First book-length collection of the work of the celebrated Israeli poet. Reality Crumbs is the first book-length collection in English of the work of the celebrated Israeli poet, playwright, and filmmaker Raquel Chalfi. Versatile and unpredictable, Chalfi’s often visionary and dramatic poetry has been acclaimed for its independence and daring by leading Israeli critics. In the words of poet and critic Eli Hirsch, her work is a “thrilling combination of simplicity and chaos, clarity and mystery.” Ever present in Chalfi’s poetry is the need to touch, to feel the tangible and sensuous, as well as a desire to break all boundaries and smash so-called conventional wisdoms, be they social, cultural, or linguistic. Her poems are often anxious, restless, inquisitive, nearly physical in their constant search for, and chasing after, that one element that will help them get a step closer to grasping the mystery at their center. And if she takes on the persona of a wild biker or a witch, it is not merely to travel freely in the land of fancy and so taste another’s life, but, more importantly, to measure the extent of her empathy.  “Raquel Chalfi’s poems are filled with sharp intelligence, but also passion, gusto, and surprise. You never know where these poems are going, but they are carrying a fully lived life of pleasure and pain with them—and often they will sneak up on you and make you laugh. Or else make you want to dance.” — Alicia Ostriker “This is very wise poetry, insightful, often reminiscent of Wisława Szymborska—in its lucidity, its intellectualism, its new humanism … The range of its subject matter and the consistency of its philosophy are unique and highly impressive.” — Ariel Hirschfeld “Raquel Chalfi electrifies words that are very familiar to us, and makes us see, for the first time, what we have seen many times without seeing. She’s a lyrical poet, subtle and precise, whose work radiates warmth, life, and wisdom.” — Amos Oz “Chalfi’s poetry is complex, it cannot be defined or labeled as belonging to any particular literary trend—a multifaceted poetry, linguistically rich and daring.” — Haaretz “Chalfi is an important poet. There is independence and risk-taking in her work, and she has broken through several literary fences …You can feel the earth shaking under your feet … Her poetry is unique and remarkable … No one writes like her.” — Gabriel Moked “Chalfi tries to seize nothingness, to peel off the layers of spiritual existence … She spreads her broad poetic wings over all this with great momentum and unimaginable gentleness.” — Dimui

Product Description: The Scholarly essays contained in this book by the renowned literary scholar and critic Professor Dan Miron, focus on the sense of national mission of modern Hebrew poetry. It also includes comprehensive introductory monographs on the poetry of Bialik, Greenberg and Nathan Zach, along with a general introduction in which each of the issues discussed in the various essays finds its proper historical place...read more

Product Description: Sholem Aleichem, the towering genius of Yiddish literature, created two of the most celebrated characters in all of Jewish fiction -- Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor's Son. Tevye is the lovable, Bible-quoting father of seven daughters, a modern Job whose wisdom, humor, and resilience inspired the lead character in the classic "Fiddler on the Roof...read more

Product Description: In his essay, Dan Miron suggests a new interpretation of Jewish literary traditions. He argues to focus on the plurality of their diverse diasporic foundations: only a perspective beyond the national allows us to understand, what Jewish Literature was - and still is.

Tells the story of a boy growing up in a Jewish farming community in Palestine and in Tel Aviv between 1917 and 1930, and describes his discovery of the concrete world around him.

Product Description: This volume - a sequel to the author's A traveler disguised - further develops the analysis of the fictionality and aesthetic autonomy of the classics of Yiddish fiction. The essays in this work concentrate on the artistic reconstruction of the world. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This essay chronicles and analyzes the rise and fall of the prophetic poem in modern Hebrew literature. While focusing on H.N. Bialik's contribution, it considers the historical, literary and artistic factors influencing the fate of the prophetic poem from the late 1890s.

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Two novellas by the founder of modern Yiddish fiction--'Fishke the Lame' and 'The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third'--depict small-town Jewish life in Russia

Product Description: In an exposition of writer S.Y. Abramovitsh, this work shows the symbolic importance of his central character, Mendele the Bookseller, and explores the history of Yiddish fiction in Russia during the 19th century. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)