Philip Hollander

Philip Hollander is an Assistant Professor of Israeli Literature and Culture at the University Wisconsin-Madison.

Arts and Culture

Rethinking Modern Hebrew Literature: A Review of Shachar M. Pinsker's Literary Passports

Hebrew literature did not begin in Palestine. It began in Europe, as part of a distinctly modernist approach to 20th century European Jewish life.

Arts and Culture

Israel's Eastward Beating Heart (Review)

By Philip Hollander

Philip Hollander reviews Amy Horowitz’s Mediterranean Israeli Music and the Politics of the Aesthetic (Wayne State University, 2010).

Arts and Culture

My Hebrew is Poetry

By Philip Hollander

Modern Hebrew poetry was originally conceived as a vehicle for secular Jewish liberalism. Its impact on Israel’s national language has been forgotten.

Arts and Culture

Minority Tongue: Hebrew Literature in the United States

By Philip Hollander

Modern Hebrew literature did not begin in Israel. In the 19th century, a new secular Hebrew literature arose in Eastern Europe and then the United States. Here, Hollander reviews a new book by Stephen Katz, who argues that this literature was a minority tongue, more at home with African-American gospel than old-time tefillah.