Issue

4

Jun 2011 / 19th of Sivan, 5771

Preface

Welcome! With great delight we welcome you to the fourth issue of Jewish Fiction .net, which also marks the completion of our inaugural year. And what a great year this has been! We’ve published over 50 first-rate Jewish stories or novel excerpts, written on five continents and in six languages, that had never previously appeared in English. We hope that these wonderful works of literature have given you insights, pleasure, and illumination.

In September Jewish Fiction .net will be starting another exciting year. Before completing this first one, though, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our extraordinary volunteers, including our devoted manuscript reviewers and copy editor, and all the other individuals who have spontaneously contacted us to offer their ideas, skills, and assistance. We thank, as well, the hundreds of authors who have submitted their work to us over the past year. And we thank you, our readers, for your love of Jewish stories and your encouraging emails that help sustain our commitment to this project.

We also wish to thank those of you who have made donations to this journal over the past year. We will be starting our first fundraising campaign in September (we already provide tax receipts for all American and Canadian donations), and look forward to your generous response.

Now onto this splendid 4th issue of Jewish Fiction .net! – just in time to supply you with some great summer reading. This issue contains 13 delightful and thought-provoking stories, originally written in Serbian, Hebrew, or English.

Enjoy these terrific stories! Share them with your family and friends. And have a wonderful summer!

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Editor's Choice Most Read Progress

Longing for Olga

by Aharon Megged

Longing for Olga

On the third day of his silence, at five o'clock in the evening, Albert left his apartment with a frame-rattling slam of the door. Elena jumped up, ran to the door and opened it, calling "Where to?"

45m read Translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston

AgingMarriage

The Things We Cherished

by Pamela Jenoff

The Things We Cherished

Breslau, 1940 Roger wiped his boots on the mat and looked up expectantly. Forty-three, the number above the doorway of the row house read.

21m read

AntisemitismHolocaustLoveMarriage

A Miami Tale

by Lewis Moyse

A Miami Tale

She was an unclean force. That was the way we thought of her. There did not seem to be any other words to make her known.

32m read

AgingAntisemitismHolocaust

Encounter: A Conversation Between Two Converts

by Gordana Kuic

Encounter: A Conversation Between Two Converts

Late one evening, a loud, sharp rapping at the Salom’s door awakened Solomon...

23m read Translated from Serbian by Chrstina Pribichevich

ConversionLoveMarriage

First Fight

by Mark Leib

First Fight

There were several mysteries on the day that Doug Feldman fought Hobie Eisenman in front of Beth Ami Synagogue while a gaggle of astonished boys and girls looked on.

13m read

Childhood

Talisman

by Sara Lippmann

Talisman

I am out with the stroller again. "Angel," I hear on Seventh Avenue. There’s a sanitation worker in a unit of four twenty feet down the block.

12m read

Mourning

Brigitta’s Man

by Savyon Liebrecht

Brigitta’s Man

One Saturday it seemed to me I had succeeded in teaching my father seven new words in English, but two days later only one was still hanging on in his memory.

8m read Translated from Hebrew by Evan Fallenberg

Aging

Family Theatre

by Mordechai Beck

Family Theatre

It was a sultry midweek afternoon in Jaffa and we were chaperoning our offspring from one set of dark mauve shadows to another, like a family of gypsies fleeing before invisible pursuers.

19m read

ChildhoodIsraelMarriage

Baby in the Snow

by Lara Vapnyar

Baby in the Snow

My grandfather was born in 1907 in a Ukrainian village called Talalaevka. There weren’t any cars, buses or trolleys there at the time, there wasn’t the nice and fast Moscow subway...

21m read

AgingChildhood

Sunburnt Faces

by Shimon Adaf

Sunburnt Faces

She was awakened by the yowling of cats in heat and in the dim weightiness of awakening consciousness she carried on listening, but it gradually faded...

76m read Translated from Hebrew by Margalit Rodgers and Anthony Berris

AdolescenceBat MitzvahChildhood

The Pickpocket

by Naomi Benaron

The Pickpocket

Gabriel can’t help it. Each time he watches the Astronomical Clock strike the hour in the old town square in Prague, he sees his own death.

21m read

AgingChildhoodDeathHolocaust

Mother’s Milk

by Ruchama King Feuerman

Mother’s Milk

Mikhail looked down at his chest, past his black beard bristling with its fresh trim, and frowned.

19m read

AntisemitismChildhoodNon-Jews

Decent Exposure

by Simi Monheit

Decent Exposure

My father had a criminal record for indecent exposure. The story goes that early in their courtship my father hit upon the highly romantic notion of taking my mother boating.

26m read

AdolescenceHolocaust