What does it mean to write in German as a Jewish author after the Holocaust? Can poetry recover, reclaim, and renew language after unspeakable trauma? How do we…
Shema, Primo Levi
You who live secure In your warm houses Who return at evening to find Hot food and friendly faces: Consider whether this is a man, Who labours in the mud Who knows no peace Who…
Drugged by Books
Soon after my father’s death, I started reading Leon Wieseltier’s Kaddish, his journal of reflections on his year of going to shul and saying Kaddish. In the days and weeks ahead, Wieseltier offered me some…
On Segev’s The 7th Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust
The following is a short summary and commonplace passages with comments on Tom Segev’s book, The 7th Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust. It’s one of the many books I examined when writing my first…
Mechaiehs
Mechaiaeh… Pronounced m’KHY-eh, to rhyme with “messiah.” The kh sound is, of course, the way a MacTavish would roll it out. From Hebrew. Pleasure, great enjoyment, a real joy. … Mechaieh comes from the Hebrew…
Hedy & Heine
The year after Mev died I read a lot of literature– Poetry, novels, plays One volume I took refuge in Was a bi-lingual edition of Heine’s Songs of Love & Grief I have a favorite…
Taking a Stand: A Reflection on Elie Wiesel and Hedy Epstein
These days I am thinking of two Holocaust survivors. I met with one today: 86 year-old Hedy Epstein and I had lunch at Blackberry Cafe in Clayton. The other is receiving an honorary doctorate tomorrow…
Higher Law
Review of Steven V. Mazie, Israel’s Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State. Published first in Journal of Church and State, 2006. “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” This…
An Israeli Poet
The following poem by Israeli Aharon Shabtai is translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole. It appears in his aptly entitled collection from New Directions, J’Accuse. “War” I, too, have declared war: You’ll need to…