Issue

37

September 2024 / Rosh Hashana 5785

Preface

Welcome to this brilliant, 5-language issue of Jewish Fiction! In celebration of its being the first issue since launching our new website, Issue 37 contains 18 (chai!) stories, originally written in German, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, and for the first time… (drum roll)… Ukrainian! This brings to 21 the number of languages from which Jewish Fiction has published translations; and the 18 works in this issue bring to 600 the total number of stories published so far in this journal.

In honour of the upcoming High Holydays, you’ll find in Issue 37 a story set in between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (“Hold Tight”). Also relevant for the holiday is “Yom Kippur in a Gym” (in Issue 35). In addition, in between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur this year we will be commemorating the first anniversary of October 7^th, and so Issue 37 includes 4 stories about that tragic day and its aftermath: “The Book of Names,” “Back from the War,” “Nahariya,” and “Wandering Jewess and Her Two Granddaughters.”

In these challenging days for Israel and Jews worldwide, we hope that our new issue of Jewish Fiction brings you pleasure, solace, and food for thought and the imagination. To you and your loved ones we wish good health, joy, and many blessings in the coming year.

Shana tova and gmar hatima tova from all of us at

Jewish Fiction

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Schönbrunn

by Leonid Solomonovich Pervomaysky

Schönbrunn

At the end of May, I saw Schönbrunn Palace, including the room where Napoleon slept…

19m read Translated from Ukrainian by Alex Gordon

AgingAntisemitismHolocaustLoveNon-JewsWWII

Aunt Rose’s Livelihood

by Musia Landau

Aunt Rose’s Livelihood

Aunt Rose was only a few years older than her youngest sister Etl, who had turned gray very early on, before she was thirty.

7m read Translated from Yiddish by Maurice Wolfthal

AgingFeminist

Hold Tight

by Hannah Saal

Hold Tight

There was a perverse kind of pleasure for Miriam as she watched her friends’ reactions to her statement, a thrill trilling up her spine.

29m read

LoveOrthodox JudaismRosh HashanaYom Kippur

Moishe-Rabeinu

by Amir Tomer

Moishe-Rabeinu

“Mommy! Mommy! Moishe-Rabeinu is here!” I exclaimed, standing in the living room by the window…

9m read Translated from Hebrew by Yaron Regev

AgingChildhoodIsraelRabbi

A Poet?

by Jakob Julius David

A Poet?

It was the middle of February, and it was almost midnight. Quiet had finally, for a short while, settled upon the Zeitungspalas…

56m read Translated from German by John Cox

Wandering Jewess and Her Two Granddaughters

by Rina Lapidus

Wandering Jewess and Her Two Granddaughters

Half a year has passed since the beginning of the war in Israel, which erupted on the 7th of October, 2023.

9m read

AgingAntisemitismDiasporaIsraelMourningOctober 7th

The Book of Names

by Rachel Kowalsky

The Book of Names

“Amit asks those who wish to support his family to pray, have faith, and speak the name” — Interview with the brother of a hostage

9m read

ChildhoodIsraelOctober 7th

Back From the War

by Ellis Shuman

Back From the War

One hundred days after the war began, Roni returned to the office for the first time.

13m read

IsraelLoveOctober 7th

My Grandmother and the Ghost of Brody

by Doreen Stock

My Grandmother and the Ghost of Brody

“We were very poor,” she says to me in the small living room set close to the street, a redwood fence and gate…

24m read

AgingChildhoodDeath

Separating Two Threads

by Rebecca Tiger

Separating Two Threads

As soon as Esther entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor. She stood in the lobby, waiting for the Sabbath elevator…

9m read

AgingMourningOrthodox JudaismShabbat

Nahariya

by Philip Graubart

Nahariya

I read the Facebook message from Elise before the dozen or so emails and texts I received about the massacre.

32m read

AntisemitismHolocaustIsraelLoveOctober 7th

An Out

by Connie Corzilius

An Out

Morris sat his narrow ass on the edge of the armchair, peering at his laptop on the tray table in front of him.

16m read

AgingAntisemitismIntermarriageMarriageNon-JewsSynagogue

Marion

by Emily Sekler Breese

Marion

I stand abruptly and flee, bumping into a few chairs as I reach the bathroom just in the nick of time.

23m read

AdolescenceAgingChildhoodHolocaustMourning

Redemption

by Peter Philipps

Redemption

By the time Herz had maneuvered his swollen feet into a pair of frayed slippers and padded to the window…

13m read

AgingHolocaustMourningShabbatSynagogue

Lost and Found

by Max Burger

Lost and Found

It was after Yom Kippur, in the year I was bar mitzvah’ed, that we heard the news.

26m read

ChildhoodDeathHolocaustShiva

White

by Aviva Rubin

White

The Sunday meal at her grandfather’s dark house featured a cast of recurring characters and events…

17m read

AdolescenceAntisemitism

Lost Time

by Carol Fixman

Lost Time

The late afternoon Maine sun was warm, with a hint of the cool evening air that would soon follow.

29m read

AgingChildhoodHolocaustMourning

Comrades

by Judith Weil

Comrades

Adina hadn’t yet turned onto the sun-blasted coastal road and she was already sweating in the air-conditioned car.

24m read

IsraelKibbutzMarriageMourning