Poet, Author, Teacher, Natural Dreamworker
Alice Notley (November 8, 1945 – May 19, 2025). I met Alice Notley in the late 60’s when I was an undergraduyate and later while living in Blatimore we did an iterview. In recent years whenever I was in Paris I always looked up Alice and we had lunch together and hung out. our conversations … Read more
Join us for a night of learning, reflection, and community as we honor the tradition of Shavuot with our annual all-night study session. We’re thrilled to welcome acclaimed author and poet Rodger Kamenetz as our scholar-in-residence. Together, we’ll delve into Jewish wisdom, sacred texts, and rich conversation guided by this distinguished scholar. Come for the learning, stay for … Read more
Apply to join the SHIUR Midsummer Retreat: What Dreams May Come on June 20-22 in Germany. Contact:contact@shiur.eu In a region shaped by the convergence of radical forms of Kabbalah and Enlightenment—where visions and hopes often went unfulfilled— we are left with the dreams of those who came before us. What “unpathed waters and undreamed shores” … Read more
Asterism Losing infinity I saved up for immediacy. Every hour I put a penny in to see the cornflower open its eye or to hear the thunder mutter proto- names. I borrowed the pennies from the eyelids of dead sailors and paid back in summer stars I could actually name Deneb Altair Vega. Great triangles … Read more
GILGUL 2 1992 In 1992 Time Being Books re-issued an expanded edition, The Missing Jew: New and Selected Poems. I took lines from the old poems and using midrash made new poems from the old. The book now was 101 pages long. About this edition, the great novelist Louise Erdrich was kind enough to write: … Read more
GILGUL 3: 2022 In the years since I continued to write on Jewish themes, including The Lowercase Jew which Northwestern put out in 2003. I always felt I wanted to expand THE MISSING JEW project and now in its current incarnation comes The Missing Jew: Poems 1976-2022 which encompasses 46 years of work. At 230 … Read more
GILGUL 1 1976 In 1976 after my grandfather David Kamenetz z”l died and my rabbi from childhood, Morris Lieberman died, my friend Dr. Marc Lieberman gave me a copy of all the volumes of the Rodkinson Talmud from his uncle’s library. I had never been exposed to the Talmud, and though the Rodkinson is an … Read more
The Ninth of Av –for Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum, z”l In the rhythm of the year our temple fell. We sat low. As if we might fall again but not as far. We sat low closer to the ground. We had fallen also in the heat of August in the month of Av. Although “I know … Read more
