Midrash Agnon with Rabbi Jeffrey Saks

Start each week with a bit of Agnon! Join Jeffrey Saks for a Sunday morning study session of the Nobel laureate’s writing—reading in English translation as our instructor helps build a bridge to the original Hebrew texts and the rich rabbinic sources from which Agnon crafted his modern writing. In S.Y. Agnon’s stories we encounter the Jewish world in transition between the past and the present, tradition and modernity, and the Diaspora and Eretz Yisrael. What do his stories mean for today’s readers and contemporary Jewish history? In this series we will focus on a trio of stories of the old hometown of Buczacz exploring the maxim that “You can’t go home again.” The stories all appear in the anthology A Book That Was Lost (Toby Press), available through the publisher, at Agnon House, or fine booksellers in Jerusalem.

4 Sundays in a row in July at 11:00am.

Click here for the Syllabus
July 5 | Fable of the Goat
July 12 | Tale of the Menorah
July 19 | The Kerchief
July 26* | Visit to the Agnon Archives at the National Library of Israel

This series talks place live at Agnon House, 16 Klausner Street, Jerusalem (no Zoom broadcast).

*The National Library visit is by advance registration and payment only; space limited! The cost below is for the entire series including the July 26 tour. Individual sessions for the 3 lectures can be purchased at Agnon House on the day of the event. Questions or info: [email protected]

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is director of research at Jerusalem’s Agnon House.