Members of the Scribe
Transforming the Magical
We were sitting in an upscale café in Northern Tel Aviv waiting to meet with Knesset member Yitzchak “Bougie” Herzog. ...
Can Israel Help American Jews Recall Their Own Forgotten Heroes?
Now that my previous blog established to everyone’s complete satisfaction that Louis Marshall ought to be considered a paramount figure in the ...
Obsession in Blue
We admit it, we are obsessed with blue. Also with seashells and snails. Our house is filled with skeins of ...
Ten Percent of American Jewry’s Top 100 List
Here’s a thought experiment designed to show you how the Jewish world does not work today. Imagine that some extremely ...
Places Never Seen
My most recently published novel, The Other Side of the World, contains a 100-page novel-within-the-novel set entirely in Singapore and Borneo. The ...
Interview: Ben Katchor and Hand-Drying in America
Eddy Portnoy sat down with Ben Katchor to discuss his newest book, Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories, which will be published by Pantheon ...
A Rabbi’s Tale
Some years ago, when I was president of Congregation B’nai Israel, in Northampton, Massachusetts, I wrote a short story I ...
The Art of Silence
Although my novel, The American Sun & Wind Moving Picture Company , is set in the silent film era—it begins ...
In a Class by Themselves: A Jewish Fiction Reading List
A couple of years ago I decided to lead a group of adult learners in a class on Jewish fiction. The ...
Not Feeling the Candy Hearts? Turn Around Your 50 Shades of Abysmal Gray
It’s that time of year…chocolates, flowers, jewelry. Sappy advertisements and red and pink store displays. There are reminders everywhere. It’s Valentine’s ...
I Am Writer. Are You Chopped Liver?
Is it possible to take the ego out of writing? I ask this question because I ask myself why I write, and ...
Writing the Radical Other
In my first novel, I wrote from the point of view of a Nazi. In my new novel, The Wanting , ...