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Agnon, Oz, and Me

JL;DR SUMMARY Allan Arkush reflects on his personal encounters with two renowned Israeli authors, Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Amos Oz, and the lasting impressions they left on him. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

JerusalemPersonal ReflectionIsraeli LiteratureAuthorsTranslationPrincetonAmos OzCultural ExperiencesAgnonEncounters

Places mentioned

Jerusalem, Israel
"The best part of it was our three-week stay in Jerusalem, during which the dozen or so American participants lived with Israeli families that had at least one high-school-aged, English-speaking child."
Albany, New York, United States
"Not New York City, I explained, assuming that that was what he had in mind, but a small city north of it, Albany."
New York City, New York, United States
"On Monday, I returned to Princeton University (where I had a fellowship that year). The next day I had to attend a meeting in New York City and chose to go by train."
Princeton Junction, New Jersey, United States
"After parking my car, I entered the station at Princeton Junction and was struck immediately by the sight, 20 feet away from me, of none other than Amos Oz sitting on a bench, waiting for a train with a woman who could only have been his wife."
Talpiot, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"When he was a 20-something student of literature at Hebrew University, Oz went to Agnons house in Talpiot and rang the doorbell."
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Retrieved 2025-04-07 05:31:24 UTC
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