Ladies & Gentlemen, Distinguished guests and friends, This is a great moment for me. I'm honored to represent the State of Israel in honoring Mr. Tubis with a special award. In fact, Mr. Tubis is the one who gave many Jews a precious gift. He gave them and he gave…

TRAUMA - "wound" in ancient Greek. Towards this deep opening in the soul the writer is drawn, whether he wants to or unwittingly. The Holocaust is the black hole in my soul. Writing literature exposed that hole and pushed me closer to its edges. First, without being aware. Later, out…

The girl battered me through the Internet window. On my computer screen, beside the picture that had made a cybernetic leap to Israel from a London gallery, shivered the text I was working on. I saw her and my heart skipped a beat. For two years I had been immersed…

My first teacher in writing was Anna Frank. She is the one who taught me that it's possible to turn myself into the character of a story and tell it through "me" instead of "he" or "she". Anna told me: look around you, the closest places. That's where the story…

by Nava Semel "How did you arrive to Israel?" I used to ask my parents as a child. We were told again and again that we're the "new children". Hebrew was the ultimate language. Therefore, my new immigrant mother and father didn't read any bed time stories. Yet, before putting…