The Newsletter of Fig Tree Books

November '24: Issue #60 --- Fredric D. Price, Founder & Publisher

Our fifth anniversary issue!

NEW BOOK RELEASE:

It Takes Two to Torah,

by Abigail Pogrebin and Rabbi Dov Linzer - Interview

What happens when a seemingly odd couple becomes friends and Torah study buddies?

Reform journalist Abigail Pogrebin and Orthodox Rabbi Dov Linzer show genuine warmth and respect for one another while not dancing around their differences

By RENEE GHERT-ZAND 

15 September 2024

In 2009, a male Orthodox rabbi and a female Reform journalist walked into a Jewish retreat and left as Torah study partners.

“Our exchange of ideas at the retreat really sparked a sort of unlikely friendship. Our Jewish differences run deep. We come from different ends of the spectrum regarding observance and approach to faith, but we just kept talking,” said journalist and author Abigail Pogrebin.

Over the next nine years, Pogrebin stayed in touch regularly with Rabbi Dov Linzer, president and rabbinic head at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, New York.

Linzer asked Pogrebin for advice on op-ed pieces he wrote, and Pogrebin asked Linzer for feedback on the manuscript for a book she wrote about the annual cycle of Jewish holidays. Sometimes, they would meet for coffee to discuss leadership challenges — his at his yeshiva and hers as president of a prominent synagogue in Manhattan. No matter the reason to talk, Torah always crept into the conversation.

ABIGAIL POGREBIN is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew—a National Jewish Book Award finalist—and Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish. She’s written for the Atlantic, the Forward, and Tablet, and moderates conversations for the Streicker Center and the Jewish Broadcasting Service. 

RABBI DOV LINZER is the President and Rosh HaYeshiva (Rabbinic Head) of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an Orthodox rabbinical school and Torah center, which promotes a more open and inclusive Orthodoxy. He has written for the Forward, Tablet and the New York Times, published widely, and hosted highly popular Torah podcasts.

MUSLIM to JEWISH CONVERT:

activist Khaled Hassan talks Israel - interview

“It was a very happy childhood,” Khaled Hassan, 34, told The Jerusalem Post from his home in the UK. A national security and foreign policy researcher and social media activist, Hassan elaborated on his childhood in Cairo in the middle-class Maadi neighborhood. “It’s one of the oldest and most diverse neighborhoods in the city, with many diplomats living there, including the Israeli ambassador.”

Hassan was born to a Muslim family, which he described as “open-minded, secular, and middle class.” He attended an American school, where his education was almost entirely in English, except for religion and Arabic studies. “I believe having English made me who I am today because it allowed me to access narratives completely opposed to what I saw around me,” he said.

Hassan developed an interest in politics, international relations, and security, which he studied at university. Later on, he was employed at the UN and worked his way up, becoming acquainted with key personalities in the Egyptian political sphere.

“At some point, I became intrigued by Judaism,” he said. “As part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which I call ‘the Muslim Jewish conflict,’ I was very curious to learn and read about Judaism and find different narratives and perspectives.”

BOOK: On Settler Colonialism, by Adam Kirsch

A prominent public intellectual tackles one of the most crucial political ideas of our moment.



Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October 7, the term “settler colonialism” has become central to public debate in the United States. A concept new to most Americans, but already established and influential in academic circles, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the United States, Israel and Palestine, and a host of political issues.

This short book is the first to examine settler colonialism critically for a general readership. By critiquing the most important writers, texts, and ideas in the field, Adam Kirsch shows how the concept emerged in the context of North American and Australian history and how it is being applied to Israel. He examines the sources of its appeal, which, he argues, are spiritual as much as political; how it works to delegitimize nations; and why it has the potential to turn indignation at past injustices into a source of new injustices today. A compact and accessible introduction, rich with historical detail, the book will speak to readers interested in the Middle East, American history, and today’s most urgent cultural-political debates.

JUDAISM and SCIENCE: Schism or Synergy - Sinai and Synapses Free Event at the Steicker Center online and in-person

JEWS OF DIFFERENT HUES:

How an unstoppable Black Jewish woman

from Brookline became a voice for Israel

In a Tel Aviv mall sometime in 2017, Noa Fay saw a Black girl at the register, and a thought struck her: That person is probably Jewish.

That thought mattered because Fay herself is Black and Jewish. Growing up in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner, she knew she stood out from her white Jewish peers. Even in an explicitly Jewish space like synagogue, strangers never assumed she was Jewish like they did her white friends. Once at a shul event in Lexington, a woman tried to explain to her what a rabbi was. Fay’s mother, who was with her, responded, “She had a bat mitzvah.”

The only other Jewish Black people she knew were her brother, sister, and mother. Her mother is Black, French, Ashkenazi, and Native American, and her father is white Ashkenazi. She grew up in a religious Conservative Jewish household, with a kosher kitchen, doing Kabbalat Shabbat at home most Friday nights and going to shul most Saturday mornings. She went to Jewish sleepaway camp in the summers; she was one of just three Black kids in her time there.

ESSAY: An Italian Jewish family’s story rebuilt, by Denis Passalent 

When I discovered that a Jewish family once lived in my hometown, I tried to reintegrate them into my village’s story

Every corner of Jerusalem has a myriad of stories and anecdotes to reveal. They often span centuries, if not thousands of years. Not too far from Jerusalem’s Old City, the Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art preserves some of these meaningful secrets and icons of beauty. Unknown to many locals, this tiny space is home to hundreds of artefacts and pieces of art which connect the land of Israel to Italy, or in Hebrew, I-Tal-Yah, meaning the island of God’s dew.

Originally from Italy, Denis Passalent completed his tertiary education at Cà Foscari University of Venice (Italy), Université Aix-Marseille (France) and ACU (Australia) in Linguistics, French Literature and Language Teaching respectively. Denis is based in Australia and is a Secondary School Teacher in Melbourne. Among his fields of interest, he is passionate about Jewish studies and Holocaust survivor stories.

BOOK EXCERPT: The Habit of Silence, by Deborah Allen

“There’s a blaze of light in every word it doesn’t matter what you heard the holy or the broken hallelujah.” Leonard Cohen 

Shimon Dubnov perished in the Riga ghetto. They say his last words were "Schreib, Idn, schreib..." - "Write, Jews, write..." 

Prologue 

Memoir writers share a deep dread, which translates into a thousand versions of “how dare you?” The truth is so complex, and my relationship with my father wonderful for so many years, how dare I start with something that immediately puts him in a bad light? Is it just to give the book its punchy beginning? Once, in a writing class, we were given ten openings to ten books to read. Every one of them began with something dramatic and difficult, and they got my attention. And, since the truth is so complex, I cannot be clear about why you need to know what went wrong first, but in my case, these were the only clues I had and they led me on a far journey, and I want you to come with me. 

Deborah Allen is a counselor and educator working primarily with chronic pain and trauma recovery. She is also the founder and co-director of Fire in the Heart, a theatre piece that travels into communities with 22 artists speaking in the art forms that saved their lives: gospel, hip hop, classical music; poetry, dance, film, and spoken word. She has 11 grandchildren and is a member of Chadeish Yameinu in Santa Cruz, California. Her writing has appeared in Tikkun, American Theater, Callboard, Takepart.com, The Elephant Journal, Christian Science Monitor and African Farmer. www.healersforum.com