Poetry & Fiction
Poetry
C.K. Williams Receives the Tikkun Award
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams reads “Tar” and “The Day Continues Lovely.”
Read more >>
Fiction
Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming
Some years ago I met a man who, over a single cup of ginger-mint tea, shook my deepest assumptions about the process of moral conversation. His name was Samuel Prana.
Read more >>
Humor
Heaven’s Snake
“Is the cornsnake Jewish?” This was a tough question to answer. I was visiting with the first-grade class taught by my then-girlfriend, who had introduced me to her students as “Farmer Josh” — and then thrust a large-ish cornsnake into my less-than-willing hands.
Read more >>
Humor
Culture Klatch
My son’s middle school was having a “culture fair” recently, so he asked me for some guidance. His task was to create a display that described his Jewish heritage.
Read more >>
Humor
Fasting for Tom Zipper
I sent a text to my rabbi, asking whether I would have to give up coffee for Yom Kippur — but my cell phone “corrected” my message, assuming that “Yom Kippur” was my typo-laden attempt to thumb-type “Tom Zipper.” My rabbi texted me back, asking (reasonably enough) why this Tom Zipper fellow would want me to give up coffee.
Read more >>
Poetry
Rilke’s America
Tell us, poet, what you do—I praise / Only, instead, the grave rasp of Kohelet / praising the dead, which are already dead / more than the living, which are yet alive.
Read more >>
Humor
How to Have a Civil Conversation About Israel
1. Give up. 2. Devote a large portion of your life to avoiding the subject. 3. Respond to a mid-life crisis by seeking comfort in tradition while at the same time avoiding the constraints of religious practice…
Read more >>
Humor
Excerpts from a Diary
March 28, 1964: Father has been acting quite secretive this week—I think he’s obsessed with hiding the afikomen so I can’t find it this time. Last year he seemed disappointed that I found it so quickly—also, that I wasn’t so thrilled with my present, a simple yo-yo that I felt unsuitable for a sophisticated five-year-old such as myself.
Read more >>
