Book Reviews	Print

Reviewed by Nechamah Reisel
Volume 4 , Issue 2 (Dec, 1990 | Kislev, 5751)

Dreamer of the Ghetto: The Life and Works of Israel Zangwill. By Joseph H. Udelson. University of Alabama Press, 1990. Hardcover.

Dr. Joseph Udelson in his Dreamer of the Ghetto: The Life and Works of Israel Zangwill provides us with a comprehensive, interesting and important study that transcends his immediate subject. As Udelson points out, many of the issues which troubled Israel Zangwill, issues such as reconciling a Jewish identity with an attractive non‑Jewish environment, are the same issues troubling many Jews today. Udelson's insights into the contradictions and struggles inherent in assimilation and Jewish survival, or in the strengthening of Jewish identity while absorbing the culture of the non‑Jewish environment, are new, refreshing, and have the ring of truth.

While Udelson's work reflects careful and detailed scholarship, it also shows us that Israel Zangwill was not merely a writer who happened to be Jewish. He was a man caught between two worlds, seeking acceptance and acclaim in the non‑Jewish literary world, and profoundly bound by, and committed to, his Jewish identity and the fate of his people.

Udelson explores a diverse array of other literature relevant to Zangwill's development, and knowledgeably analyzes the effects on Zangwill of the political and social issues in the non‑Jewish world. These were issues that not only influenced Zangwill's outlook and actions; they influenced the dynamic, confident, and self‑conscious Jewish world with its national and international agendas as well.

But Udelson's book is not merely an erudite study of a single Jewish intellectual. It is also a detailed portrait of a troubled thinker wrestling with universal Jewish problems ‑ problems he could not satisfactorily resolve either in general or for himself. While many others who have struggled unsuccessfully with the intractable problems of Jewish identity and survival have managed to separate their daily lives from their intellectual struggles, Zangwill could not accept that his ?solutions? did not work on a personal level, and were not approved by the world's Jewish leadership.

Udelson points out that Zangwill's growing prominence as a literary figure attracted Jewish publishers and Jewish leaders to turn to as a spokesman for all Jews, one who would analyze and explain Jewish issues to both the Jewish and non‑Jewish public. They wanted a Jewish author who would stand in the company of prominent Christian literary figures. Udelson points out that Zangwill's very limited knowledge of Jewish scholarship neither deterred such men as Judge Mayer Sulzberger and Lucien Wolf from seeking his pen, nor inhibited Zangwill himself from writing on themes fundamental to Jewish life and from seeking to be a widely respected leader in the Jewish world. But Udelson's persuasive analysis of Zangwill's plays and essays in the framework of Jewish concerns shows the inadequacy of Zangwill's efforts. Here, we also get a closer look at the man, Zangwill, and his inability to confront his own intellectual and personal failure.

One of the issues which will always fascinate Jews, and which at the turn of the century was charged with urgency and importance, was the question of a Jewish homeland. Udelson puts Zangwill's efforts in perspective:

...overshadowing all else was Zangwill's feverish passion to succeed in establishing a Jewish national homeland somewhere. For this goal he would sacrifice time, friendships, public popularity, and personal loyalties. And in all these new endeavors, Israel Zangwill experienced a new and to him incomprehensible, phenomenon of life: he failed!

The book touches on what Udelson calls (in describing Zangwill's Dreamers of the Ghetto) ?the intellectual and psychological dynamics of the Jew living in the non‑Jewish world.? In showing us how Zangwill could not be ?wholly British? nor ?wholly Jewish? and was unable to ?fuse the two identities,? Udelson reminds us of a common dilemma facing many Jews today.

Udelson notes how, in such works as The Voice of Jerusalem, Zangwill tried to reconcile Judaism and Christianity. He was constantly trying to reconcile his own ambitions, which centered in a large measure on the non‑Jewish world, and his inescapably Jewish background.

One of the most intellectually vibrant portions of Udelson's book is to be found in its Epilogue. Here Udelson frees himself from the constraints of his topic and ranges from conclusions about Zangwill, through speculation on historical parallels, to the philosophical currents of the Twentieth Century. For example, he comments on the parallels in the lives of hyphenated Jews and hyphenated Blacks and notes the similarities in the psychological struggles, outlook, and aspirations of Zangwill and W.E.B. Du Bois, the Black‑American leader who was Zangwill's contemporary.

The Epilogue further succeeds in giving logic and coherence to Zangwill's literary, personal, and ?activist? development. Udelson shows how such complex problems of Jewish ?twinned, hyphenated identities? as ?Anglo‑Jewry? or ?Western‑Jewry? were the guiding force behind a variety of Zangwill's writings from his early fiction to his Territorialism and Militant Zionism. Udelson notes that

By 1903 [Zangwill] had become convinced that to accomplish this separation of identities the Jews of the West must thoroughly amalgamate into the non‑Jewish culture and society.... And for East European Jews, so far preserved from the 'contamination' of twinned identities, their unitary Jewish identity must be preserved in some autonomous national land of refuge from physical persecution and from mental anguish.

Udelson points out that Zangwill's goal ?unlike the Zionists, was not limited to any one specific piece of land.? Palestine was clearly only one possibility, and as events unfolded, not in Zangwill's view, the best possibility. Udelson shows us the whole hearted and deeply emotional involvement of Zangwill in these issues and how they led him to help found the JTO (the Jewish Territorial Organization) and to his eventual endorsement of and support for the Galveston plan of resettlement which Udelson sees as ?the one concrete positive achievement of Israel Zangwill's JTO.?

Udelson shows how Zangwill attempted to resolve what he perceived to be the ambiguities regarding Judaism and the non‑Jewish world, by introducing a concept he called the ?religion of the future.? Udelson puts it this way:

This Hebraic `religion of the future' will be disseminated by assimilated Western Jews and those non‑`Israelites' (such as Mrs. Edith Zangwill [Zangwill's wife]) who have come to accept the true Jewish teachings of Moses and Jesus.

Udelson, himself, does not argue for any particular solutions to the ageless problems which absorbed and ultimately destroyed Israel Zangwill. In using Zangwill's life and writings as a context, he illuminates the man, his works, and their position in the Jewish world. At the same time, while enhancing our own perceptions of how these vital issues were dealt with in the Jewish thought and action of Zangwill's time, Udelson makes us confront many of the same issues for ourselves.

While Udelson does deal with many dilemmas which confront us a Jews today, his book is not merely a pretext for the discussion of contemporary issues. It is essentially a book about Israel Zangwill, and traces the rise of his success and the strengthening of his self image to the final collapse of his abilities, the loss of popular acclaim, and his tragic and unsuccessful struggle to overcome his adversaries. Udelson's comprehensive view of Zangwill's life and work shows us a man believing himself gifted, but unappreciated and insufficiently recognized, a man who could not accept the reality of his own limitations. The picture we get is that of one who would be great, but who, in fact, in the drama of life

[was] an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince....

from T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

And he couldn't stand it.

Reviewed by Abba Rubin, Professor of Literature, Vanderbilt University.

Interpreting Maimonides: Studies in Methodology, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy. By Marvin Fox. The University of Chicago Press, 1990. Hard cover, 356pp.

Maimonides is one of the most controversial and perplexing contributors to the history of ideas. This is particularly true with regard to his great work, Morah Nevuchim, The Guide of the Perplexed. Since its appearance eight centuries ago and despite extensive analyses by countless commentators, there yet remains no agreement on even the most fundamental of Maimonides' premises advanced in this book. Among the issues arousing continuing intense debate are:? whether the work is to be read exoterically or only an esoteric reading is legitimate; whether the philosophy expounded in the Guide is Aristotelian in substance or only glazed lightly with a patina of Aristotelianism in order to make it more palatable to its intended audience, and, perhaps most central of all, whether Maimonides undeviatingly adheres to the essential teachings of the Torah as expounded by the Rabbinic Sages or whether, in the Guide, he covertly advocates highly heretical philosophic principles.

Given the numerous medieval and contemporary expositions of the Guide and the broad range of disagreement over its interpretation, Marvin Fox, in his new study, has achieved a remarkably innovative, scrupulously rigorous, and persuasive interpretation of Maimonides' teachings embracing almost the entirety of the contentious issues. From the very outset, Fox presents his views unambiguously. Thus, while agreeing with the late Leo Strauss that the Guide must be read for its esoteric teachings, as Maimonides himself insists in its Introduction, he disagrees vehemently with Strauss' understanding of these teachings. For, unlike Strauss, Fox insists that throughout his writings, and particularly in the Guide, Maimonides espouses positions inherent to the traditional Rabbinic understanding of Judaism, consistently displaying his own personal, pious devotion to Torah belief and practice.

According to Fox, Maimonides' objective in composing the Guide was, in fact, exactly to confront directly the challenge to the traditional understanding of Torah posed by the most advanced philosophic and scientific postulates of his own (12th century) modernity. In meeting this challenge which perplexed many secularly sophisticated, but pious believers, Maimonides eschewed any attempt to create a facile, if metaphysically and scientifically unsound, synthesis of the disparate claims of the two teachings. Similarly, strict scholarly honesty prevented him, equally, from adopting the exclusivist either/or approach so often attributed to him: that he either accepts the Torah only or accepts Artistotelianism only. Rather, argues Fox, Maimonides adopted the most difficult posture of all offered by the alternatives:? a ?both/and? response. That is, he accepted uncompromisingly both the Torah's teachings regarding Divine creation ex nihilo, causation, moral law, and Providence and simultaneously espoused what he considered to be logically demonstrative true propositions advanced by Aristotelian physics and metaphysics.

It is precisely to justify this dialectical both/and balance of divergent tenets that Maimonides introduces at the beginning of the Guide his exposition on the classification of various modes of contradictions. Employing the postulates of logic, Fox illustrates how Maimonides here argues that reason actually allows for the possibility of there existing two true propositions about the same object that are nonetheless inconsistent with each other. In such instances, one must affirm the truth value of both while simultaneously acknowledging their mutual inconsistency. Although such a stance requires the most delicate‑intellectually and emotionally‑balancing of dialectical tension between these divergent propositions, it is exactly the approach he advocates in the Guide for responding as an uncompromising, devout Jew to the validated teachings of Aristotelian natural philosophy.

To justify this interpretation of the Guide's esoteric teaching, as well as to instruct the reader on the proper methodology with which to examine it, Fox subjects several portions of the work to close textual reading, using as his model Rashi's approach for expounding passages in the Talmud. Fox employs both textual analysis and topical exposition in this fashion in order to establish the validity of his particular esoteric reading of Maimonides' explication of fundamental scientific and metaphysical issues.

Especially illuminating in this regard is Fox's interpretation of the Guide's opening two chapters. This exemplifies his approach to the esoteric reading throughout the book. Simultaneously, it also illustrates Fox's contention that Maimonides accepts both the basic Aristotelian definition of ?human? as that being whose essence, and hence goal, includes the potential to become rational and his equal insistence on the Torah view that human rationality is ineluctably finite and therefore limited, so there remain spheres of existence completely beyond its competence to know. Accordingly, there are areas of investigation where one is required to rely exclusively on reason and there are other areas where human reason is essentially insufficient. Fox maintains that this distinction is fundamental if one is to grasp the thread of the esoteric arguments Maimonides offers in the Guide. Throughout his own study, Fox employs this distinction to explicate persuasively Maimonides' position concerning the true though inconsistent propositions of Divinely revealed Torah and Aristotelian inspired rational natural philosophy.

Topically, Fox reenforces this analysis by means of a careful comparison of Aristotle's and Maimonides' teachings regarding the doctrine of the mean. And, particularly illuminating, is the ensuing comparison of Maimonides' justification of traditional Jewish teachings concerning the nonrational origin of Divine Torah law and ethics with Aquinas's Christian repudiation of Torah law and his consequent adoption, in its stead, of the Stoic notion of a supposedly rationally derived natural law, a stance Maimonides argues is, in fact, rationally indefensible.

Utilizing the distinction between the spheres appropriate to finite human reason and those inaccessible to it, Fox also presents convincing analyses of Maimonides's arguments regarding Divine causation and Divine creation. In both instances in the Guide and his other writings, he accepts the validity of Aristotelian physics, but argues that human finite reason is incapable of demonstrating the truth value of metaphysical propositions. In these cases he insists that one must press reason to its ultimate limits before turning to any other source, such as revelation, to discover the truth in such matters. Yet, even in these instances, Maimonides asserts that the teachings of Divine revelation are not irrational, only nonrational.

Throughout his study, Fox illustrates how Maimonides, consistently throughout his life, uncompromisingly advocated beliefs that were metaphysically consistent with the Orthodox understanding of Torah while he simultaneously upheld the propositions of Aristotelian based contemporary natural philosophy even when the two traditions arrived at divergent conclusions concerning the same subject. However, Fox acknowledges that his study is not a comprehensive exposition of the entire esoteric arguments proffered in the Guide and, indeed, suggests several areas that require further study along the lines suggested by his methodology.

There are also some problems posed by this interpretation. As Fox argues, Maimonides himself recognized that adhering rigorously to the vigorous, systematic espousal of inconsistent propositions creates enormous psychological and emotional tensions which the great masses of people are unable to tolerate; for such people, Maimonides insisted, the inculcation of correct belief on the authority of tradition is sufficient. But how is this to be accomplished in an era such as ours which is characterized by a secularism that insists on rejecting all authority save that of the subjective self?

However, there appears to be an even stronger objection which may be raised against Fox's approach, a difficulty apparent in the least satisfactory chapter in this study:? the discussion of Maimonides's halakhic insistence on the necessity for sincere prayer and his simultaneous rationalist inspired rejection of the efficacy of such prayer. Unlike other topics where the divergence of the two systems concerns matters where a theoretical both/and conceptualization might be sufficient, at least for a person of Maimonides's stature, prayer is not one of them. It requires some sort of action:? either one prays sincerely or one does not! And all of our empirical evidence indicates that Maimonides certainly did, indeed, devoutly, sincerely pray. So there may be some necessary caveats to the applicability of Fox's interpretive structure. On the other hand, it is also conceivable that the flaw is not in Fox's interpretation but, rather, in Maimonides's attempt to apply the dialectical balance beyond its human limits. In any event, this certainly is an area urgently requiring further study, particularly if Fox is correct that we ought to attempt employing Maimonides's model to the challenges presented by contemporary secular Western thought to the traditional teachings of the Torah.

These reservations, however, do not in the least diminish Marvin Fox's extraordinary scholarly achievement. For Interpreting Maimonides is a profound, innovative, and cogent analysis of The Guide of the Perplexed, one consistent with Maimonides's entire oeuvre, and every reader of this study will be generously rewarded. Doubtlessly, all future discussions of Maimonides's great work will be required to respond in some fashion to Fox's interpretation, one of the most significant and perceptive commentaries to the perplexing teachings of the Guide in the eight centuries since the original book made its first appearance.

Reviewed by Joseph H. Udelson, Professor of History, Tennessee State University.

EIGHT TALES FOR EIGHT NIGHTS: STORIES FOR CHANUKAH, By Peninnah Schram and Rabbi Steven Rosman, with papercuts by Tsirl Waletzky. Jason Aronson, Inc., December, 1990. $20.00.

Every year, as each of the holidays and festivals approaches, many new books about that holiday are published. Most are targeted for young children. These consist, chiefly, of a retelling of the story of the holiday and some more‑or‑less imaginative illustrations. Others, whose intended audience is older children and adults, may also include laws and customs associated with the festival, but frequently omit any illustrations whatsoever.

A newly published book from Jason Aronson Inc., Eight Tales for Eight Nights: Stories for Chanukah by Peninnah Schram and Rabbi Steven Rosman, is a welcome exception to both the above categories. Both the unusual text and the illustrations can be appreciated by children, older and younger, as well as by their parents and grandparents, as, indeed, the authors intended them to be.

Central to the book is the menorah and the miracle of the oil, and, especially, the shammash, the actual and meta?phorical ?extra? candle which lights the other candles and sets into motion ? actualizes ? the nightly celebration of the festival. In the book it is the metaphor for initiating other activities, especially the nightly oral narration of true stories about the Chanukah experiences of guests and members of the family who are present at the lighting of the menorah. While no work may be done by the light of the other candles, and, by extension, they, themselves, may do no work (light the other candles), the shammash (the attendant) is the worker, the igniter of the others ? and of the evening's activities: the consumption of special foods, the playing of special games, the storytelling, the exchange of gifts‑in some families and the distribution of ?Chanukah gelt? ? coins to the children and charitable donations to the needy ? , the singing of special songs ? all after the initial religious ceremony in which everyone participates, like the candles themselves. The book, thus, becomes a celebration of the menorah ? the carrier of the symbol of the miracle of Chanukah, and, even more, a celebration of the humble servant, the shammash, without whom the others would not come alive. By extension, he also symbolizes the common, humble working man, without whom society could not truly function, and who, on these nights, is king in his own home. This theme is gloriously carried out in the unique, exuberant but delicate, lovely black and white papercut folk art illustrations by Tsirl Waletzky. Each is a work of art in itself, but each ‑ containing a menorah or a shammash ‑ also enhances and illuminates both the individual tales and the book as a whole.

The text consists of a retelling of the Chanukah story and eight stories ? one for each night of the festival ? each using the menorah as a central character or theme. (Six of the stories are original; two are adapted from other sources.) Also included are two narratives of personal menorah memories by the authors; words of songs and poems mentioned in or associated with the stories, both in the original Hebrew or Yiddish and transliterated and translated; musical scores ? Ashkenazic and Sephardic versions of some; a glossary of terms/words used in the text; and an appendix with suggestions for using the text as a springboard ? a literary shammash ? for the active oral participation of the listeners. For these narratives are not intended to be read silently except by the storyteller of the evening. They are intended to be told in the tradition of oral storytellers exemplified by one of the authors, Peninnah Schram. Since the menorah is said to symbolize the Oral Law, which lends itself to interpretations and embellishments (unlike the immutable Written Law received by Moses at Sinai), the concept and execution of this book is highly appropriate. It is, also, a highly original one.

Befitting this idea of concentrating on the oral presentation, the language of the stories is intimate, simple and direct. No need for the teller of the tales to alter the written language or sentence structure in order to assure the listener's comprehension or attention.

While the nature of the language is uniform, the themes and settings are varied. They deal with Chanukah ? particularly the menorah ? miracles ?then? and ?now,? ?here? and ?there.? They take place in centuries ranging from the sixth to the present, and have a variety of heroes and heroines. A story with an Arabian Nights ‑ like setting features a Sultan who learns about the origins of Chanukah and then poses a Scheherazade ‑ like problem for his Jewish host. A mysterious, wise stranger appears and, through his ambiguous remarks, both helps the host resolve his dilemma and teaches him religious and moral lessons. This story, like a number of the others, is, indeed, didactic as well as entertaining.

In another story, one partially based on true events, two halves of a broken menorah (with the help of a mysterious ?angel?) unite a pair of lovers who had been separated during the Nazi. invasion of their country.

A third tale, a Holocaust story, is also a didactic one. It, like the story of Chanukah itself, teaches how one candle ?can defeat all the darkness.? A fourth story, set in contemporary New York City, gives insights into both the contemporary city and that of the 1930's and 1940's. This also contains a story by Yehuda Leib Peretz, a great writer of Yiddish stories, within the frame of the main story: A menorah is retrieved from a garbage truck and evokes memories of childhood Chanukahs spent with the grandparents of the narrator in the story.

Still another story is set in Spain during the Inquisition.

My favorite tale, however, is a retelling of several humorous stories featuring the folk hero/Tyl Eulenspiegel‑like rogue and jester, Hershele Ostropolier, who lived in a Polish shtetl during the latter half of the eighteenth century.

While I have no quarrel with most of the contents of this volume, I must point out two serious errors. The first occurs in the retelling of the historic events, ?How Chanukah Came to Be.? In speaking of Antiochus' commands to destroy the Temple, the authors refer to it as ?the Temple built by King Solomon.? Surely, the authors and editor must know that the historic events leading to the first Chanukah celebration took place during the period of the Second Temple, in the second century B.C.E., while the First Temple, which was built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., five hundred years after King Solomon had built it, and was rebuilt seventy years later, after the Persians had defeated the Babylonians, and the Jews had returned to Eretz Yisrael.

The second error, one which keeps being printed and mentioned by the media, and, thereby, perpetuated in the minds of the unknowledgeable general public, is in the glossary's definition of Shabbat: ?The Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset Friday and continues to sunset on Saturday.? Contrary to this miscon?ception, the Jewish Sabbath and all Jewish holidays and festivals end at nightfall ? technically when three stars appear or would be expected to appear. This is roughly forty‑five minutes after sunset.

The glossary also includes a definition of a dreidle. It seems odd to me that after its definition of the word and a description of how the game of dreidle is played, the authors chose to retell the story of Chanukah (already retold in the first chapter of the book) instead of here mentioning the legend about how the game (a form of gambling otherwise forbidden to Jews) came to be associated with this festival. Since this book's primary audience is children, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to include the legend of how the children, who had been forbidden (by their oppressors) to study Torah, used their playing of dreidle (a game the soldiers would accept and understand as part of their own culture) to disguise from the soldiers their meeting for the purpose of Torah study?

On the whole, however, this volume is a valuable addition to the collection of Chanukah books previously available. Indeed, the art work alone makes this an excellent Chanukah gift for the entire family.

Reviewed by Nechamah Reisel. Ms. Reisel is a contributing editor of The Jewish Review.

BOOKS in BRIEF

Memories of My Life in a Polish Village 1930‑1949. Paintings, Drawings and Text by Toby Knobel Fluek. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990. Hardcover. $19.95.

Toby Fluek's Memories of My Life in a Polish Village 1930‑1949 is a testament to the ability of the human spirit not only to survive, but to flourish under extremely adverse conditions. In this unique memoir, Ms. Fluek literally ?pictures? her childhood in both art and words. She moves through the details of Jewish life in an Eastern European farming village before World War II, her struggle to survive Nazi occupation, and her eventual emigration.

There is something so unique about Toby Fluek's Memories of My Life in a Polish Village 1930‑1949 that one cannot, and in fact, should not, ignore it. Perhaps it is the haunting simplicity of the text, sparse though it is. Perhaps it is the evocative paintings and drawings that force one to actually visualize how others survived the tragedies of the Holocaust. Or perhaps it is the memories which the combination of text and illustration can potentially evoke in those who grew up in, or knew of, another time, and which, if my own mother is any example, will for the first time, cause them to share these memories with those in a younger generation.

Whatever the case, Memories of My Life can alternately prompt feelings of anger, sadness or joy, depending on the scene which happens to be depicted on a particular page. Why did the world allow the systematic destruction of a people? What a tragedy it is that a whole way of life was caused to vanish? But what an amazing testament to the ultimate greatness of God to have created a human being like Ms. Fluek with such will and spirit to allow her and others to survive.

Lights of Prophecy, by Bezalel Naor. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, 1990. Softcover.

Why did classical prophecy, as originally chartered in Deuteronomy, disappear with the abatement of idol worship? What form has divine inspiration taken in modern times? What conditions must be met in order to reestablish the institution of prophecy in the future?

These questions (and their answers, based on traditional classic and obscure sources) are the basis of a revolutionary new theory concerning Prophecy ‑ past, present and future. Bezalel Naor, a creative rabbinic scholar, kabbalist and author, has marshaled these sources to compile a ?must‑read? for Biblical scholars, psychohistorians, students of Rav Kook's theology, and all those ?thirsting for the Living God.?

One of the casualties of today's overbearing secular culture is the disturbingly large number of Jewish young people ?turned off? to Judaism. However, one can still detect in our society a yearning for greater spirituality. Rabbi Naor's intriguing and inspiring collection addresses that yearning, providing a way to link our hearts and minds to God and the world of eternity.

A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law: Volume I ‑ Law of Judges and Laws of Evidence. By Rabbi Emanuel Quint. Jason Aronson, Inc., 1990. Hardcover. $30.00.

A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by Rabbi Emanuel Quint provides insightful explanation of Hoshen haMishpat, the standard code of the halakha's civil law. In this first book of a multi‑volume set, entitled Laws of Judges and Laws of Evidence, the most inclusive and difficult portion is opened to the wider audience it deserves.

@TITLE = Without a Single Answer: Poems on Contemporary Israel. Edited by Elaine Marcus Starkman and Leah Schweitzer. The Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA, 1990. Softcover. $11.95.

Three generations of poets voice their individual and sometimes conflicting views in Without a Single Answer. Poets in this collection include Adrienne Rich, Irena Klepfisz, Dannie Abse, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Yehuda Amichai, Linda Pastan and others.