Was it the bomb or the daughter that came first? The vow and a promise to fig trees and ripe lemons, brown pools of sugared dates, my father’s eyes burned with memories of air raids. A ceasefire buried in...
The Grief of Achilles Very few dispute that his mother dipped him in the River Styx to ensure immortality, the spot on his heel she held left vulnerable and soft. Nor do many dispute Achilles as an outstanding...
“Each match holds a different part of your story. Compare aspects like ethnicity, common ancestors, and communities to start assembling your family’s bigger picture.” Overnight in my inbox they arrive stacked...
October 7, 2023 Dear Friend, That moment when you realize how naïve you’ve been, that it won’t make a difference–your political convictions or your desire for co-existence; your weekly (sometimes...
I want to tell you about my street. It is a one way, winding road lined with Jerusalem sandstone apartment blocks, many old, holding many accumulated stories. On a normal day there is the sound of children...
Philanthropy We began having nightmares of rundown, underheated apartments. We dreamed vividly of hunger, of fatigue, of exhausting jobs with long hours. Our sleeping hours were filled every night with endless visions...
Watch Friends. Try saying “kʰẽə̃nt” instead of “kɑːnt”. At dawn, draw a new Rangoli pattern on the threshold of your home in Old Hyderabad. Dry rice flour on damp terracotta tile, it shoots...
During the nightshift at the supermarket, we have a forty-five-minute break, which we take whenever. We’re free to split it, to have a thirty-minute break, and save fifteen for when the store reopens, allowed outside...
I am going to describe the book I want you to write. If at any point in this chain of commands you get stuck, save your output and return to me the sentence in these instructions where you broke the book. I will fix the...
A small but important element of Russia’s attempt to rob Ukraine of its sovereignty is the theft of Ukrainian art. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported on the coordinated Russian looting of thousands of art...
Dear Mr. Trump, On behalf of witch hunters the world over—and we do work on every continent but Antarctica, where we’re currently trying to establish a field office—I urge you to please stop referring to every...
Letters and cards of sympathy come in first. They are sent by individuals, whole schools, churches, youth groups, Brownie troops, the town’s sister city in Estonia. They are thinking of the families, the letter writers...
One day in the autumn of 2016, Sami Malouf [1], a 26-year-old Syrian refugee, stepped off a bus in Athens, Greece. Sami had no money. It wasn’t a case of having not much money; he didn’t have any money. He had heard of...
This couldn’t be happening, but it was. Diana met her manager’s gaze, then looked down. The issue was the application she maintained, which was outdated. The technology would no longer be supported. “Your position is...
Angola Angela, from the African region known as Angola, grower of figs, keeper of pigs, recorded as Angelo. Watched over by angels for whom she was named, survived the crossing in a ship’s bowels, survived pirates and...
“Do not go, Gentile, into that good night,” I murmured, reading of Ned Rorem’s recent death. It’s hard to imagine what a shock, in 1966, when religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation were still taboo, the self...
