Daily Podcasts Video Research

Two poems about Oct. 7 by Ber Kotlerman 

JL;DR SUMMARY Yiddish poet and scholar Ber Kotlerman reflects on the tragic events of October 7, 2023, in Israel through two poignant poems translated into English by Jessica Kirzane. 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

Hamas AttacksTranslationHopeYiddish PoetryTragedyChaim Nachman BialikBer KotlermanNew Creation

Places mentioned

Hallamish, Central District, Israel
"Ber Kotlerman, who lives in Hallamish, Israel, wrote a number of poems in reaction to that horrific day."
Southern District, Israel
"At night, the moon whispers to my land that somewhere at the eastern edge of all, in the dark, a hidden gentle arm enfolds a newborn light in a dazed slumber."
Hebei, China
"grew up in Birobidzhan the Jewish Autonomous Region on the SovietChinese border, where Yiddish held official status."
Irkutsk, Russian Federation
"Ber Kotlerman was born in Irkutsk, Siberia, in 1971 and grew up in Birobidzhan the Jewish Autonomous Region on the SovietChinese border, where Yiddish held official status."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 62972
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-10-03 05:30:52 UTC
Curated 2025-10-03 08:30:44 UTC