NarniaWebbers: I'm sure you know some Jewish authors!

Isaac Bashevis Singer [Nobel Laureate] ... "Gimpel the Fool," "Yentl"
Sholem Aleichem ... Fiddler on the Roof
Lois Lowry ... Number the Stars
Czeslaw Milocz [Nobel Laureate]
Saul Bellow [Nobel Laureate] ... Herzog, Humboldt's Gift
J. D. Salinger ... Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey
Norman Mailer ... The Naked and the Dead
Bernard Malamud ... The Natural
Chaim Potok ... The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev
Philip Roth
Hannah Arendt [German historian] ... The Origins of Totalitarianism
Isaac Asimov [science fiction]
Judy Blume [children's fiction] ... Are You there, God? It's me, Margaret
Noam Chomsky [American linguist]
Ayn Rand ... The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged
Shel Silverstein ... Where the Sidewalk Ends
Josephus [ancient Jewish historian, lived at the same time as Jesus]
Woody Allen
Franz Kafka ... Metamorphosis

Holocaust
Primo Levi
Anne Frank ... Diary
Elie Wiesel ... Night

I'm looking for some fish to bite! Please respond!

Actually, I'd never heard any of those names except Anne Frank and Josephus. I have the complete works of Josephus, but I haven't read much yet.

I know of:

Sholem Aleichem ... Fiddler on the Roof
Lois Lowry ... Number the Stars
J. D. Salinger ... Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey
Judy Blume [children's fiction] ... Are You there, God? It's me, Margaret
Noam Chomsky [American linguist]
Ayn Rand ... The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged
Shel Silverstein ... Where the Sidewalk Ends
Woody Allen
Franz Kafka ... Metamorphosis
Anne Frank ... Diary
Elie Wiesel ... Night

.......Woody Allen?????????????

@Gladius: you've never heard of Singer? J. D. Salinger? Lowry? Kafka?! Rand?! You've never seen the movie Fiddler on the Roof?!

@mm1991: you know Woody Allen, right? I thought everybody knew he was Jewish. He's known for his acting and directing, I guess. But he's also a writer.

Fiddler is pretty awesome, both the movie and the musical. I think it's one of the most meaningful musicals I've seen, just because the religious meaning resonated so much with me as a Christian.

Also, anyone (high school and up) who hasn't read Chaim Potok's The Chosen should. That was one of my favorite 20th century lit books in high school. Potok manages to write characters that are in some ways very normal and easy to relate to, but not at all boring. My Name is Asher Lev was very well written as well, but a lot darker in tone.

I have heard the names Salinger and Kafka, but I don't know anything about them. And no, I haven't seen fiddler on the roof.
Sound like I need to get to work!

actually, Lois Lowry isn't Jewish. she had help from a Jewish friend when writing Number the Stars

the only Jewish books that I've read (as far as I know) have been The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. both of which I read for a class in my freshman year of college.

What about Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind-Family series? And I remember a book, something about the village where no one stopped, that was a collection of folk-type stories. I'll have to look it up.

I've read some of Josephus, seen the musical Fiddler on the Roof and read some Shel Silverstein.

Salinger I know...he just passed away recently. He's best known for Catcher in the Rye and for being a recluse in his later years. I can't say I much cared for the book and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the vast majority of the folks on NWeb probably wouldn't care for it either. Let's just say it's loaded to the gills with profanity, which I think is the device that Salinger wanted to use to get people to read the book.

I've heard of Fiddler on the Roof, but...musical's ain't my thing. Asimov and Mailer I've also heard of, although I've yet to read any of their books. Ayn Rand is the cat's pajamas in the Libertarian political spectrum...her book Atlas Shrugged outlines her ideological philosophy of Objectivism nicely. A good book, sort of an anti-1984, but has its share of philosophical bloviating and some rather...um...off color content. Please don't ask me who John Galt is...just don't go there.

I want to say I've read one or two of Judy Blume's books in my youth but I honestly can't remember. And Noam Chomsky...phew...let's just say he's a man with some very interesting viewpoints, most of which are a little off the beaten path. He's definitely unique. My little brothers brought home a few Shel Silverstein books when they were in elementary school and my mom got a hold of them and really raised some Cain with the school. She found many of the pictures grotesque and forbid us from reading them. I think the guy was offbeat but not quite *that* bad. But that's my mom for ya'.

I have a copy of Josephus somewhere but I've never read more than a few excerpts of it. Woody Allen is one quirky dude and it comes through in his movies. Of course he got himself mired in controversy when he left wife Mia Farrow (of Rosemary's Baby fame) for their teenaged adopted daughter. It's a little weird and now I can't look at the guy quite the same. I know the name Kafka and have always associated it with the psychiatric trade and that he wrote a book called Metamorphasis, but beyond this I know nothing. The rest of the folks on the list are a mystery to me...

I'm possibly the one NWeb member who loves Salinger Catcher is his best known work, but not my favorite. It's not the kind of book that you can read at any point in your life, I know if I re-read it right now I'd probably just want to give Holden a kick. The last 50 pages are beautiful though.

Salinger's other work is far more long lasting and the writing is really something else. Most of it centers around the Glass family, Franny and Zooey is probably the best known after Catcher. I read the longer 'Zooey' section several times in a row when I first read it. There's also Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction (two novellas, or 'long short stories'), and For Esme - With Love And Squalor (which I believe is known as Nine Stories in the US). My favorite of these short stories, and probably the most famous, is A Perfect Day For Bananafish.

Saddened though I was by Salinger's passing, I do wonder if there's unpublished material he was holding on to. I'd be surprised if there wasn't, but we're going to have to wait out the legal wrangling around it before any of it comes to light.

I loved Judy Blume when I was younger, I remember she was my first proper exposure to american culture so I had no idea what a lot of stuff was or meant

From your list I've also enjoyed reading Kafka, Bashevis Singer, Phillip Roth, Asimov, Potok and the Holocaust authors.

@Shantih: I don't like Salinger, at least not Catcher in the Rye. I hate that book with a passion. And a Christian teacher who attends my church assigned it to me in high school! But ... I did like Franny and Zooey. I even ended up reading the pilgrim book they discuss in it.

@Shadowlander: along with Rivulus, I loved Fiddler on the Roof, the music especially! You don't like musicals? Give them a chance. Fiddler and The Sound of Music are my favs. I didn't care for Kafka's Metamorphosis. I understood the idea, but how he carried it out was really strange. I want to read The Trial.

@Phoenix: Lowry isn't Jewish? She's listed as Jewish on Wikipedia [on the Jewish authors page]. Of course, you can't trust them, can you? The only book of hers I read was A Summer to Die. I didn't realize until just now that she wrote it. Guess when I read this book? Middle school. I'm 30 now. It's amazing what sticks in the memory.

@Rivulus: Potok's The Chosen was the first novel I read in my high school American literature class where I was ahead of everyone else in the reading schedule. Why? I'm a slow reader. I loved the book! I've also read Potok's last book Old Men at Midnight (2001). I enjoyed it, but not as much as the other. What is Asher Lev about?

Question: some modern Jewish writers don't write on "Jewish" themes, per se ... the Holocaust, the ghetto, life in modern-day Israel or New York, emigration, etc. Others do, but they're not Jewish [like Lois Lowry]. So how should one define "Jewish literature"?

Please note that this Special Feature will be closing Saturday, March 13. For further discussion, please see the related threads (Books, Movies, etc) right here in the Spare Oom. Thanks.

I just wanna say thank you to everyone who posted in this thread!