Tablet Magazine

‘He’s Not Here Physically, But His Soul Is Here’

More than two dozen Israeli women were pregnant when their husbands were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. They have come together to support one another.

Eliran and Eden Abergel drove to Tiberias the morning of Oct. 6 to celebrate the Simchat Torah holiday in Eden’s hometown with her parents. It was their second anniversary. As they did on their birthdays and the anniversary of their first date in 2015, the couple toasted each other that night. Each spoke of their happiness together, their love, their hopes for a better year ahead. In hindsight, Eden said, Eliran’s tribute constituted his “parting words.” The next morning, Eliran sped by motorcycle to meet his unit of the police department’s special forces responding to Hamas terrorists’ invasion of the western Negev from the Gaza Strip. He was killed defending Kibbutz Be’eri. He was 29. Today, March 25, is Eden’s 28th birthday. Eliran won’t be there to toast her. Eden buried Eliran on Oct. 10, the day the couple planned to fly to Barcelona for an anniversary vacation. The day shiva ended, Eden learned that she was pregnant with their first child. Noam’s Father Is in the Sky is the title of a children’s book that lay on the Abergels’ dining room table in Hadera when I visited on March 14. The cover drawing depicts a boy reaching for a bright star on a dark night. The woman who wrote the book gave it to Eden after a ceremony dedicating a memorial to Eliran in his hometown of Netanya. “I believe that he’s not here physically, but his soul is here, protecting us from a better place. It will be challenging, not easy, but I believe that with all the support and love from our surroundings, the boy won’t be lacking anything,” Eden told me, sitting on her sofa opposite a shelf unit she bought to display the many framed photographs and illustrations of Eliran that people gave her. “His son will know him, know of him, who his father was, how much he wanted him and loved him. From birth, he’ll know.” ...

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Chatter from the 2023 National Jewish Book Awards

On March 27, the writing community gathered to celebrate the winners of the Jewish Book Council’s 2023 National Jewish Book Awards. We had a chance to attend and chat with some of the hosts and presenters, to hear what it means to be honored in this moment in time.

“The reason why I wrote my novel is because I was looking for a container for my family’s stories about antisemitism in the former Soviet Union. To win an award for that feels like I’m not the only one holding my ancestors’ stories.”

Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy, winner of the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction.

“Because our book is about Israel beyond the conflict, it’s validation that Israel is so much more than that. It’s a maniacal place, a beautiful, flawed place, and it’s ours.”

Benji Lovitt, co-author of Israel 201: Your Next-Lev­el Guide to the Mag­ic, Mys­tery, and Chaos of Life in the Holy Land, winner of the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for Education and Jewish Identity.

“It feels incredibly meaningful to win at this moment. The sephardic story has been kind of overlooked and it’s an extraordinarily rich, pluralistic story with multilingualism and examples of cohabitation. It’s really important to keep looking at history and the extraordinary depth and range of experience. And I hope my story helps continue that.”

Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika, winner of the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic Culture.

“I recognize my role is to bring some levity to this event. I’ve always processed grief and trauma through comedy. It’s not healthy, but I’ve made a career out of it. Now more than ever, it’s important to show the world our diverse opinions, and what better way to honor those stories than with a night like this?”

Bess Kalb, co-host of the 2023 National Jewish Book Awards ceremony, and author of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story.

“The thing I love the most about being a Jewish writer is the idea that there’s always a question at the center of everything we write and that question is never answered. It’s only answered with more questions. And writing in that vein during such an impossible time feels like the only way to cope.”

Sabrina Orah Mark, author of Hap­pi­ly: A Per­son­al His­to­ry-with Fairy Tales, winner of the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for autobiography and memoir.

“Recently I’ve found myself sort of censoring the fact that I’m Jewish. When I was asked to co-host this event, I thought that this was a moment I could proudly be Jewish. The antisemitism I’ve seen everywhere has been something I need to stand up against, and this is my way of doing that.”

Ali­son Rose Green­berg, co-host of the 2023 National Jewish Book Awards ceremony, and author of Maybe Once, Maybe Twice and Bad Luck Brides­maid.

Encyclopedia

Zionism (and anti-Zionism)

[ˈzaɪ-əˌn-ɪz-əm] noun

Zionism is the political movement to establish Jewish self-rule in the historic Jewish homeland, Israel. The Jewish religious and cultural a...

Tablet talks about Judaism a lot, but sometimes we like to change the subject. Maggie Phillips covers religious communities across the U.S.—from Christians to Muslims, Hindus to Baha’i, Jehovah’s Witnesses to pagans—to find out what they’re talking about.

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Unorthodox

Shaken, Not Schnorred

Ep. 405: Interviews with Brett Gelman, Zibby Owens, and The Sporkful’s Dan Pashman, plus news of a Jewish James Bond

March 28, 2024

Zionism: The Tablet Guide

The definitive guide to the past, present, and future of modern Judaism’s most fantastical and magnetic idea—and the West’s most explosive political label.

Read more, and click here to order the book.


On Abortion

The Tab

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Roundtables on the state of the American Jewish community, bringing together people from a shared demographic or background—everyday people with personal opinions, not experts who earn their salaries discussing these issues.

Photographic illustration by Barry Downard/Debut; portait of Black: Nechama Jacobson; original photo of Bob Dylan © Barry Feinstein Photography, Inc. Used with permission from The Estate of Barry Feinstein
Photographic illustration by Barry Downard/Debut; portait of Black: Nechama Jacobson; original photo of Bob Dylan © Barry Feinstein Photography, Inc. Used with permission from The Estate of Barry Feinstein
The New Jews

A montage of iconic moments from the Jewish past points the way to a Jewish future—one driven by a generation of new voices

At least Ruth didn’t have to fret about social media. The only thing this Moabite woman, arguably the world’s first convert to Judaism—and ancestor of one King David—had to do was hold on to her mother-in-law and promise to go whither the older woman went. She wasn’t expected to share photos of her challah rising on Instagram, defend Israel on Twitter, bare her soul on Substack, or cultivate small communities of followers on Facebook. Her journey was decidedly private, intimate, all but forgotten if it weren’t for the Bible’s author peeking in and recording the grandeur of her experience for posterity. Today, we have a new class of Ruths, only this time many of them are trying to negotiate some of the most profound and pressing questions facing Jews—about identity and belonging, about money and politics, about making friends and losing faith—along with public or semipublic profiles. They are new Jews, but—if we are lucky—they will be among the most important Jews in the coming years. To illustrate the role we believe Jews-by-choice are increasingly playing in the American Jewish future, we matched each of our interviewees with an iconic image from the recent American past. Because every religious evolution is a conversion—every day brings with it the possibility of changing in ways until now unexpected—the stories these men and women tell us are particularly meaningful, and their wisdom so keenly appreciated. There are, to be sure, many more who share their trajectory, but here, in their own words, are some thoughts from these visible and inspiring people making their journey back home to Judaism. ...

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An ‘Unorthodox’ Celebration of Conversion

Listen to five years of deeply moving personal stories, audio diaries, and reported segments about Jews by choice around the world

BY TABLET PODCASTS

Women’s History Month

March is officially when we celebrate women’s history month. While we honor the contributions women make to our culture and society every day, this month we take the extra time to highlight it. Read here for Tablet’s extensive coverage of the 25th anniversary of The Jewish Women’s Archive.

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