Davide Rodogno’s Night on Earth
A complex and fascinating mosaic of the Western Humanitarian Organizations activities in the Near East After World War One One of the most impactful aspects of the International Museum of…
Books
Always Remember Your Name
A memoir by Andra and Tatiana Bucci. Forward by Ruth Franklin Andra and Tatiana Bucci, Always Remember Your Name, translated by Ann Goldstein. Astra House By all rights, this book…
Franz Kafka: With Ink and Graphite
I love and admire Kafka because he writes in a way that is totally closed off to me. (Primo Levi) Franz Kafka The Drawings. Edited by Andreas Kilcher. Yale University…
Fragments from Elsa Morante’s La storia
Every so often, at night, the air-raid alarm sirens would resound through the city; but the people of San Lorenzo paid little attention to them, convinced that Rome would never…
The Racial Laws
The Racial Laws, a poem by Giorgio Bassani (translated by Jamie McKendrick) The magnolia right in the middle of our Ferrara house’s garden is the very same that reappears in…
The Novel of Ferrara
Introduction by Jamie McKendrick to his translation of The Novel of Ferrara (W.W. Norton & Co., 2019) In short stories, novels, poems, and essays, Giorgio Bassani has composed perhaps the…
The People Next Door
As long as we live in this house there is no need for Stolpersteines, we don’t need to stumble in memory.
Hymns & Qualms: An Interview with Peter Cole
Dan Friedman, contributing editor of Sources. Originally published in “Sources: A Journal of Jewish Idea” Fall 2021. Reposted by permission. Image: Kelly Writers House. Peter Cole is one of the…
Under Gentile Eyes
Representations of the Jews and Judaism in Medieval and Modern Europe Edited by Fabrizio Franceschini and Enrico Giaccherini Image: Venice, Esther Scroll, late 18th century, Florence, Jewish Museum …
Il Rinnegato: The Scandalous Life of a 19th Century Kabbalist.
David is never fulfilled nor satisfied with himself. He is constantly searching for new emotions, unexpected events, and adventures, which are often dangerous and with little prospect. He clings to the talismans and amulets of the Kabbalah as the only lifeline in a storm of events that he cannot control, dodging obstacles that threaten him, often set in motion by himself.