Daily Podcasts Video Research

Finding a Jewish Homeland — Just Northwest of Buffalo

JL;DR SUMMARY "Isra Isle" by Nava Semel, now available in English, is a novel exploring alternate Jewish histories through three interconnected stories set on Grand Island, New York. 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'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish IdentityDiasporaJewish HomelandSymbolismAlternate HistoryMordecai Manuel NoahNative AmericanNava SemelAraratGrand Island

Places mentioned

Grand Island, New York, United States
"The three tales are set mostly in the same place Grand Island, New York (a small island in the Niagara River, just northwest of Buffalo) but they unfold in different eras."
Buffalo, New York, United States
"The three tales are set mostly in the same place Grand Island, New York (a small island in the Niagara River, just northwest of Buffalo) but they unfold in different eras."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"Part I is a quasi-detective story: Manhattan-based Native American detective named Simon T. Lenox is trying to track down Liam Emanuel, a missing Israeli airline passenger who was last seen on a flight to JFK Airport from Tel Aviv."
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Part I is a quasi-detective story: Manhattan-based Native American detective named Simon T. Lenox is trying to track down Liam Emanuel, a missing Israeli airline passenger who was last seen on a flight to JFK Airport from Tel Aviv."
New York, United States
"Part I is a quasi-detective story: Manhattan-based Native American detective named Simon T. Lenox is trying to track down Liam Emanuel, a missing Israeli airline passenger who was last seen on a flight to JFK Airport from Tel Aviv."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 61612
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-09-16 05:31:33 UTC
Curated 2025-09-16 08:31:58 UTC