Jewish authors date to Moses

I’m a Michael Chabon fan—“Wonder Boys,” “Final Solution,” “Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” and, oh yeah, that Pulitzer-Prize winner I haven’t yet read. It was a treat, then, to see last week that the Jewish weekly in San Francisco, j., had a cover story on Chabon and his wife, best-selling author Ayelet Waldman.

Being a Jewish author “is a great tradition to be part of, stretching back to …” She pauses.

“Moses?” suggests Chabon.

“Moses,” states Waldman definitively, adding Cynthia Ozick, Saul Bellow and Mordecai Richler for good measure.

 

Bintel Blogger Daniel Treiman, though, notes a glaring gap in the j.’s story, which doesn’t touch the controversy surrounding “Yiddish Policemen’s”:

Critics — some more sober than others — have argued that the book is hostile to Israel. It’s a disappointing omission, given that some have already started casually referring (perhaps unfairly) to Chabon as an anti-Zionist. It would have been good to hear what Chabon has to say on this issue.

You know what I would also consider unfortunate? That an author is branded an anti-Zionist—which has become a synonym for anti-Semite—because they write a fictional account of the efforts to create Zion in a parallel reality.