Literature

'Emily Saw a Door': Learning to create spaces for each other with creativity, acceptance - review

A story that encourages and empowers children to find the right place for them, or even to create their own.

EMILY’S JOURNEY in the land of doors. Artwork by Orit Magia
From right: 2025 Sapir Prize debut winner Roni Partchek, honored for her novel “Sitara,” with Mifal HaPais CEO Adv. Beni Dreyfus, judging committee chair Dr. Ruth Calderon, Mifal HaPais board chair Itzik Lari, and 2025 Sapir Prize winner Amir Harash, awarded for “Bereavement and Failure and Zombies.

Amir Harash wins Sapir Prize for 2025; Roni Partchek takes debut award

“Neshama,” Marcella Pixley’s novel-in-verse, won the gold medal for Jewish children’s literature for middle-grade readers from the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Stories of ghosts, grief and Shabbat gladness win top prizes in Jewish children’s literature

‘The seventh Plague of Egypt,’  hail and fire, by John Martin, 1823.

'Disasters of Biblical Proportions': From ancient Exodus to lessons in fear and faith - review


Why Jerusalem Int'l Book Forum Prize winner Michel Houellebecq is drawn to Israel

Acclaimed French writer Michel Houellebecq accepts Jerusalem Prize at Mishkenot Sha’ananim days after visiting Kibbutz Be’eri.

 MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ at Kibbutz Be’eri last week.

The most prolific couples from history, mythology, and fiction - explainer

In many spheres of endeavor, people pair up to maximize their efforts to achieve their goals. So let’s take a look at some dynamic duos.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a lobby card for the 1935 film ‘Top Hat’

'Articles of Faith': Faithful to tradition, open to complexity - book review

A recurring theme in Articles of Faith is the delicate balance between upholding rabbinic authority while acknowledging the realities of a post-modern, digitally saturated world.

 Learning in Jerusalem’s Midreshet Lindenbaum, 2018

'Yoko: A Biography': Have we underestimated Yoko Ono all along? - review

As more of her albums have been released and the number of art exhibitions has mounted, however, Ono has increasingly been recognized for what one critic called “the breadth, charm, and brilliance."

 JOHN AND Yoko on their honeymoon at the Hilton Amsterdam, March 1969

Terms of enrichment: Wandering into the wonderful world of words

When it comes to cleverly crafted fine lines in prose or poetry, a palindrome is a word, phrase, or sequence of words that reads the same backward as forward, such as 'Madam, I’m Adam.'

Reading a book (Illustrative)

'Letters from Home': Exploring tension among Jews in in the Second Temple era - review

The relationship between the Jewish communities of Egypt and Israel created an underlying tension, not unlike the modern-day relationship between world Jewry and the Jews of the State of Israel.

 A RECONSTRUCTION of the blue-tiled Ishtar Gate, the northern entrance to Babylon, on display at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

Rescued from the archives and wrestled into print: Behind Chaim Grade's last Yiddish novel

Finished or not, “Sons and Daughters” is a vivid, Tolstoyan examination of what Kirsch calls “a family struggling with the meaning of Jewishness in the twentieth century.”

Chaim Grade’s "Sons and Daughters" was originally serialized in the 1960s and '70s, in New York–based Yiddish newspapers.

Canarit Audiobooks: An Israeli firm making books more accessible for busy consumers

A new Israeli venture makes literature more accessible and alluring for busy consumers.

 An illustrative image of headphones around books.

Yossi Avni-Levy wins Sapir Prize for Literature

Avni-Levy will receive NIS 180,000 ($50,000) and his novel will be translated into Arabic and another language of his choosing, broadening its reach and fostering cross-cultural dialogue.

 FROM LEFT, winner of the 2024 Sapir Prize, Yossi Avni-Levy, Mifal Hapais chairman Avigdor Itzhaky, former president of the Supreme Court Esther Hayut, Mifal Hapais CEO Benjamin Dreyfus. and winner of the 2024 Sapir Prize for a debut book, Ayal Hayut-Man.

'Dictionary of Fine Distinctions': A book on subtle differences in the English language - review

Dictionary of Fine Distinctions merits study at your leisure. Burnstein describes his little volume as “Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning.

 An illustrative image of an excerpt from an English dictionary.