Podcasts about hillel halkin

Join us as we step into the dazzling world of Sephardic Jewry during the Golden Age; an era of tolerance and thriving creativity. Meet legendary figures like Shmuel HaNagid, Moses de Leon, and Maimonides, whose groundbreaking works - along with the rich cultural exchange between Jews and Muslims - sparked the remarkable flourishing of Sephardic Jewish civilization. Who were these Sephardic Jewish superheroes? How did the Golden Age inspire Jews centuries after the collapse of Jewish life in Iberia? And how “Golden” was the Golden Age?Links for Additional Reading:The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, Maria Rosa Menocal, PBS SeriesUnder Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Mark R. CohenHebrew Poets in Old Spain, Hillel Halkin, Commentary, July/August 2007 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Questions, comments, feedback? Send us a message.#298> Corporate sponsor of the series: Gluck Plumbing.For all your service needs big or small in NJ with a full service division, from boiler change outs, main sewer line snake outs, camera-ing main lines, to a simple faucet leak, Gluck Plumbing Service Division has you covered. Give them a call -   732-523-1836 x 1.> To purchase "Across The Sabbath River" click here.> We discussed the Mr. Halkin's travels, the Bnei Menashe's history & traditions, and more.>  To support the podcast or to sponsor an episode follow this link or email seforimchatter@gmail.com (Zelle/QP this email address)> Subscribe to the SeforimChatter YouTube channel here.> Subscribe and read the SeforimChatter Substack here.

Franz Kafka var tog avstånd från mycket av den tro och kultur han fostrades i. Samtidigt var han något av en judisk mystiker. Ulrika Björk reflekterar över motsättningen. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna.I novellen ”Det hemliga miraklet” från 1939 skildrar den argentinske författaren Jorge Luis Borges ögonblicket då huvudpersonen Jaromir Hladík, en tjeckisk judisk författare, erfar ett mirakel. Under tyskarnas inmarsch i Prag grips författaren och döms till döden för sina arbeten om den judiska mystiken. Natten innan avrättningen ber han Gud förlänga hans liv med ett år för att fullborda en oavslutad tragedi. När den dödsdömde nästa morgon står inför exekutionspatrullen stannar den fysiska världen upp, samtidigt som hans tankar pågår som vanligt. Med minnet som dokument slutför författaren under ett år dramat, varpå patrullens fyrfaldiga salva kastar honom till marken.Borges magiska realism – där den gripbara världen sammansmälter med en drömlik verklighet – för vidare en modernistisk genre som författaren Franz Kafka etablerade. Kafka föddes i Prag 1883 och växte upp i en assimilerad judisk borgerlig familj. Vid sin död 1924 hade han ett sextiotal skrifter bakom sig och tre ofullbordade romaner. Med juridisk precision gestaltar hans litteratur tillvarons labyrintiska absurditet.Kafkas stora genombrott kom efter hans död, men en av dem som läste honom under hans livstid var historikern och auktoriteten på judisk mystik Gershom Scholem. Enligt honom vittnar författarskapet om den moderna människans vilsenhet genom att förmedla ett särskilt judiskt förhållande till traditionen i en värld där Gud har dragit sig undan. Kafka är en ”kättersk kabbalist” skriver Scholem i ett brev till vännen Walter Benjamin.Kabbala är det hebreiska ordet för 'tradition' och kommer från verbet för 'att ta emot'. Det är också namnet på en medeltida mystisk lära om den skapande guden som drar sig samman för att ge utrymme åt sin skapelse. Samma gud strålar också ut i världen och uppenbarar sig i tingen. Men hos Kafka kan den fördolde gudens uppenbarelse inte längre erfaras. Allt som återstår är ett meningslöst tomrum.En rad ur det självbiografiska Brevet till fadern – som kom ut först på 1950-talet – verkar bekräfta Kafkas hållning till sitt judiska arv: ”Något bättre sätt att förvalta detta arv än att så fort som möjligt frigöra sig från det kunde jag inte komma på; just en sådan frigörelse tycktes mig vara det mest pietetsfulla”, skriver sonen. Brevet till fadern är en oförsonlig uppgörelse med en förtryckande far och dennes slentrianmässiga religiositet. Den ger därför röst åt upplevelsen av traditionsförlust. Även om fadern fått med sig ”en viss judendom” från sin hemby saknar den i sonens ögon ett egenvärde för fadern och kan därför inte förmedlas.Bilden av Kafka som en internationell modernist var länge förhärskande. Men mot slutet av det kalla kriget började han citeras på den kritiska scenen och som nära förbunden med sitt historiska Prag. För Vaclav Havel var Kafka en förebild. Och i en inflytelserik studie från 1974 byggde de franska filosoferna Gilles Deleuze och Félix Guattari en teori kring en dagboksanteckning från 1911 där han hänvisar till ”de små nationernas litteratur” och den egna förtrogenheten med jiddisch. Boken Kafka. För en mindre litteratur påminde om att Kafkas transnationella tillhörighet var både språklig och politisk – han publicerade sig i samma österrikiska tidskrifter som den politiska sionismens grundare Theodor Herzl.Den språkliga historien – den judiska, tjeckiska och tyska – blev nu en del av den kritiska Kafkatolkningen, och den dolda traditionen i Kafkas egna texter började framträda. Tänk till exempel på den lilla varelsen Odradek i novellen ”Familjefaderns bekymmer” från 1919. Medan vissa hävdar att namnet Odradek är av slaviskt ursprung anser andra att det är tyskt, får vi veta, men ingen kan säga säkert. Själva varelsen är en platt stjärnformad trådspole överdragen med trådändar av skiftande slag och färger. Genom sin konstruktion kan den stå för sig själv på två ben men tycks aldrig ha haft något egentligt ändamål. Den är meningslös och ändå fullbordad. Det är det som bekymrar familjefadern, som undrar om varelsen kommer att överleva honom själv och rulla framför fötterna på hans barn och barnbarn.I en hyllning till Kafka tio år efter hans död tolkar Walter Benjamin Odradek som spåret av en bortglömd centraleuropeisk judisk tradition. Den lilla varelsen sätter oss i kontakt med en förnationell värld – inte slavisk, inte tysk, men formad av båda. Vissa uttolkare menar att novellen väver in Kafkas egna översättningar av hebreiska böner.I en annan novell omtolkar Kafka myten om Babels torn. I ”Stadsvapnet” från 1920 avbryts tornbygget inte genom en högre makts ingripande, som i den bibliska berättelsen. Nej, det är storheten i själva idén om ett torn som räcker upp till himlen som förlamar krafterna och får Babels människor att skjuta fullbordandet på framtiden.Byggandet av tornet misslyckas därför att det inbegriper föreställningen att tiden är gränslös, harlitteraturvetaren Stéphan Mosès föreslagit i en tolkning från 1992. Som Kafka skriver var det som om man ”räknade med att kunna hålla på i århundraden”. Berättelsen står därför i kontrast till Borges novell om den judiske författaren i Prag. I ”Det hemliga miraklet” är tiden förtätad till ett enda ögonblick: stunden då den fysiska världen stannar upp och författaren fullbordar sin tragedi i minnet.I skärningspunkten mellan de två novellerna finner Mosès en historiesyn som han förbinder med mellankrigstidens tysk-judiska generation och kallar ”den historiska tidens aktualisering”. Sedan upplysningen hade den europeiska filosofin dominerats av tanken att historien rör sig framåt. Historia betydde kontinuitet, kausalitet och vetenskapliga framsteg. Istället för att (i Hegels och Marx efterföljd) optimistiskt tänka sig historien som en rörelse mot mänsklighetens fulländning hndlar ”den historiska tidens aktualisering” om en diskontinuerlig historia. Vad Kafka och hans generation såg var att historien består av ögonblick som inte låter sig totaliseras. De erkände att kriser, avbrott och slitningar kan vara mer avgörande – till och med mer löftesrika – än en skenbar enhetlighet. Även om tidigare tänkare har uppmärksammat nuets verklighet rör det sig här inte om en flyktig övergång mellan förflutenhet och framtid, nupunkter i en tidslig kedja, utan om en tid som exploderar i otaliga messianska ögonblick. Som hemliga mirakel uppstår de messianska ögonblicken mellan den oändligt förlängbara yttre tiden i Kafkas tolkning av tornbygget och den förtätade inre tiden i Borges berättelsen om den dödsdömde författaren. Och de nämns redan i Talmud, enligt Scholem – samlingen av de allra tidigaste judiska bibelkommentarerna. Där liknas tiden vid änglar ”som återskapas i varje ögonblick i otaliga mängder för att sjunga sin hymn inför Gud innan de förstörs och försvinner i intet.”Ulrika BjörkfilosofLitteraturRobert Alter. Omistliga änglar: tradition och modernitet hos Kafka, Benjamin och Scholem. Översättning: Daniel Pedersen. Bokförlaget Faethon, 2023.Walter Benjamin: ”Franz Kafka: On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death” [1934], Illuminations, utg. Hannah Arendt. Schocken Books, 1968.Walter Benjamin: Gesammelte Briefe. Band IV, 1931-1934. Suhrkamp, 1998.Jorge Luis Borges: Fiktioner. Översättning: Sun Axelsson, Marina Torres, Johan Laserna, Ingegerd Wiking. Albert Bonniers förlag, 1995.Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix. Kafka. För en mindre litteratur. Översättning: Vladimir Cepciansky & Daniel Pedersen. Daidalos, 2012.Franz Kafka: En svältkonstnär och andra texter utgivna under författarens levnad. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2007.Franz Kafka: Brevet till fadern. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2010.Franz Kafka: Till frågan om lagarna och andra texter ur kvarlåtenskapen (1920-24). Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2020.Franz Kafka: Dagböcker: december 1911-1913. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2004.Vivian Liska: ”Law and Sacrifice in Kafka and His Readers”, Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 8 (2022), s. 256-274)Stéphane Mosès. Historiens ängel. Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem. Översättare: Ervin Rosenberg. Bokförlaget Faethon, 2023.Gershom Scholem: The Messianic ea in Judaism and other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. Översättning Michael A. Meyer & Hillel Halkin. Schocken Books, 1971.

Watch this interview with Hillel Halkin. Hillel has translated over thirty books, written novels and most recently released a book called: A Complicated Jew: Selected Essays. In our interview he tells amazing stories about spending time with Amos Oz, who he translated a book for. You'll hear insight scoops on Hillel's ballsy move to write on behalf of Shalom Aleichem, out of necessity.   There is much to take away from in my schmooze with Hillel Halkin, especially the pure old-time view of Zionism and the State of Israel. 

‘Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach.'    Buy me a Coffee page: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DSConsciousness   Subscription option: https://payhip.com/b/Sq0ZB   Email: deepstateconsciousness@gmail.com   Christian Aid Gaza Appeal: https://www.christianaid.org.uk/appeals/emergencies/middle-east-crisis-appeal   Track: Walk it Off - Jae Ren Music provided by Verde Música Studio Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2l-97PH5R8   Notes   The Iron Wall and The Ethics of the Iron Wall, by Vladamir Jabotinsky: http://www.mideastweb.org/ironwall.htm   Jabotinsky: A Life, by Hillel Halkin: http://tinyurl.com/eft8ah4c

In the summer 2023 issue of Sapir, Roya Hakakian, an Iranian Jewish refugee to America, published an essay titled “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Idealist." Its form echoes some of the most important arguments in modern times: Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution was written as a letter, as was perhaps the foremost Zionist polemic in English, Hillel Halkin's Letters to an American Jewish Friend. In it, Hakakian acknowledges the misgivings that her correspondent—a benighted, well-intentioned, kind-hearted, idealist—has about Israel, and confronts that point of view with her own gratitude for Israel. And by examining the different judgments at which she and her correspondent have arrived, she is also able to shed light on the effects that America has had on Zionism in general. This week, she joins Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver to discuss her letter, the fervor that now surrounds the subject, and the resurgent presence of the anti-Zionist idealists to whom Hakakian addresses herself. Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Following Herzl's untimely death in 1904, efforts to settle the Land of Israel were accelerated, led by young idealists who played key roles in laying the foundations for a state that could serve as a light unto the nations. In parallel, Herzl's disciples and opponents alike, led by Chaim Weizmann, continued his path of diplomacy, culminating in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Great Britain pledged that after conquering Palestine it would endeavor to facilitate in it the creation of a Jewish national home. This episode analyzes how these parallel tracks led in a decade and a half to the creation of a Jewish community in Israel that could serve as the nucleus for a future state. Supplemental Materials:  "The Self-Actualizing Zionism of A.D. Gordon" by Hillel Halkin.  "The Forgotten Truth about the Balfour Declaration" by Martin Kramer. 

Always get as much Hillel Halkin content as you possibly can. If you want to know why, listen to our current episode. Alan rejoined Mike for this one. They discussed Ahad Ha'am's arguments with Herzl, but it's really about why the history of Zionism is so relevant to us today. Normally we discuss current events, but a scholar like Hillel reminds us that we need to be informed by our past. Don't miss this one!Hillel HalkinHis Amazon PageMasa WebsiteFacebook pagePlease rate, review, share and recommend our podcast.If you have further questions about Israel, please feel free to contact your Masa teacher.

Few figures in twentieth-century Jewish life were quite so admired and loathed as Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940). The founder of the branch of Zionism now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, he is perhaps the most controversial of all Zionist political leaders. Join us as author Hillel Halkin explores the life and legacy of Jabotinsky. Halkin will also explain the importance of Odessa, Ukraine, Jabotinsky's native city, in shaping his character and outlook.

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/israel-studies

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile,” S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. “But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Agnon's act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon's Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.  These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon's Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected in Agnon's Tales of the Land of Israel (Pickwick Publications, 2021), explore Zionism's aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon's Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/van-leer-institute

Dear Listener,Always get as much Hillel Halkin content as you possibly can. If you want to know why, listen to our current episode. Alan rejoined Mike for this one. They discussed Ahad Ha'am's arguments with Herzl, but it's really about why the history of Zionism is so relevant to us today. Normally we discuss current events, but a scholar like Hillel reminds us that we need to be informed by our past. Don't miss this one! Hillel HalkinHis Amazon PageThis episode was edited by the amazing Ben Wallick Studios. Ben is awesome!Facebook pagePlease rate, review, share and recommend our podcast.If you have further questions about Israel, please feel free to contact your Masa teacher.

Dara gets us in the Halloween spirit with a reading of “The Dead Town” by Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz. (Translated by Helen Frank and Hillel Halkin, abridged and adapted by Dara Horn.)

This week on Unorthodox, former guest Gavriel Savit joins us for a spooktacular Halloween episode. We talk about the Jewishness of Dune, William Shatner's mission to the moon, why some religious Jews don't celebrate Halloween, and more. Our Jewish guest is actor, author, and substance abuse counselor Stacey Nelkin, who starred in the 1982 film Halloween III: Season of the Witch. She joins us to reminisce about the critically panned cult classic. Our Gentile of the week is Carrie Harris, a fiction writer whose work features monsters, mayhem, and murder. She tells us why horror writing flourishes in uncertain times, and reads a passage from her new young adult book, Elder God Dance Squad, which she describes as ‘Stranger Things meets Bring It On.' Dara Horn, author of the new book People Love Dead Jews, and host of the podcast “Adventures with Dead Jews,” gets us in the holiday spirit with a reading of “The Dead Town” by Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz. (Translated by Helen Frank and Hillel Halkin, abridged and adapted by Dara Horn.) Listen to Liel on a special crossover episode of “People of the Pod,” discussing “How the Jews Went Right in Britain.” It's the first installment of “21st Century Europe and the Jews,” a four-part collaboration between Tablet and American Jewish Committee. Listen to the episode here, and learn more about the series here. It's that time of the year! Please support Unorthodox and the other Tablet shows you know and love by visiting bit.ly/givetounorthodox. Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel! Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com. Check out all of Tablet's podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts. Sponsors: Rothy's shoes are stylish and sustainable, and now they're available for men too! Get $20 off your first purchase at rothys.com/UNORTHODOX Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set in a rural village prior to the creation of the state of Israel, The Blue Mountain describes a community of eastern European immigrants as they pioneer life in a new land. Narrated by Baruch, a grandson of one of the founding fathers of the village, the novel offers not only a fascinating account of the hardships experienced by the Jewish pioneers, but is also extremely funny and imaginative. It is arranged as a series of vignettes, narrated by Baruch, a mortician, who reflects on the many people he has buried in a remote village. Text The Blue Mountain. By Meir shalev. Translated by Hillel Halkin. Cannongate Books, 2001.

Since 2015, the Israeli writer and translator Hillel Halkin has published a series of ten essays in Mosaic on the seminal Hebrew writers of the 19th and early-20th centuries. They dealt with everyone from Bialik to Agnon, Rahel to Ahad Ha’am. Those essays have now been brought together in Halkin’s newly published book, The Lady of Hebrew and Her Lovers of Zion. The act of writing such a book is an act of cultural preservation, safeguarding the literature, poetry, and essays through which the Jewish people sought to understand themselves as a modern nation in the modern world. In this podcast, Halkin joins one of his longtime interlocutors, Professor Ruth Wisse, for a wide-ranging discussion about Israel, aliyah, tradition, religion, cultural fidelity, and, of course, Halkin’s new book. This conversation is but a snapshot of a long-running conversation between these two giants of modern Jewish letters. Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble. This podcast was recorded over Zoom at a digital event co-sponsored by Beit Avi Chai and Mosaic.

Hillel Halkin, on B'nei Menashe Jews of India; translator, author, man of letters

While we're on vacation, we're rereleasing episode 32 in honor of annual Hebrew Book Week. Alan and Mike interview publicist Stuart Schnee about the role this event has played in the current Jewish renaissance. They discuss how and why we should all participate in it. There is so much going on in Israel that must not be missed! Join us as we begin to explore the cultural explosion being brought about by the Zionist endeavour. (Originally - Released June 16, 2017) Stuart Schnee Hebrew Book Week Hillel Halkin on Jewish Culture gap David Hazony on the opportunity it provides   JerusalemU's The Israel Teachers Lounge Podcast is produced by Matt Lipman.   Listen to more episodes, and let us know what you think! We are happy to take topic requests and questions. And please rate and review us on iTunes and stitcher. Check out our Our Website! Join our Facebook page! Contact us with questions and comments!

Ruby Namdar's second novel, "The Ruined House", appeared in its English translation in 2017. Set in New York, the book centers on an esteemed professor. It is uncannily timely in that it dovetails with the #MeToo movement and the close scrutiny that the film industry, media, sports, academia and politics are undergoing right now for their participation in systemic sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Here is an excerpt form the novel: Cohen specialized in elegantly naming his courses, which attracted students from every department and were always fully enrolled. It was more than just their names, though. His courses were well conceived and well rounded. For all their incisiveness, their main strength lay in the aesthetic harmony of their superbly formulated interpretative models, which were easy to understand and absorb. In general, “elegant” was the adjective most commonly applied to anything bearing the imprint of Professor Andrew P. Cohen. Music: Demian by Tatran Text: Ruby Namdar, The Ruined House. Translated by Hillel Halkin. Harper Collins, 2017.

Having grown up in a shtetl near Kiev, Sholem Aleichem wrote about the extreme poverty, pettiness and greatness of shtetl life, as well as the threat of conscription into the Russian army, pogroms and intermarriage. But, like the American author Mark Twain, he addressed dark subject-matter in such a light-hearted manner that the reader often did not realize their attention was being fixed on great suffering and injustice. When Mark Twain heard of the writer called 'the Jewish Mark Twain,' he replied, "Please tell him that I am the American Sholem Aleichem." Among Sholem Aleichem's quirks was a fear of the number 13; he gave his manuscripts a page '12a' instead of a '13,' and perhaps with good reason - he died on May '12a' 1916 at the age of 57. And it appears to be a genuine coincidence that this show should air on August '12a' 2014. We think he would see the funny side. 100,000 mourners attended his funeral at Old Mount Carmel cemetery in Queens, New York, in the largest funeral to date in the history of New York City. In his will he wrote, "Let my name be recalled with laughter, or not at all." Text: Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories, Library of Yiddish Classics, Schocken Books, transl Hillel Halkin (1987). Music: John Williams - Fiddler On The Roof Soundtrack (1971)Zero Mostel - If I Were A Rich Man (from Fiddler on the Roof)

This is a sponsored podcast on behalf of Yale University Press and their Jewish Lives series. Students of Jewish history—and the history of Mandate Palestine—are familiar with the name Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Born in Odessa, Jabotinsky was a journalist and an ardent Zionist committed to the establishment of the state of Israel. He was also a talented novelist, poet and screenwriter. In Jabotinsky: A Life, writer Hillel Halkin examines the full extent of Jabotinsky’s influence. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the liberal Jewish... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Le mois de Juillet est là, mais notre envie de lire n’est pas partie en vacances, bien au contraire! Vous découvrirez dans cette nouvelle émission: -« La petite communiste qui ne souriait jamais » de Lola Lafon chez Actes Sud (à 2 minutes 18 minutes) -« Un ciel rouge le matin » de Paul Lynch chez Albin Michel, traduction:Marina Boraso (à 16 minutes 33) -« Mélisande! Que sont les rêves? » d’Hillel Halkin chez Quai Voltaire ou en poche chez Folio, traduction: Michèle Hechter (à 31 minutes)

We visit with scholar Sasha Senderovich to learn about "The Zelmenyaners," one of the great comic novels of the twentieth century, now in a new English translation by Hillel Halkin. The translation, published by the New Yiddish Library, is a collaboration between Yale University Press and the Yiddish Book Center. Episode 0064 June 4, 2013 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts