Issue

28

Sept 2021 / Rosh Hashana 5782

Preface

Welcome to our Rosh Hashana issue! Here you’ll find 12 delightful stories, as refreshing as apples and as sweet as honey, originally written in five languages: Czech, Hungarian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. The Czech story, “Luck,” is the first one we’ve published translated from that language, and this brings to 17 the number of languages represented in Jewish Fiction .net. (Just one more and we’re at 18 – chai!) Also, in honour of the upcoming holiday, our new issue includes a Rosh Hashana story: “Here I Am.”

As we enter this new year, we bid farewell to what has been a very exciting year for Jewish Fiction .net as we celebrated our 10th anniversary. Our celebrations included two major, well-attended virtual events about Jewish fiction and Jewish Fiction .net (one event sponsored by the National Library of Israel; the other by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute), as well as numerous articles and interviews about us in the American, Israeli, and Canadian media. You can access here all of these articles, as well as the recordings of the two virtual events.

We hope this issue of Jewish Fiction .net brings you pleasure, new ideas, and comfort during these challenging days.

To you and your loved ones, we wish good health and much happiness in the coming year. Shana tova and gmar hatima tova from all of us at

Jewish Fiction .net

Sort:

Editor's Choice Most Read Progress

A Wife Pawned and Sold

by Jacob Gordin

A Wife Pawned and Sold

Leyzer Khirik set off from the far side of Brisk, from the large city of Zamaline, and headed straight for New York.

10m read Translated from Yiddish by Ruth Murphy

LoveMarriageNon-Jews

Semiformal

by Abigail Beshkin

Semiformal

Rachel's parents had failed to make reservations in time for Parents' Weekend so they are visiting now, almost a month later

29m read

AdolescenceIntermarriageLoveShabbat

Sarah’s Father

by Elaine Midcoh

Sarah’s Father

This story is not about my mother, who had the misfortune of being a Jew in Europe during the Second World War.

14m read

AgingHolocaustNon-Jews

Leonora’s Lament

by Barbara Baer

Leonora’s Lament

Dalia Rosen lay under a steam tent on Pearl Street, two blocks up from the Pacific Ocean. When she coughed

15m read

AntisemitismChildhoodHolocaust

The Scar

by Péter Moesko

The Scar

My grandpa can already walk on his own. He had been practicing for a month and a half using a walker; today was the first time he managed to walk

27m read Translated from Hungarian by Walter Burgess and Marietta Morry

AdolescenceAgingChildhood

Nesher

by Sara McKinney

Nesher

Last summer, my mother, who had struggled to keep her grasp on the present for what seemed my entire adult life

27m read

AgingHolocaustMourningShiva

Luck

by Irena Dousková

Luck

Abram Abramovich and Ivan Ivanovich sat exhausted on a damp, uprooted tree which they had just rolled off the road.

21m read Translated from Czech by David Livingstone

AntisemitismDeathNon-JewsWWII

Here I Am

by Gail Pasternack

Here I Am

Aaron stood at Gemma's bedroom door, listening to her giggle. He couldn't remember the last time he'd heard his daughter laugh.

16m read

MourningRosh Hashana

Neighbors

by Susan Susser

Neighbors

In the early years after I moved to Israel, the Arab women in the English classes I taught at university did not come to school wearing a hijab.

22m read

IsraelNon-Jews

Growing, Burning

by Katherine Berlatsky

Growing, Burning

In front of the rabbi is the creature he has built, a six-foot tall mass of hardened clay with stones for eyes.

25m read

AntisemitismRabbiShabbat

The Chuppah

by Louise Farmer Smith

The Chuppah

One winter night after closing time at his florist shop, Yankel Kline and his employee, Owen Flannery, stood side-by-side at the counter

16m read

AgingLoveNon-JewsWedding

My Ladyfinger

by Levana Moshon

My Ladyfinger

This morning, as I made my way to the greenhouses, I was filled with a sudden joy.

13m read Translated from Hebrew by Yaron Regev

IsraelNon-JewsRebellion