When Professor Ada Yonath, the bubbly, animated scientist with Einstein-like hair as well as intelligence, received the phone call several days ago informing her that was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she thought someone was playing a joke on her. “I said, ‘Yeah, right, so should I make an appointment for the hairdresser…
Herta Mueller, a member of Romania’s German minority living in exile in Germany has won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature. Her father served in the Waffen SS in World War II but her work has dealt with the harshness of life under postwar communism, leading her work to be banned in Romania. Earlier in…
Take that, Larry Summers. Israeli scientist (and grandmother!) Ada Yonath, 70, became the first woman since 1964 to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry — and the first Israeli woman ever to do so. According to Nobel Prize selection board, Yonath, together with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the U.K. and Thomas Steitz of the U.S., received…
So far Israel has had eight Nobel winners, S. Y. Agnon (1966) being the only recipient in the literature category. Yet, according to the Guardian, bets are being placed on Amos Oz as this year’s top choice for the award. Amos Oz, born Amos Klausner, is conveniently turning 70 this year and this would be…
That’s my summary of this Slate article from literary critic (and recent Disraeli biographer) Adam Kirsch. In the piece, Kirsch takes to task the folks who dole out the Nobel prizes, for their ignorance of American literature, and their anti-Americanism. He also thinks one American writer, in particular, is particularly overdue for a medal. I…
Pro-Palestinian activists in British trade unions have been busy for the past several months promoting anti-Israel boycotts. This week Israel’s allies responded in force: with not one but two full-page ads in The New York Times. The first ad, published Sunday and organized by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, blasted boycott bids from British…
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