Monday, April 29, 2013

Francesca Segal wins Sami Rohr Prize


Novelist Francesca Segal won the 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature for her debut novel, "The Innocents."

Segal will receive the Jewish Book Council's first prize award of $100,000. The novel is set in modern-day London, in a community living in the shadow of the Holocaust and the demands of tradition.

"Segal's attention to details of Jewish traditions will deeply resonate with Jews of all communities," the judges said.

The award ceremony will be held in New York on May 30.

The runner-up was Ben Lerner for his novel "Leaving the Atocha Station." He will receive a $25,000 prize.

Other finalists were Shani Boianju for “The People of Forever Are Not Afraid"; Stuart Nadler for “The Book of Life"; and Asaf Schurr for “Motti."

The Rohr prize has been given annually since 2007 and considers works of fiction and non-fiction in alternating years. It honors the contribution of contemporary writers in exploring and transmitting Jewish values.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door



An armed man forces his way into the house of a man named Etgar Keret. He orders Keret, "Tell me a story." But before Keret can rattle something off, there's a knock at the door. And then another. Suddenly, Keret has 3 armed men in his home, pistols aimed at him, and he can’t come up with a story that appeases any of them.
This scene isn't just a glimpse into the strange and ingenious   imagination of Israeli writer Etgar Keret; it's also the plot of the title story of Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, his latest collection.

Like his prior short story collections—which are peppered with unusual characters overflowing with big hearts—Suddenly exemplifies the kind of idiosyncratic and magical fiction Keret is famous for. In "Hemorrhoid," a man's hemorrhoid replaces his conscience as the ethical center of his body. And in "Lieland," the protagonist finds himself in a mystical land in which all of the lies he has ever told come to life, and are played out before his very eyes. Sounds crazy, and it is. But that's just an ordinary day in Keret's world.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Socrates and the Fat Rabbi

It's a common rule of public speaking: Tell a joke, and you loosen up the crowd. This idea isn't a recent one--it can actually be found in the Talmud.

"Before he began his lesson to the scholars," says the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 30b), "Rabba used to say a joking word, and the scholars were amused. After that, he sat in dread, and began the lesson."

According to Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin in his book, Socrates and the Fat Rabbis, the joke isn't merely an attention-getter or an aperitif, something to make the serious lesson go down easier. Instead, Boyarin says, the two are equally necessary to teach any lesson. On one hand, laughter creates connection with another person, making it possible to communicate knowledge from one to another. On the other, there needs to be some yirah--usually translated as "fear" or "awe"--which refers to the respect, deference, and attention that students pay their teacher.

We've all had teachers that we've feared, and teachers that we've loved. Perhaps what the Talmud (and Boyarin) is suggesting is the best teachers are those who, in measured doses, make us feel a bit of both.

Monday, April 8, 2013

A Secret History of Yiddish


If languages had personalities, then Yiddish would probably be gruff and sardonic, with several unexpected surprises up its sleeve--much like the admired comic book writer Harvey Pekar who died last year.

One of Pekar's last projects was co-editing Yiddishkeit--a new, gorgeously illustrated cartoon history of the Yiddish language and its speakers. Though Pekar's books were nearly always personal memoirs, this collection is well-researched and authoritative.

Some pieces are more straightforward histories, and some take liberties, both with art and story. Hundred-year-old Yiddish political cartoons are explained and placed side-by-side with tribute comics created especially for this volume. "Shrayber un Arbeter (Writers and Workers)" portrays the Yiddish newspaper in a Wizard of Oz-type theme--the world of the immigrant is depicted as a stark, black-and-white place, but the newspaper offers an escape, a color-soaked fantasia of Yiddish stories and jokes.

Stories about the lives of luminaries such as Sholem Aleichem and Leon Kobrin are interspersed with more personal tales, such as Pekar's own recollections of reading I.J. Singer in a hospital room, conducting imaginary arguments with the author about the future of Judaism.

Monday, April 1, 2013

The Wanting



The Wanting


The long-awaited second novel from Sami Rohr Prize Choice Award recipient Michael Lavigne. Michael's new novel follows Roman Guttman, a Russian-born postmodern architect who is injured in a bus bombing, as he journeys into Palestinian territory. Roman's story alternates with the diary of his thirteen-year-old daughter, Anyusha, and is enriched by flashbacks of Anyusha's mother's life, a famous Russian refusenik who died for her beliefs.