Tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah, and to celebrate, Marcela reads an abridgement from Mendele Mokher Serforim’s short story, “What is Chanukah?” It features two speakers, Shmuel, for whom a Hanukkah miracle occurred, and his friend Ignatz.

Here’s a little love poem for you, by Ory Bernstein. Bernstein is responsible for some of the loveliest love poetry written in Hebrew. It’s from “A One and Only Love”, which was translated by Ory himself.

Shimon Adaf and Lavie Tidhar’s new book, “Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction”, is a dialogue about their approach to writing the fantastic, writing about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end.

Shimon Adaf and Lavie Tidhar’s new book, “Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction”, is a dialogue about their approach to writing the fantastic, writing about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end.

Sabina Messeg is considered the founder of Israeli eco-poetry. On this episode, Marcela shares her love for the way Messeg’s flora act as main characters in her poems.

On this episode, Marcela reads poetry by Israeli-Arab poet Dareen Tatour, who was recently released after a 3.5 year legal battle. Tatour was incarcerated for incitement to violence and supporting terrorist organizations on social media. The incitement was within her poems, which were used as evidence in her trials and hearings.

Alex Epstein’s short stories are sometimes as short as a single sentence, and have been described as examples of the “philosophical, or allegorical short-short story.” Born in 1971 in St. Petersburg, Epstein moved to the Israeli city of Lod when he was eight years old.

On this episode, Marcela reads three of the six parts of Sharron Hass’s poem “Dinner With Joachim,” which is a critical inquiry into light as the root of rational thought.

Mordechai Geldman’s work is often informed by his experience as a psychotherapist. “My poetry comes from the inner void that meditation creates,” Geldman writes in his preface to his collected works.

It’s Sukkot—which lasts seven days in Israel. It is a time to remind ourselves how fleeting life is, and that we should seek a deeper meaning besides the fulfillment of material goods. Marcela reads her translation of “Kohelet.”