The Ruined House

by Ruby Namdar
Translated by Hillel Halkin

When this book opens "on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Elul, the year 5760, counting from the creation of the world," Andrew P. Cohen, professor of comparative culture at New York University (NYU), is at the peak of a perfect life.

But that day, "which happened to fall on Wednesday, September 6, 2000, the gates of heaven were opened above the great city of New York, and behold: all seven celestial spheres were revealed, right above the West 4th Street subway station, layered one on top of another like the rungs of a ladder reaching skyward from the earth."

There, in the first paragraph, we are faced with the amazing and beautiful duality of this book. Page after page, author Ruby Namdar makes the real magical and the magical real.

Beaufort

By Ron Leshem

Beaufort – named “beautiful fortress" by 12th century French Crusaders– was a symbol of Israeli defensive strength when it was captured from the PLO in 1982.

With a commanding view of the upper Galilee and South Lebanon, it was touted as the safe zone that protected Northern Israel.

By the late 1990s, it was a symbol of the failure of the Israeli campaign into Lebanon. Rising death tolls made it the focus of escalating anti-war campaigns and a national debate on troop withdrawal.