Over the Rooftops of Time

Myra Sklarew

Description

In this collection of essays, stories, and poems, award-winning poet and fiction writer Myra Sklarew traces a journey across the latter half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Her point of view is Jewish, though her subjects include science, exile, the future, the Holocaust, the remaining Jewish community of Morocco, Yiddish poetry, the visual arts, and teaching. Many of these pieces deal with personal subjects—the search for a grandfather's birthplace, the death of a mother, the profound effect of a teacher, the struggle of a woman to embrace Judaism. Whether writing about medicine, Messiah, or the first speech of an infant, Sklarew's work finds its roots in Judaism, a Judaism fashioned in large part by the author's own hands. Ultimately, the book is about access, about following one's own curiosity despite the obstacles that might appear along the way. And it is about a kind of belief: that nothing will be wasted, that all that we can learn will have a place in our lives eventually, though we may not know its purpose at the time.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Learning the Language

The Landscape of Dislocation
From the Backyard of the Diaspora
Learning the Language
Who Has Not Dreamed of Flying
Yiddish Poetry
Morocco: Gauze Curtains, Round Tombs, Hidden Jews
What Hasanin M'Barak Said

Like a Field Riddled by Ants

In the Afterlife Which is a Library
The Messenger
Getting There
Like a Field Riddled by Ants
My Companion the Aleph-Bet

The World Is a Parchment Scrawled with Words

Khamsin
Night Watch
A Journal for John Holmes
From Alexandria to American via Amtrak
Interview with Joseph Brodsky, February 28, 1979
The Howard Poets in Perspective
Counterpoint

Life, the Unfinished Experiment

The Selfish Gene (or, Cortazar's Watch)
The Knockout Mouse on the Doorstep of Neurobiology (or, the Mind/Body Problem Revisited)
AIDS: Latency and HIV Reservoirs: In the Dark Backward and Abysm of Time
Human Gene Therapy: Harnessing the Body's Defenses Against Cancer
The Puzzle People
Genes, Blood, and Courage: A Boy Called Immortal Sword
Root Causes: Stem Cells and the Tower of Babel
The Statue Within

A Place Called Gehinom

Writing the Holocaust: auch ohne/Sprache
Holocaust
On Muranowska Street
Then
1941
The Roots of Resistance: Le Chambon

Instructions for the Messiah

Crossing Over
Instructions for the Messiah
What is a Jewish Poem?
Certainty
Crossing into the New Millennium: American University, Convocation, August 1998
Grandfather: Lost and Found
Ode to the Czar's Assassin
The Messiah Reconsidered

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Short story
• Poetry
• Short Stories

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791487662
• Langue: English

Extrait

Over the Rooftops of Time

SUNY series in

Modern Jewish Literature and Culture

Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor

Over the Rooftops of Time

J e w i s h S t o r i e s E s s a y s P o e m s

M y r a S k l a r e w

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

 Cover art by Lithuanian artist Aleksandra Jacovskaite.

Published by S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS Albany

© 2003 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production and book design, Laurie Searl Marketing, Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sklarew, Myra. Over the rooftops of time: Jewish stories, essays, poems/by Myra Sklarew. p. cm.—(SUNY series in modern Jewish literature and culture) Includes index. ISBN 0-7914-5575-0 (acid-free paper)—ISBN 0-7914-5576-9 (pbk: acid-free paper) 1. Judaism—Literary collections. 2. Jews—Literary collections. 3. Judaism. 4. Jews. I. Title. II. Series.

PS3569.K57 O94 2002 818’.5409—dc21

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this book is dedicated with love

to a trio of precious granddaughters

Rachel, Allison, Danielle

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Contents

Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Learning the Language The Landscape of Dislocation 3 From the Backyard of the Diaspora 8 Learning the Language 10 Who Has Not Dreamed of Flying 18 Yiddish Poetry 23 Morocco: Gauze Curtains, Round Tombs, Hidden Jews 27 What Hasanin M’Barak Said 33 Like a Field Riddled by Ants In the Afterlife Which is a Library 37 The Messenger 39 Getting There 43 Like a Field Riddled by Ants 48 My Companion the Aleph-Bet 54 The World Is a Parchment Scrawled with Words Khamsin 61 Night Watch 65 A Journal for John Holmes 69 From Alexandria to American via Amtrak 76 Interview with Joseph Brodsky February 28, 1979 79

v i i

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C O N T E N T S

The Howard Poets in Perspective Counterpoint

Life, the Unfinished Experiment The Selfish Gene (or, Cortazar’s Watch) The Knockout Mouse on the Doorstep of Neurobiology (or, the Mind/Body Problem Revisited) AIDS: Latency and HIV Reservoirs: In the Dark Backward and Abysm of Time Human Gene Therapy: Harnessing the Body’s Defenses Against Cancer The Puzzle People Genes, Blood, and Courage: A Boy Called Immortal Sword Root Causes: Stem Cells and the Tower of Babel The Statue Within A Place Called Gehinom Writing the Holocaust:auch ohne/Sprache Holocaust On Muranowska Street Then 1941 The Roots of Resistance: Le Chambon Instructions for the Messiah Crossing Over Instructions for the Messiah What is a Jewish Poem? Certainty Crossing into the New Millennium: American University Convocation, August 1998 Grandfather: Lost and Found Ode to the Czar’s Assassin The Messiah Reconsidered

Notes Index

89 93

101

103

106

109 114

117 121 126

133 149 150 152 154 156

161 163 165 167

170 176 182 187

191 195

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publications in which these stories, essays, and poems originally appeared: American University: “Crossing into the New Millennium”;Azul Editions: “Then,” “Crossing Over,” “Ode to the Czar’s Assassin,” “The Messiah Reconsidered,” “On Muranowka Street”;B’nai B’rith Inter national Jewish Monthly: “The Landscape of Dislocation,” “Learning the Language,” “Who Has Not Dreamed of Flying?” “Morocco: Gauze Curtains, Round Tombs,” “My Companion the Aleph-Bet,” “The Roots of Resistance”;Dryad Press: “From the Backyard of the Diaspora,” “What Hasanin M’Barak Said,” “Holocaust,” “Instructions for the Messiah,” “What Is a Jewish Poem?”;Rubber City, European Judaism: “1941”;International Herald Tribune: “At the Heart of Transplant Surgery”;Jewish Book Annual, Jewish Book Council: “Yiddish Poetry”; Keshev Publishing House: “Night Watch”;Lost Roads Publishers: “In the Afterlife Which Is a Library,” “The Messenger,” “Getting There,” “Like a Field Riddled by Ants,” “Certainty”;Nature Medicine, 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 959–960, “Genes, Blood and Courage: A Boy Called Immor- tal Sword by David Nathan”;Sifrut: “Writing the Holocaust:auch ohne/Sprache”;Three Continents Press: “Khamsin”;Tuftonia: “A Jour- nal for John Holmes”;Washington Post Book Review: “The Puzzle Peo- ple”;Washington Post Magazine: “Counterpoint”;Washington Review of the Arts: “Interview with Joseph Brodsky,” “The Howard Poets in Perspective.” “In the Afterlife Which is a Library” and “Getting There” received the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.From the Backyard of the Diaspora received the DiCastagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Jewish Book Council Award in Poetry. “Lithuania” received the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award from the Judah Magnes Museum. A

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