Joshua Cohen’s satirical novel ‘The Netanyahus’ wins Pulitzer for fiction By Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA May 9, 2022 The 2022 Pulitzer Prize in fiction went to “The Netanyahus,” a scathing, satirical novel by Brooklyn writer Joshua Cohen that imagines a visit by the family of the former Israeli prime minister to an American college town in the early 1960s. The prize committee called the novel “a mordant, linguistically deft historical novel about the ambiguities of… Read More
Books Mikołaj Grynberg's haunting stories provide portrait of postwar Poland Perhaps the most notable Jewish literary event of 2022 has been the release of the English translation of “The Books of Jakob,” Polish Nobel laureate Olga… By Howard Freedman May 9, 2022
Books Claire Stanford's debut novel takes on our obsession with happiness Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto, the protagonist of Berkeley-raised author Claire Stanford’s debut novel, works at the San Francisco headquarters of “the… By Andrew Esensten May 5, 2022
Books A.J. Jacobs on Jews, puzzles and how Sondheim changed crosswords Those who follow A.J. Jacobs’ masochistic career – in which he lived by the strictures of the Hebrew Bible for 365 days and thanked the countless people… By PJ Grisar, Forward Apr 22, 2022
Books In vampire novel, trans author Isaac Fellman sinks teeth into identity In his pre-transition life, Isaac Fellman worked as a paralegal, freelance proofreader and secretary at a car dealership. He was unhappily married. And he… By Andrew Esensten Apr 13, 2022
Off the Shelf Three new poetry books to savor during National Poetry Month The age of texting and tweeting has brought out the curmudgeon in me, in part because I sometimes feel as if I’m immersed in degraded written English.… By Howard Freedman Apr 12, 2022
Comics Cartoonist Liana Finck on rewriting Genesis, with God as a woman In Liana Finck’s Book of Genesis, Lilith is the Serpent, Joseph wears a merman tail and God is a woman. The New Yorker cartoonist’s latest graphic novel,… By PJ Grisar, Forward Apr 11, 2022
Religion New haggadahs: politics, pop culture, art, history, QR codes and more UPDATED March 31 to better reflect Marcia Falk’s treatment of gender in “Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah.” Over the centuries,… By David A.M. Wilensky Mar 29, 2022
Books ‘Aerograms’: An American-Israeli love story, told in 258 letters In the summer of 1970, 21-year-old American college student David Biale volunteered on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin in northern Israel. There he met Rachel Korati,… By Alix Wall Mar 28, 2022