Only Yesterday

FromIsrael in Translation

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Only Yesterday

FromIsrael in Translation

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Length:

7 minutes

Released:

May 7, 2014

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Remembering Israel’s Nobel Laureate in Literature, Shai Agnon, and his masterpiece, Only Yesterday (Tmol Shilshom), which describes the founding of Tel Aviv and the first building outside the Old City of Jerusalem.Playlist: Rita - Take me Under Your WingVarious artists - Sleepy Jaffa (Nama Yafo Nama)

Released:

May 7, 2014

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Exploring Israeli literature in English translation. Host Marcela Sulak takes you through Israel’s literary countryside, cityscapes, and psychological terrain, and the lives of the people who create it.

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I have been planted with the pines: Lea Goldberg is the best-selling poet in the history of Israel. Many of her poems express both a love of the land of Israel, as well as nostalgia for her abandoned home in the diaspora. Do you know which university department she founded and chaired?... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Rahel The Poet: The mother of Hebrew Poetry, and one of the first women poet's in theHebrew language since the Biblical Deborah. She switched from paining artand playing music to painting with the soil and playing with the hoe. Book: Flowers of Perhaps. A... by Israel in Translation
5 min listen
Only Yesterday: Remembering Israel’s Nobel Laureate in Literature, Shai Agnon, and his masterpiece, Only Yesterday (Tmol Shilshom), which describes the founding of Tel Aviv and the first building outside the Old City of Jerusalem.Playlist: Rita - Take me... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
On love and spices: A teenaged spice-shop owner and professional scribe, Shmuel Hanagid wrote such scintillating and literary love letters that a client hired him for bigger and better things. His work was lost for nearly 1,000 years and rediscovered only in the... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
The Israeli detective novel: Israelis have not been writing detective fiction for very long; Batya Gur’s 1992 The Saturday Morning Murder: a psychoanalytic case was the first Israeli crime novel to reach a wide American Audience. In her 2005 obituary, the New York Times... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Neomi Shemer: Naomi Shemer is “The first lady of Israeli song and poetry.” She wroteJeruslaem of Gold” in 1967 and it became the unofficial second anthem of Israel after the Six-Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem. Text: Jerusalem of... by Israel in Translation
10 min listen
Rivka Miriam on asking forgiveness: We're now in the month of Elul, the last month in the Jewish calendar, which leads up to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur festivals. We explore Elul's themes of creation and forgiveness through two poems by Rivka Miriam. Rivka Miriam was a... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Yaakov Shabtai's vernacular: Discover Yaakov Shabtai’s single-paragraph novel, Past Continuous, the first truly vernacular work in the Hebrew language. Find out how to build community housing out of shipping crates. Books: Past Continuous. A Novel. Translated Dalya Bilu.... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
The 'pessoptimist' who worked for coexistence: Born in Haifa in 1922, Emile Habibi worked in the city's oil refinery before moving to the Palestinian broadcasting station in Jerusalem. Habibi was a lone voice calling for the acceptance of the UN plan for the division of Palestine into an Arab and... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
There was a dream; it passed: Hayyim Nahman Bialik was one of the pioneers of Hebrew poetry. Hear the National Poet of Israel sung by Arik Einstein, who created the"Soundtrack of Israel." Find out about the fascinating Bialik house, and his songs and activities for... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
The spectacular fly in the ointment of the Andalusian-Jewish elite: It's great to be living in a city whose streets are named for so many poets and writers, but who are these people and what exactly did they write? In this segment we'll learn about the main north-south street of Tel Aviv, Ibn Gavirol, and the... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
The founder of Cultural Zionism: Just one of the people: Ahad Ha'am Street occupies the heart of Tel Aviv; it's full of grand Bauhaus buildings and artistic cafes, with Tel Aviv's Great Synagogue on the corner. Ahad Ha'am means "one of the people" in Hebrew, and is the pen name of Asher Zvi Ginzberg, the... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
The Andalusian poet who turned complaining into an art form: Moshe Ben Ezra was a fine Andalusian poet, as well as the chief of the Granada police. Listen to a couple of poems from the guy who made complaining a form of art. Book: The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
On love and spices: A teenaged spice-shop owner and professional scribe, Shmuel Hanagid wrote such scintillating and literary love letters that a client hired him for bigger and better things. His work was lost for nearly 1,000 years and rediscovered only in the... by Israel in Translation
5 min listen
Sholem Aleichem: 'The Jewish Mark Twain': Having grown up in a shtetl near Kiev, Sholem Aleichem wrote about the extreme poverty, pettiness and greatness of shtetl life, as well as the threat of conscription into the Russian army, pogroms and intermarriage. But, like the American author Mark... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
Defeating armies and taking names: How two Israeli women defeated a few ancient armies and saved the day — and then wrote a little poem about it. Today we explore the life and poetry of that force to be reckoned with, Deborah the Prophet. With sounds from: The Bible, narrated... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
A poet beloved by one and all: The poet Zelda Schneersohn Mishkovsky was Amos Oz's first love, first cousin to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and beloved by all Israelis, religious or secular. Book: The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems. Trans. Marcia Falk. Cincinnati, Hebrew Union... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
Nisim Aloni's terrifying 'To Be a Baker': Nisim Aloni was born into a poor family in the South Tel Aviv neighborhood of Florentine in 1926. He enlisted in the Notrut, a Jewish militia operating as an auxiliary police alongside the British, and he fought in the 1948 war. Though Aloni is... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
The hymnal poet-paver of the roads of Israel: Called 'Lashonsky' for his comic wit, linguistic innovations and irrepressible puns, every child in Israel knows Avraham Shlonsky's version of the German Rumpelstiltskin fairytale: Utzli Gutzli. His upbringing was one of religion and agricultural... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
A poet tough as nails: Hannah Szenes was only 23 years old when she was executed before a firing squad in Nazi-occupied Budapest. She was attempting to rescue Jews who were about to be deported to Auschwitz. In her short life, she became a poet, farmer, and... by Israel in Translation
6 min listen
Know your roots: The Founder of Hebrew Spanish Poetry, Dunash ben Labrat, also made your ulpan studies possible. He was the first to distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs in Hebrew, and to catalog verbs by the 3-letter roots. His smart, talented wife... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Young and strong and living through a big adventure: Passing by Anne Frank St in Tel Aviv has inspired us to take a fresh look at the young diarist whose words inspired the world. Before she died in Bergen Belsen, Anne Frank said, "Despite everything, I believe that people are, at heart, really... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
Ruth the Moabite: Judaism's most famous convert: 'Ruth' is a little street in Tel Aviv, nested near Dizengoff Square and off the other little streets named after Biblical heroines such as 'Esther HaMalka.' Both Ruth and Esther were immigrants, and so it's appropriate that the Ministry of Absorbtion... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Yocheved Bat Miriam, a poet on the threshold: Yocheved Bat Miriam is unique among Hebrew language poets for holding the land of her birth and the land of her life in equal esteem. Born in Russia in 1901, she published her first book of poetry, Merahok ("From a distance"), in Palestine in 1929. A... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
The Renaissance Man from Odessa: Shaul Tchernihovsky was a physician, linguist, naturalist, and poet who translated from 15 different literatures into Hebrew. Music: Shlomo Artzi - You don’t know Yarden Bar Kochva -They say there is a land Arik Lavie -I believe Book: The... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
Yehuda Amichai's 'Wildpeace': Yehuda Amichai is probably the most widely translated Hebrew poet since King David. He says, “I grew up in a very religious household... So the prayers, the language of prayer itself became a kind of natural language for me.” But Amichai... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
Yom Kippur's Poetry of Awe: Today we explore Yom Kippur through the poetry of Yehuda Amichai and Shelley Elkayam, and the music of Leonard Cohen and Chayim Moshe. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, when God seals the verdict on each person's fate for the... by Israel in Translation
7 min listen
'The Hilltop' shows us the view from both sides of the separation wall: Assaf Gavron's novel The Hilltop follows the lifespan of an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank which, as in a fairytale, comes into being ostensibly to satisfy a woman and child's innocent longing for salad greens. The narrative follows two... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
'Valley of Strength': Feminism in the Zionist narrative: Poet, novelist, and playwright Shulamit Lapid was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. She is the mother of Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid. All of her novels, with one exception, feature female protagonists, and most address social issues and ethnic... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen
Mendele Mocher Sforim: The grandfather of Yiddish literature, and one of the founders of “modern” Jewish literature, Mendele Mocher Sforim. He "wanted to be useful to his people rather than gain literary laurels,” and his satirical, critical stories got... by Israel in Translation
8 min listen

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Dory Manor’s “The Language Beneath the Skin”: This week, Marcela takes a step back from the literature itself to look at the language of the words we use. The idea of the podcast, Israel in Translation, is that the works discussed were written originally in a language other than English—indeed,... by Israel in Translation
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Ayelet Tsabari’s “Savta”: Marcela shares the second installment of a three-part podcast on Ayalet Tsabari’s important and beautiful memoir, The Art of Leaving. Although it was written in English, Tsabari’s native language is Hebrew. This episode gives us a glimpse of... by Israel in Translation
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A. B. Yehoshua’s “The Lover”: On this episode, Marcela highlights The Lover, the first novel by A. B. Yehoshua, which he wrote in 1977. Yehoshua has been called the Israeli Faulkner, perhaps because of this novel. It is narrated from the point of view of each of its six main... by Israel in Translation
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Meir Shalev’s “Four Meals”: Meir Shalev has been featured on two previous episodes. Four Meals is his third of eight novels. He’s also published 7 works of nonfiction and 13 children’s books. Four Meals is the story of Zayde, his enigmatic mother Judith, and her three... by Israel in Translation
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Batya Gur’s “Murder on a Kibbutz”: On this episode, Marcela revisits Batya Gur, who introduced the murder mystery into Hebrew literature. Gur’s highbrow mysteries are often set in closed communities that mirror issues in the greater Israeli society. You can hear a previous podcast on... by Israel in Translation
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Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land”: This book catapulted Ari Shavit into the international spotlight. The book was a New York Times best seller and listed by the Times in its “100 Notable Books of 2013.” The Economist named it as one of the best books of 2013 and it received the... by Israel in Translation
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Yaniv Iczkovits’s “The Slaughterman’s Daughter”: On this episode, Marcela reads an excerpt from Yaniv Iczkovits’s novel . It is translated from the Hebrew by Orr Sharf. The protagonist of this book is the titular character, Fanny Keismann, who leaves her home and her wonderful husband, a... by Israel in Translation
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Ayelet Tsabari’s “Yemenite Recipes”: Today, Marcela finishes the three-part series on Ayalet Tsabari’s wonderful memoir, The Art of Leaving, with her favorite thing: cooking! This episode unveils the secrets of Tsabari’s family kitchen. You’re going to want to take notes for... by Israel in Translation
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Vaan Nguyen’s Poetry Collection: “The Truffle Eye”: In her introduction to Vaan Nguyen’s collection, Adriana X. Jacobs writes, “Nguyen’s poetry may circulate in the Anglophone literary market as part of an increasingly visible Vietnamese literary diaspora… And yet, introducing Nguyen’s poetry... by Israel in Translation
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Lali Tsipi Michaeli’s “The Mad House”: Have you seen the Crazy House on HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv? It’s a highrise that looks like pink cement, with some metallic puffed cream lobbed at the front of it? Or at least that’s how it seems to Marcela. It used to look that way to the poet... by Israel in Translation
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Yishai Sarid’s “The Memory Monster”: Yishai Sarid’s The Memory Monster takes the form of a report by the narrator, a young Israeli Holocaust scholar, written to his superior from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, and raises ethical questions about the struggle to... by Israel in Translation
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Hayim Nahman Bialik’s “Random Harvest”: School has begun, and once again children are learning how to read, encountering the alphabet for the first time. Hopefully it is a pleasant and magical time, but here is a story of a boy who feared his teacher, although he loved the alphabet. It’s... by Israel in Translation
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Tehila Hakimi’s “COMPANY”: As we labor under unbelievable pressures and uncertainties of the pandemic, especially women who have children at home, it might make us feel a little better to see that the writer Tehila Hakimi already envisioned what work in 2020 would be like back... by Israel in Translation
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Rachel (Ra’hel) Bluwstein’s “Transformation”: It’s Sukkot again! Over the years in this podcast we’ve focused on various aspects of this holiday — inviting guests, selecting an etrog, the transitory nature of our existence on earth. This time, Marcela focuses on the agricultural aspects —... by Israel in Translation
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Ayelet Tsabari’s Memoir, “The Art of Leaving”: This week, amidst the holidays, Marcela celebrates by reading an excerpt from Ayelet Tsabari’s newly published memoir, The Art of Leaving. Text: by Israel in Translation
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Yochi Brandes’ “The Orchard”: On this episode, Marcela features Yochi Brandes’ ninth book, The Orchard. It is the second to be translated into English, this time by Daniel Libenson. The Orchard tells the story of the venerated yet enigmatic Rabbi Akiva, placing him in... by Israel in Translation
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“Three”: D. A. Mishani’s Thriller Read: Marcela has got a thriller for you! Three, by D. A. Mishani, is a page turner that tells the stories of three women: Orna, a divorced single-mother looking online for a new relationship; Emilia, a deeply religious Latvian immigrant on a spiritual... by Israel in Translation
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“The Tunnel”: It may sound crazy, but A. B. Yehoshua has written a page-turner about an aging engineer in the early stages of dementia, which features descriptions of highway construction in great detail. How on earth did he do this? Well, perhaps it is the honest... by Israel in Translation
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Meir Shalev’s “My Wild Garden”: With the world hit hard by the pandemic, Marcela has been taking consolation in nature, noting, as well, the benefits on the flora and fauna around us when we humans withdraw a little from the world and allow nature more space. The March arrival of... by Israel in Translation
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Miri Ben-Simhon’s “The Absolute Reader”: Miri Ben-Simhon was born into a Moroccan family, on the near bottom of the social scale. She grew up and remained in Jerusalem. Her poetry faces Mizrahi women’s lives in Israel straight on. The literary critic Yitzhak Laor once noted about... by Israel in Translation
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Shimon Adaf’s “Aviva-No”: This week, Marcela examine Shimon Adaf’s wrenching and linguistically innovative elegy to his sister, who died at the age of 43. Aviva-No is Adaf’s third collection of poetry, and it won the 2010 Yehuda Amichai Prize. It has been... by Israel in Translation
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Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Israel in Translation

Related podcast episodes