Look up on some of the most famous streets in Jerusalem, and you will see poems or poem-excerpts affixed to streetlamps. I found the one pictured here, on a light-blue banner, high above Emek Refaim Street, which means The Valley of Ghosts Street. The phrase emek refaim appears in the Book of Isaiah (Chapter 17,…
Two are better than one proclaimed the ancient preacher. Because, essentially, together they produce more income. But what if one cannot work? And even if both are skilled and able-bodied and employable, who will watch the children? Two are better than one said the son of David. Because they can lie together for warmth, and…
If you asked why National Poetry Day was important, the great Jewish American poet Howard Nemerov would refer you – perhaps politely, perhaps not – to the world outside. In the brief poem “Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry,” he positions his readers in a scene in which rain turns to…
Poetry has become a lightning rod in Israeli politics. In July, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned an Army Radio broadcaster for “clarification” after the station ran a program discussing the work of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. And a few days ago, Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev walked out of the…
American modernist poets, including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams, were notorious for differing degrees of anti-Semitism, but their colleague Marianne Moore (1887–1972) was uniquely inspired by Jewish tradition and lore. Linda Leavell edited a recently published edition of Marianne Moore’s landmark first poetry collection, “Observations” (1924). She has also published…
Armed with their typewriters and the whims of passersby as inspiration, a number of writers are seeking to bring the craft of poetry to the masses — by writing poems on request for people on the street. Bill Keys can often be found in the depths of Washington Square Park or Central Park, where he…
More than 150 literary figures, including nine Pulitzer Prize winners, are calling for Israel to free an Arab-Israeli poet charged with inciting violence through social media. The open letter announced Tuesday in support of Dareen Tatour, who has been under house arrest since October, was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalah-NY (The New…
A day after Marilyn Wennig was interviewed on Channel 2’s late night news show about the Oscars, she asked her parents how they liked the show. “You’ve put on a lot of weight,” they told her. In our interview she explains how in the secular world and the family in which she was raised in…
