NY next month
I’ll be around NY in October, so if you’re interested in inviting me to talk about my books, let me know. Here’s my press kit.
and my address is gut22@tau.ac.il
israeli politics
israeli politics
Rebuiding -
Ezi spends a lots of time thinking about how Gaza will be renewed -he’s thinking about the logistic and the complications. and he is looking for solutions that will allow the residentsto rebuild and our neighbor is going down south every day to help the people of Nir Oz rebuild. All this gives me the feeling that the desire for life might be stronger than the threat of death.
israeli politics
karen's press kit
Karen Alkalay-Gut – Press Kit
Bridging histories, voices, and languages
About Karen Alkalay-Gut
Karen Alkalay-Gut is an award-winning poet, translator, and Professor Emerita of English Literature at Tel Aviv University. Her work spans over four decades, weaving personal history, Jewish identity, feminist insight, and political witness into a unique poetic voice. She has published more than twenty volumes of poetry in English and Hebrew, alongside biography, translation, and critical essays.
Recent Books
Survivors (2025)
A powerful new collection giving voice to Holocaust survivors — exploring resilience, memory, and the inheritance of trauma.
Inheritance (2021)
A Yiddish/English journey through family history, spanning generations and lands.
Egypt: An Israelite Returns (2021)
Poems of travel, ancestry, and confrontation with history — returning to Egypt as both outsider and descendant of the Exodus.
A Word in Edgewise (2020)
Women tell their stories un the Bible through humor, irony, and deeply human reflection
Selected Praise
“Her wit, honesty, and compassion make every poem an invitation to look more deeply at the world.” — Alicia Ostriker
“God created women but Karen Alkalay-Gut created the poems that define them. … I love her humor as much as her seriousness.” — Erica Jong
a voice which is lyrical even when most direct –Elaine Feinstein
As things go speedily from worse to worse, it is only poetry that will sustain us. And what better place to find it than in the poetry of Karen Alkalay-Gut who, with good humor and warmth, has brought and taught literature and poetry in Israel for decades, through many wars and difficult times. For Alkalay-Gut poetry endures and therefore for us too. – Rachel Neve Midbar
The poetry we were looking for was right there under our noses but familiarity made us blind to it. Fortunately we have the visionary playfulness of Karen Alkalay-Gut to reveal and label for us.– Robert Priest
Contact & Links
🌐 Website: https://karenalkalay-gut.com
📧 Email: gut22@tauex.tau.ac.il
Karen Alkalay-Gut – Press Kit
Bridging histories, voices, and languages
About Karen Alkalay-Gut
Karen Alkalay-Gut is an award-winning poet, translator, and Professor Emerita of English Literature at Tel Aviv University. Her work spans over four decades, weaving personal history, Jewish identity, feminist insight, and political witness into a unique poetic voice. She has published more than twenty volumes of poetry in English and Hebrew, alongside biography, translation, and critical essays.
Recent Books
Survivors (2025)
A powerful new collection giving voice to Holocaust survivors — exploring resilience, memory, and the inheritance of trauma.
Inheritance (2021)
A Yiddish/English journey through family history, spanning generations and lands.
Egypt: An Israelite Returns (2021)
Poems of travel, ancestry, and confrontation with history — returning to Egypt as both outsider and descendant of the Exodus.
A Word in Edgewise (2020)
Women tell their stories un the Bible through humor, irony, and deeply human reflection
Selected Praise
“Her wit, honesty, and compassion make every poem an invitation to look more deeply at the world.” — Alicia Ostriker
“God created women but Karen Alkalay-Gut created the poems that define them. … I love her humor as much as her seriousness.” — Erica Jong
a voice which is lyrical even when most direct –Elaine Feinstein
As things go speedily from worse to worse, it is only poetry that will sustain us. And what better place to find it than in the poetry of Karen Alkalay-Gut who, with good humor and warmth, has brought and taught literature and poetry in Israel for decades, through many wars and difficult times. For Alkalay-Gut poetry endures and therefore for us too. – Rachel Neve Midbar
The poetry we were looking for was right there under our noses but familiarity made us blind to it. Fortunately we have the visionary playfulness of Karen Alkalay-Gut to reveal and label for us.– Robert Priest
Contact & Links
🌐 Website: https://karenalkalay-gut.com
📧 Email: gut22@tauex.tau.ac.il
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israeli politics
krum - 9.18.25
Last night we were stunned by the Gesher theater production of Hanoch Levin’s play, Krum. I have translated three plays of the beloved playwright Levin z”l, but never could hope to reproduce the amazing experience of the absurdity of the operatic production Gesher managed to pull together – the story of a man who ruins who ruins every opportunity given to him, causing pain to his loved ones and helping his rivals to achieve what could have given him fulfillment.
The grotesque comedy of Krum reminded me of our government – with all kinds of absurd events today – remember one third of the members of Netanyahu’s political party are under investigation – for a vast variety of crimes. It could be compared to a three ring circus. Here is the link
https://www.gesher-theatre.co.il/en/repertoire/a/view/?ContentID=2855&srsltid=AfmBOoqClKqU_8vhV9PQMxM3Ymm-2NvmWsjoNXj1I4LNQQ2zeRrxlft9
And of course you remember that the word ‘krum; in yiddish means crooked.
p.s. You have to know Hebrew or Russian to enjoy this play. But it’s worth the effort
israeli politics
Miri Eisen
For the past hour I’ve been trying to figure out how to upload a whatsapp I got of Miri Eisen explaing about the complex situation in Gaza on CNN. But I had a hard day and I can’t remember how to do it.
So I’ll give you another Miri Eisen video instead.
as we say in Yiddish “Yede vort a perl”
israeli politics
resilience - 9.16.25
When I ask someone in Israel how they are, they always say, “Personally, I’m fine, but the situation is terrible.” To the rest of the Jewish world, it may well look like we’re coping and we don’t need help. But we do. Really. We have been fighting the leadership for three years at the cost of our health, wealth, society. Every month news comes of another criminal charge against a member of parliament, and we protest the ways their punishments are delayed or disappeared. We donate our time and our children’s time (of my five grandchildren in this country – one (21) is in the army, one (18) is volunteering for the year to help rebuild Metula, one (14) is collecting food for the hungry in Israel, and one (15) is volunteering on Ambulances for the Israeli Magen David. One is still too young. Almost 30% of the population is living under the poverty level.
And yet, we always tell each other we’re coping.
Today I received a link to an article . it has a different take on the subject, but it is worth reading.
https://thejewishindependent.com.au/as-an-israeli-jew-i-dont-want-to-be-resilient-anymore
Thw problem is neither of us provide a simple way out.
As a child, I helped my mother collect old clothes to send to Israel. I typed out tree certifications, and I bought bonds. But then I knew how much everything I did would be used to build a country with the ideals I valued. Now, we have much work to bring it back.
How can you help? one way is to realize that the population should not be suffering because the government has been hijacked. Show your resilience, your support. Ask for and buy Israeli products, encourage their sales, protest the boycotts, the prejudices, the violence. We can all recreate a country we can be proud of.
israeli politics
getting through - 9.15.25
It was hard to get through the rotten day. It’s been hard to get through every day lately. When you feel like you’re being dragged through events over which you have no control. And you’re being blamed for it, no matter how much you’ve fought against it.
I had wonderful things to do today but I couldn’t do them, nothing. By evening we decided to go to the supermarket to buy all the chocolate they had. And there we discovered two things that made my day turn around.
First, we ran into my grandson, who, it turned out, was with two other boys who were trying to get people to contribute food for the many many people who have nothing to eat on the holidays that begin next week, to buy something from a list of necessities they passed out. The fact that 14 year old boys could overcome their natural shyness to approach strangers in the supermarket for the sake of the less fortunate than them raised my spirits even as the fact that there are people who need these contributions lowered them. It reminded me that we may be in uncontrollable situations, but we must do what we can to make life better.
the second thing that happened was a very common event at the cashiers. I often joke with cashiers, but only the Arab cashiers joke back. This time there were two girls, one learning from the other. And, because I am a bit deaf, I didn’t hear what she said when she asked me for my id number. So I made up for my stupidity by rattling off the numbers slowly. So she said, “that’s it?” and I said, “you want more?” This led to a dialogue that continued throughout the checkout – emphasizing the importance of putting men in their place…
All this reminded me of what I’ve been doing all along – doing what I can to make life bearable in a situation over which I have no power.
getting through – 9.15.25 Read Post »
israeli politics
itai anghel - 9.15.25
last night we had the opportunity to see Itai Anghel report from the front. An amazingly daring documentary reporter, he goes into places where danger lurks everywhere. Check out some of his work online – like https://culturetreasures.com/itai-anghel/
And he showed us places I would never believe a reporter would dare go – including fighting with the troops in Gaza and visiting a ketamine repository in Syria.
there was so much to hear and see in his talk that I cannot digest and report it to you, but much was very gruesome. The important point he made for me was that if reporters had been allowed into Gaza the footage we see on tv would
be very different.
Since he was there, this strengthened my opinion about the editorial angle of all news from Gaza – that what we see is not the whole picture but a propagandized edition.
He also showed footage from Nir Oz the day after the massacre. We have not been very generous in sharing our tragedy, and people tend to believe that we exaggerate, but every detail is enough to keep you up at night.
Thanks to Doron Tamir for inviting Anghel to share his experiences with us. We left much wiser than before.
itai anghel – 9.15.25 Read Post »