Literature

'Emily Saw a Door': Learning to create spaces for each other with creativity, acceptance - review

A story that encourages and empowers children to find the right place for them, or even to create their own.

EMILY’S JOURNEY in the land of doors. Artwork by Orit Magia
From right: 2025 Sapir Prize debut winner Roni Partchek, honored for her novel “Sitara,” with Mifal HaPais CEO Adv. Beni Dreyfus, judging committee chair Dr. Ruth Calderon, Mifal HaPais board chair Itzik Lari, and 2025 Sapir Prize winner Amir Harash, awarded for “Bereavement and Failure and Zombies.

Amir Harash wins Sapir Prize for 2025; Roni Partchek takes debut award

“Neshama,” Marcella Pixley’s novel-in-verse, won the gold medal for Jewish children’s literature for middle-grade readers from the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Stories of ghosts, grief and Shabbat gladness win top prizes in Jewish children’s literature

‘The seventh Plague of Egypt,’  hail and fire, by John Martin, 1823.

'Disasters of Biblical Proportions': From ancient Exodus to lessons in fear and faith - review


Literature celebrates nuance. So why does the book world feel so one-sided on Israel?

Erika Dreifus recounts their longstanding observation of anti-Israel sentiments within literary circles, specifically addressing recent controversies at the NBCC award ceremony and following dilemma

 A LOOK at some of the comics and science fiction books being sold by Arye Dobuler in jerusalem.

English readers get their first taste of ‘the finest living author writing in Hebrew’

The characters are Israelis living in the United States, negotiating between English and Hebrew, their Jewishness and their Israeliness, old worlds and the new. 

 "The Hebrew Teacher" is Israeli author Maya Arad's first book to be translated into English.

Stimatsky to Acquire 25% of Am Oved Publishing's Commercial Activity

Stimatsky will acquire 25% of a publishing house founded by a Histadrut employee, gaining profit sharing, a board seat, and 25% voting power in "Am Oved," excluding its real estate assets.


Mifal Hapayis announces Sapir Prize winners

The Sapir Prize for a Debut Novel was given to Ilana Rudashevski’s Taska, published by Shtaim, which is about a family that immigrates to Israel from the Soviet Union in the ‘70s.

 2023 SAPIR PRIZE winner Ofra Offer Oren (middle), with Avigdor Yitzhaki, chairman of Mifal Hapayis (left) and CEO Benjamin Dreyfus.

Jewish authors in Britain prevented from publishing books

 Stephen Games, an independent publisher, related how, following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there has been "a climate of growing hostility against Jews." 

Hebrew books

Palestinian prisoner writes book in Israeli prison, nominated for award

While in prison, Basim Khandaqji wrote a book that was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

 Basim Khandaqji and the cover of his book, "A Mask, The Colour of the Sky"

Jewish Life Stories: The authors that left us

Robie H. Harris, 83, whose best-selling sex-ed books for children earned her awards and a prominent place on lists of banned books, died January 6 in New York. She was 83.

 The authors and their stories. (Illustrative).

Legendary Culture: Cinema, Literature and performing arts


Mifal Hapayis names five finalists for prestigious literature award

The winner will receive a prize of NIS 180,000, and the winning book will be translated into Arabic as well as another foreign language.

  Gail Hareven, finalist and a previous winner of the Sapir Prize for Literature

From guerillas to Guernica: Tracing evolution of war and its lexicon

As war has played such a significant part of human history, it is a theme that figures largely in the realms of art, literature, and film.

 Mikhail Kalashnikov