Living Jewish Literature With Faye Moskowitz
“Ethan, it’s far past time you took a class with Faye. I’ve already told her you’ll be there.”
25
Feb
29
Jul
Why we still write Holocaust fiction with Authors Ruby Namdar, Ruth Franklin and Nadine Epstein
Authors Ruby Namdar (The Ruined House), Ruth Franklin (A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction) and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein (Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life) discuss the enduring power–and perils–of Holocaust fiction.
29
Jul
Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest: Why We Still Write Holocaust Fiction
Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest presents:
Authors Ruby Namdar (The Ruined House), Ruth Franklin (A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction) and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein (Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life) discuss the enduring power–and perils–of Holocaust fiction.
Prior to the conversation, the 2020 Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest winners read excerpts from their stories:
1st place – Omer Friedlander, The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land
2nd place – Linda Brettler, Private
3rd place – Rona Arato, Polonaise
07
Sep
Book Review | Kafka’s Last Trial by Ruby Namdar
Few literary figures have stirred readers’ imaginations as much as Kafka, his tormented life and early death. Indeed, he is viewed as a mythical figure as much as a renowned author. But above all, the bizarre story of how Kafka’s work survived and entered the canon has become a staple of literary legend.
09
Jul
Welcome to Our Summer Books Issue
When I was in second grade my mother told me to read upside down. “You’re reading too fast,” she said, “it’s upsetting the teacher.” She had been instructed to do this as a child, and it was only natural for her to pass this wisdom on to me. Even now, I occasionally flip the book over in order to savor the story.
12
Dec
Moment Editors’ Book Picks of 2014
Got some leisurely reading time on your hands this Hanukkah season? We've got you covered. As the year winds to a close, we asked our editors to round up some of the best books of 2014, for your reading pleasure. Take a break from festivities next week to curl up with one these page-turners, from My Promised Land to Lawrence in Arabia.
Nadine Epstein (Editor & Publisher)
Lawrence of Arabia. If you would like to travel back to before the time when the borders of today's Middle East were drawn, this is the book for you. You'll meet a varied cast of true characters, from Lawrence himself to german spy Kurt Prufrock, American oil/state department man, William Yale and proto-Zionist/agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn. I've read many books on the history of the Middle East, and I've never felt as informed...
19
Aug
What We’re Reading: Eileen Lavine
Each week, we'll take a look at what Moment editors are reading, from newspapers to novels. This week we hear from Eileen Lavine, a senior editor at Moment since 2008 who has previously been a writer and editor for the New Bedford Standard Times, The New York Times Youth Forums, and UNESCO.
Is there ever a point when we say "enough" or "too much" with books on the Holocaust and concentration camps? On the contrary, I find myself haunted by the "what if," especially with stories of young girls who were my age at the time. As time passes and survivors soon will no longer be here to tell their tales, it is necessary for all the stories to be told, as Francine Prose stresses in her introduction to Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp, which...
10
Aug
Professor of Exile: Edward Said’s Misreading of Erich Auerbach
by Avihu Zakai
Edward Said (1935-2003), Palestinian-American scholar, activist, and for many years Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, had a deep interest in the close connection between literature and exile, a subject that occupied much of his life of the mind since the time he was a graduate student at Harvard in the late fifties.
Said’s overarching goal in many of his studies is to relate the experience of exilic displacement, a theme that stems from his own displacement from Palestine. “The novelty of our time,” he wrote in the introduction to Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2000), is “that so many individuals have experienced the uprooting and dislocations that have made them expatriate and exiles.” He aligned himself with such exiled intellectuals as Joseph Conrad, James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov,...
31
Jul
A Brief Literary Guide to the History of Gaza
There's more to the long-suffering region than meets the eye. From visual journalism to history to cookbooks, here are four books to deepen your understanding of the Gaza Strip.
1. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
In a tour de force of visual journalism, cartoonist and reporter Joe Sacco transports readers to the Rafah, a town at the bottom tip of the Gaza Strip and the site of a bloody massacre in 1956. Considered a footnote to the region's bloody history, Sacco unravels the echoes of that moment all the way to the conflict today.
2. The Gaza Strip: Its History and Politics by Nathan Shachar
A well-balanced journalist's account relying on research, on-the-ground reporting and sometimes street gossip. From Egyptian pharaohs to today's conflict, a readable guide to the people and politics that shaped the region.
3. The Gaza Kitchen by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt
In 2010, the authors traveled the length of...
24
Jul
What We’re Reading: Sala Levin
Each week, we'll share what Moment editors are reading and watching, from news to novels. First up is Moment staffer Sala Levin, who wrote about the origins of the word "haredi" in the last issue and runs the magazine's annual fiction contest.
So, Sala, what's on your bookshelf/desktop?
All Our Names: This recent novel by Ethiopian-American writer Dinaw Mengestu traces the journey of a young man called Isaac--first in Uganda, where he falls in a platonic sort of love with another Isaac, who stokes his interest in revolutionary politics, and then in the American Midwest, where he falls in a decidedly non-platonic sort of love with Helen, the social worker who's been assigned to help him adjust to American life.
The Winter of Weird Al, by Steven Hyden on Grantland: The premise of this article may have been proven...