At the beginning of \”For One More Day,\” Mitch Albom\’s latest sermon on life, death and the realms beyond, fallen baseball star Charles \”Chick\” Benetto attempts suicide.
Although had she expressed a desire to become a professional cook, Fine is convinced that her mother \”would have freaked.\” Cooking was thought of as \”such an ordinary job, one that simply wasn\’t OK for nice Jewish girls,\” Fine said.
Whether they\’re secular or religious, Jewish astronomers are part of a venerable tradition of inquiry and teaching. And the light transmitted by this tradition shines just as brightly in the upcoming generation of space scientists.
Community Briefs.
One should read Israeli writers, of course — Agnon, Amichai, A.B. Yehoshua, Aharon Appelfeld, Orly Castel-Bloom, Etgar Keret. But the more appropriate template may come from fellow Americans, writers who, by exploring the Diaspora Jew\’s relationship to Israel, have gone down this road before.
\”Absurdistan\” (Random House, $24.95), Gary Shteyngart\’s extraordinary new novel, takes us on a no-holds-barred journey from post-communist Russia to a mythical former Soviet Union state he calls Absurdistan, with stop-offs in between to his beloved New York City. Q & A session.
Why are there so many young, hip Jews writing fiction that irreverently pokes fun at their heritage?
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