with Dr. Menachem Rotstein

Hebrew prose fiction emerged in the state of Israel from roots planted in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century. We will trace its growth and evolution through a close reading of a handful of short stories by masters of the craft, whose personal experience was refracted in the subjects, ideas and styles they chose.

Authors and Works to be discussed:

→ Shmuel Y. Agnon, “The Lady and the Peddlar”

→ Aharon Appelfeld, “Bertha”

→ Yizhar Smilansky, “Hirbet Hiz’ah”

→ Binyamin Tammuz, “The Swimming Race”

Dr. Menachem D. Rotstein earned a PhD in modern Hebrew literature at Brandeis University. He taught at Boston’s Hebrew College, McGill and for the past four decades at Concordia University. He has contributed essays in the field in a number of American and Israeli journals.