fbpx
Category

journal

Sholem Aleichem, Gogol Show Two Views of Shtetl Jews

Russians, Jews and literature scholars get excited about jubilee years, and for those who fit any of these categories, 2009 is a big year. One hundred and fifty years ago this month, a writer who would immortalize the Russian Jew in literature, Solomon Rabinovich (1859-1916) — better known by his literary persona, Sholem Aleichem — was born in the town of Pereyaslav, near Kyiv. This spring also marks the 200th birthday of Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), who was born about 100 miles to the east of Kyiv, in the town of Sorochintsy. Gogol, too, helped to immortalize the Russian Jew in literature, but in a more problematic way: the Jews who crop up around the margins of his stories, most of them crafty market vendors, money-lenders and tavern keepers, are anti-Semitic stereotypes, an unsettling detail in the work of one of the greatest comic writers of modern literature.\n

The art of keeping a travel journal

I was going through some old boxes the other day when I found a beat up old notebook that contained a journal of my trip to the Philippines almost nine years ago.My travel journals haven\’t been quite so detailed in the years since I returned from the Philippines — mainly due to the professional demands of travel writing, which takes up most of my note-taking time on the road.Nevertheless, I believe that keeping a travel journal can be one of the most rewarding habits a person can keep on the road.

That’s What I Do

If you\’re a single 24-year-old gal looking to meet a preferably Jewish single guy in Los Angeles, you\’d think a good pick-up line might include the words \”I work for The Jewish Journal.\” After all, what better way to convey to the guy-of-interest that you\’re a fellow MOT? But you\’d be wrong.

The Lichtenstein Formula for a Jewish Paper

The role of a Jewish newspaper is to connect the Jewish community, not to unify it,\” said Gene Lichtenstein, founding editor of The Journal.\nDuring his nearly 15-year tenure, which ended in 2000, Lichtenstein\’s formula was to hire good, independent writers and columnists who could produce articles that raised the interest, and frequently the hackles, of both professional and peripheral Jews.

Love, Journal Style?

We\’re compiling the best stories of people who met through The Journal to run as part of our 20th anniversary edition.

Political Journal

Racially motivated brawls at Jefferson High School this spring made the school appear, at times, like a miniwar zone. Which makes it especially interesting that L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) officials are learning lessons from Israeli and West Bank schools, where violence, even terrorism, is an ever-present undercurrent.

The person bringing those lessons to Los Angeles is USC professor Ron Avi Astor, who has spent his career studying school violence in Israel and the United States. His newest book, co-written with Israeli professor Rami Benbenishty of Jerusalem\’s Hebrew University, is titled, \”School Violence in Contest: Culture, Neighborhood, Family, School, and Gender.\” The two scholars conducted studies encompassing 30,000 Israeli students at a time.

Yeladim

At the Jewish Children\’s Bookfest at Mount Sinai on Nov. 14, children were given a journal and asked the following question:

\”What does being Jewish in America mean to me?\”

New Articles

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.