“All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” So mused Mark Twain in the nineteenth century. One such “secret” surely resides in the immortal language that the Jewish people kept alive—and that in many senses kept them alive—throughout their history. In his new book, The Story of Hebrew, Dartmouth College’s […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher. Chapter 1: Leonard Cohen—Jewish Prophet Chapter 2: Fathers and Sons Chapter 3: “Hineni” Chapter 4: Cohen’s Jewish Particularism Chapter 5: A Broken Hallelujah How do poetry and song convey Jewish meaning? Does Jewish poetry have to be liturgical? At the […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher. Chapter 1: Sholem Aleichem and Tevye’s Origins Chapter 2: Tevye and His World Chapter 3: Tevye Meets Menachem Mendel Chapter 4: “Cheer Up and Have a Shot of Brandy!” Through its countless runs on the Broadway stage and in an award-winning film, […]

Does Hebrew literature have a character of its own? And is modern Israeli prose the worthy successor to a more ancient tradition? In “Towards a Hebrew Literature,” published in Azure in 2000, Assaf Inbari analyzes the history of the ancient world in order to bring the Hebrew Bible’s unique form into stark relief. In doing so, he shows that […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher. Using the essay “Innovation and Redemption: What Literature Means,” Ruth Wisse joins Eric Cohen to discuss the insights of famed literary critic, Cynthia Ozick. They ask if literature has a moral purpose, and observe how different approaches to the past […]