Reviews & Press
Critical responses to "Mikan Ve'eylakh"
"The Israeli Intellectuals Making Berlin More Hebrew Than Ever Before"
'Mikan ve'eylakh' offers a radical and thought-provoking programme.
"Mikan Ve'eylakh (From this Point Onward): Foreword"
Moving beyond concepts of trauma and rupture that have long characterized the perceived relationship between German and Hebrew cultures, Mikan Ve'eylakh seeks to reclaim Berlin as a productive site of diasporic Jewish culture, in which Hebrew represents one among several languages rather than the telos of Zionist 'homecoming.'
"'Mikan Ve'eylakh': A Radical Attempt to Replace Israeli Hebrew with World Hebrew"
The second issue of 'Mikan Ve'eylakh,' a new Hebrew journal edited in Berlin and Paris, includes articles, essays, stories, and poems written mostly outside the borders of Israel. But as stated in the preface, it is not a journal of exiles but of 'diaspora'; it seeks to return the Hebrew language to the dispersion. It extricates it from the myth of the revival of Hebrew — a myth of significant weight in Zionist ideology, which locates the language in a single site of belonging, development, and life: in Israel. 'Mikan Ve'eylakh' returns it to its global speakers.
"Mikan Ve'eylakh: Defenders of the Hebrew Language in Berlin"
The excellent Hebrew journal 'Mikan Ve'eylakh,' edited by Tal Hever-Chybowski, was published in Berlin. Striking in it is the transformation of emigration — which at its core, like all emigration, is driven by material reasons — into an ideological challenge against the Israeli establishment. My sympathy goes to it, because it is unclear where Hebrew culture will be preserved — in Israel or elsewhere, such as this journal, in whose very bones the preservation of Hebrew culture burns.
"On the Brilliant and Furious Resurgence of Non-Israeli Hebrew Literature in Europe"
There are still forgotten cities in the diaspora where our ancient candle still smokes in secret; and there settled the people who created the journal 'Mikan Ve'eylakh.' Tal Hever-Chybowski, the brilliant founder and editor of this cultural enterprise, moves between Berlin and Paris, and writers and scholars of renown — Hebrew men and women of letters residing in Europe and the United States — have joined him in this endeavor.
"Does Hebrew Have an Existence Outside Israel's Borders?"
Diasporism, as Hever-Chybowski sees it, finds expression in the journal, and not only in the magnificent preface. So, for example, in the translated essays by Daniel Boyarin and Edward Said, which serve here as a kind of intellectual support for the new worldview presented by the creators of 'Mikan Ve'eylakh.' So too in the beautiful and innovative essay by Ofri Ilany, which examines the German connections of early Hebrew poetry.
The first issue of 'Mikan Ve'eylakh' does not think small — it is one of the most impressive intellectual endeavors of recent times. And it is without a doubt a particularly eloquent expression of an important faction of Israeli-Hebrew artists and intellectuals who have chosen to work outside the borders of Israel. This process, like the polemic that accompanies it, continues to develop and is examined on multiple levels and layers. And it is still in its beginning. Within it, as within the developing Hebrew journal scene, 'Mikan Ve'eylakh' is a precious and important component.
"From Here On We Return to World Hebrew"
The stories written by authors in France, Germany, and Poland all clearly take place in European countries, reflecting the Hebrew person deliberating in those lands, much as most Hebrew-language stories did until the mid-1930s.
"One Lives in One's Own Language"
The journal for world Hebrew, Mikan Ve'eylakh, which recently appeared in Paris and Berlin, constitutes one of the clearest signs of the spirit of the times. Mikan Ve'eylakh defines itself as a diasporic journal, attempting to redraw the boundaries of Hebrew, while denying the centrality of Israel as the capital of the literary republic of the unholy holy tongue.