Modern Hebrew literature
S.Y. Agnon and Samuel Shraga Feivel Bialoblocki.
An introduction to one of the masters of modern Hebrew fiction.
This revolution originated in the world of tradition.
The novelist and rabbi Haim Sabato infuses tradition into fiction as well as any of the Yiddish greats. The difference? His work is unencumbered by modern angst.
The Library of Congress’s Hebraic Section has digitized an array of rare children’s books.
In 1897, the great Zionist writer Aḥad Ha’am argued that Jewish culture, not politics, was the best avenue to bring about a new Jewish state. This week’s podcast revisits his important ideas.
The Lady of Hebrew and Her Lovers of Zion.
The two giants of Jewish literature come together for a wide-ranging discussion centered around his new book on the seminal Hebrew writers of modernity.
In his fiction, and especially in the novel Only Yesterday, S.Y. Agnon casts an ironic, unfooled eye on the inner lives of his fellow Jews and their lopsided bargains with modernity.
A Tom Thumb rabbi and a blood libel.
Fish that turn into frogs, a dead count, and halakhic humor.
None of the great Jewish arguments that raged in the 19th century—tradition versus modernity, secularism versus religion, nationalism versus universalism—is over with.
It took tremendous toil to produce the cultural rebirth of the Hebrew language. Let us give thanks to the toilers—and to their master translator.