The Feast of Memory: An Exceptional LABA Tradition

The Feast of Memory is an ancient LABA tradition, where everybody is asked to share a food, either tasty or nasty, connected with a personal memory or story.  At the end of the evening, a collective memory emerges, evoking a collective history. Having overcome a mighty hangover, here LABA alum Gordon Haber recalls this year’s feast.  “This

Against the Flow

The Seventh Day Literary Festival, curated by LABA Journal editor Hanan Elstein, celebrates its closing night with “A Wandering Language,” Thursday, December 7th, 7:00PM, at the American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History. LABA’s resident scholar and expat Israeli novelist Ruby Namdar will be discussing his prize-winning new book, The Ruined House

Can Peace be ever achieved in the Middle East?

The Seventh Day: Israeli Literature Fifty Years After the Six-Day War Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting each other over a small piece of land for almost a century. Despite many attempts to resolve this blood-soaked conflict, no one can see an end to it. What elements within Israeli society make a just peace for

Romeo and Juliet face Israeli Reality

Dr. Shirli Sela-Levavi, a literary scholar, returned from our The Seventh Day Festival for Israeli Literature with illuminating insights into the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jewish-Israeli relations to its Other. Romeo and Juliet face Israeli Reality Last week, as part of the ongoing festival for Israeli literature, The Seventh Day (curated by LABA’s

What Will Our Future Look Like?

The Seventh Day: Israeli Literature Fifty Years After the Six-Day War To answer the question of our future, we need to look to the past. And this timeless question—grown even more urgent in these days of global insecurity—runs like a common thread through The Seventh Day Festival. Curated by LABA Journal Editor Hanan Elstein and featuring,

Elana Greenfield discusses “WRENCH: Part IV”

On Thursday, May 11th, LABAlive Three will present an evening of art works and subversive teachings exploring our annual theme, OTHER. The evening will feature teachings by LABA Scholar Ruby Namdar and works by fellows Michael Leibenluft, Laura Beatrix Newmark, and Elana Greenfield, who will present her work in progress, WRENCH: Part IV. Here, Greenfield talks about her project with LABA Journal

Keren Moscovitch, “One More Way Files”

On Thursday, February 9th, LABAlive will present an evening of art works and subversive teachings exploring our annual theme, OTHER. The evening will feature teachings by LABA Scholar Ruby Namdar and works by fellows Gil Sperling , Michael Gac Levin, and Keren Moscovitch, who will present her work in progress, One More Way Files. Here, Moscovitch talks about her project and

Ascending the Tower of Babel

A Word From the Divine Ruby Namdar and Hanan Elstein for the LABA Journal A few weeks past LABA’s session on the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), LABA Scholar Ruby Namdar and LABA Journal Editor Hanan Elstein, both still in awe of this remarkably condensed yet multilayered biblical short story, sat down over some fine

Gil Sperling on “A Yiddishe Wagner”

On Thursday, February 9th, LABAlive will present an evening of art works and subversive teachings exploring our annual theme, OTHER. The evening will feature teachings by Ruby Namdar and works by fellows Keren Moscovitch, Michael Gac Levin, and Gil Sperling, who would present his work in progress, A Yiddishe Wagner. Here, Sperling talks about his project with LABA Journal Editor,

Michael Gac Levin discusses “Law & Order: Express”

On Thursday, February 9th, LABAlive will present an evening of art works and subversive teachings exploring our annual theme, OTHER. The evening will feature teachings by Ruby Namdar and works by fellows Gil Sperling, Keren Moscovitch, and Michael Gac Levin, who would present his work in progress, Law & Order: Express. Here, Gac Levin talks