Benjamin Balint & Matti Friedman: 1973 & 2023
On today’s episode, Abe spoke with two brilliant Jerusalem-based journalists, Ben Balint and Matti Friedman. Ben’s most recent book, Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History won the 2024 National Jewish Book Award in biography. Matti Friedman is the author, most recently, of Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.
When Abe asked them how they were processing the tragedy, they said, characteristically, that they’ve been doing so through writing. In our Winter issue, Matti wrote a brilliant reflection on the novel Adjusting Sights by Haim Sabato, a great Hebrew novel about the Yom Kippur War, while Ben dived into a new biography about Golda Meir by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.
Their work has helped them consider the unsettling similarities between today’s war, and the war of fifty years ago, and the discussion is wide-ranging, exploring the question of when we can begin to write about events, the uniquely Israeli perspective of Haim Sabato’s novel, and the ways that both Sabato and Meir wove the past in with their present through the use of story.
Suggested Reading
Leon’s Roar
A new book explores Leon Modena's crusade against Kabbalah in 17th-century Italy.
Something Was Missing
When it was time for new MK Ruth Calderon to speak to Knesset for the first time, she told a Talmudic story and created a YouTube sensation. Her book has now been translated.
Zion and Party Politics, 1944
In the summer of 1944 support for Zionism was transformed from a low-risk political gesture to a bona fide election issue. FDR was not pleased.
Rereading Herzl’s Old-New Land
A bad novel, but an important and prescient book.
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