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Literature
An illustrative photo released on October 16, 2019, showing an IDF officer reading a book. (Israel Defense Forces)
October 16, 2019, 10:01 am
Do you read me? IDF launches obligatory literature program for commanders
Initiative requires officers to gain relevant knowledge via books, articles and films; this year’s required reading is by US Colonel Douglas Macgregor
By Michael Bachner
Harold Bloom (Screencapture/YouTube)
October 15, 2019, 12:33 am
Renowned American Jewish literary critic Harold Bloom dies at 89
Yale professor and author of 20 books, including his breakthrough ‘The Anxiety of Influence,’ was son of immigrants from Russia, neither of whom ever learned to read English
By Hillel Italie
Israel's ambassador in Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, right, holds documents prior to a handing over ceremony at the embassy of Israel in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. German authorities are handing over to Israel some 5,000 documents kept by a confidant of Franz Kafka, a trove whose plight could have been plucked from one of the author's surreal stories. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
May 22, 2019, 6:39 am
Germany hands Israel thousands of Kafka confidant’s papers
Max Brod’s trove of documents provide window into Europe’s literary scene in the early 20th century, experts say
By David Rising
Argentina's writer Jorge Luis Borges talks in his Buenos Aires apartment on November 20, 1981. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia)
May 4, 2019, 3:08 am
Jorge Luis Borges’ love for Israel and Jews revealed in new book
Collection of Argentine author’s writings, photos and letters explores his Jewish connection, including friendship with David Ben-Gurion and visits to Israel
By JTA
(Collage via Kveller)
May 1, 2019, 12:08 pm
Why is Holocaust fiction still so popular?
With the number of survivors shrinking, anti-Semitism on the rise, and enough time gone by for stories to be shared openly, writers and readers find the genre as relevant as ever
By Emily Burack
Israeli author Ayelet Tsabari. (Collage by Alma; Tsabari photo: Jonathan Bloom)
February 24, 2019, 1:56 am
Israeli writer Ayelet Tsabari on being a literal, literary wandering Jew
The author’s upcoming memoir, which will be published in English, charts her own struggles and those of Mizrahi Jews in Israel
By Emily Burack
Protesters react as they listen to the speech of the Turkish President during a protest rally in Istanbul on May 18, 2018, against the recent killings of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza-Israel border and the US embassy move to Jerusalem. (AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE)
August 6, 2018, 4:14 am
For exiled novelist, today’s Turkey is ‘like Nazi Germany’
‘I think it is a fascist regime. It is not yet 1940s Germany, but 1930s,’ says Asli Erdogan (no relation)
By Michelle Fitzpatrick
Judy Blume in New York City in 2004. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images/via JTA)
May 24, 2018, 2:48 pm
10 writers not named Roth who capture female US Jewish experience
These women of words speak to today’s generation, in which gender and culture are perceived very differently
By Emily Burack
Polish author Olga Tokarczuk smiles after winning the Man Booker International prize 2018, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, for her book Flights, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (Matt Crossick//PA via AP)
May 23, 2018, 10:07 am
Polish winner of Man Booker Prize chronicles little-known Jewish sect’s history
With a style mixing real with mystical and books on human anatomy and Frankism, Olga Tokarczuk is considered the country’s most talented novelist of her generation
By Bernard OSSER
Adam Freudenheim, head of Pushkin publishing house. (Courtesy)
March 3, 2018, 12:45 pm
Babel revisited: Little-known books find homes on foreign shelves — in English
From Holocaust memoirs to fairy tales, Adam Freudenheim’s Pushkin Press hits record margins by taking popular international literature to the Anglo crowd
By Nadine Wojakovski
Moshe Simkovich
February 8, 2018, 3:18 pm
Moshe Simkovich
Who’s afraid of Tova Mirvis?
Should her memoir about leaving Modern Orthodoxy be required study material for day school students?
Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld, who died at the age of 85 on January 4, 2018. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)
January 4, 2018, 11:23 am
Aharon Appelfeld, literary giant who gave vivid voice to Holocaust, dies at 85
Winner of multiple literary awards, the prolific Appelfeld published his most recent book just three months ago
By Jessica Steinberg
Author Nicole Krauss (Goni Riskin)
December 28, 2017, 11:43 pm
In new Nicole Krauss novel, Tel Aviv is the backdrop for two US Jews’ reboot
Celebrated author mines her own lifelong relationship with Israel in ‘Forest Dark,’ a meditation on love, Franz Kafka and the ‘what ifs’ of life
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe are shown in a scene from 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.' (AP/Warner Bros. Pictures)
October 25, 2017, 8:17 pm
Harry Potter’s ‘sacred meaning’ probed by Harvard chaplains
Touted as ‘the English class you didn’t know you missed,’ a podcast based on J.K. Rowling’s iconic series has converted Muggles around the country
By Matt Lebovic
Anne Frank's hiding place bedroom during the 1950s (left) and her restored bedroom at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam today (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)
June 10, 2017, 7:21 am
Publication of Anne Frank’s diary saved her ‘Secret Annex’ from destruction
60 years ago, the Netherlands avoided ‘national scandal’ when activists rescued the wartime hiding place
By Matt Lebovic
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