David Stromberg, at The Blogs

David Stromberg

Sep 12, 2023, 5:26 PM

For millennia, Jews have existed as minority communities in countries ruled by people of other religions, cultures, and ethnicities. So a core part of the Jewish experience is being among others who are not only different but, quite often,...

Aug 2, 2023, 12:33 PM

Where is Moses when you need him?

Philip De Vere, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

More than once, members of the People of Israel have been struck down by God—usually when they are busier with their personal power than with the life of the spirit. Moses's central lesson as a leader was that direct...

Jul 16, 2023, 9:52 PM

Our misconceptions about modern democracy

"The Death of Democracy." Old White Truck, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For nearly five years, I taught English language and American culture in Jerusalem. One work I featured regularly was an illustrated essay by Maira Kalman, "E Pluribus Unum," which means "Out of Many, One"—and which happens to be the...

Jul 13, 2023, 1:34 PM

Explaining Democracy to a Three-Year-Old

Protest against Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, April 8, 2023.

This week, after picking up my three-year-old from kindergarten, road closures led our bus to deviate from its usual route. We jumped off at the last possible stop and began to walk toward home. My daughter asked me why...

Apr 27, 2023, 3:50 PM

The Truth About MussoBibi

Much of the damage that Benito Mussolini unleashed on Italian civil society was already evident by 1926, when Miriam Allen deFord published a staple-bound Little Blue Book titled The Truth About Mussolini. Reading the booklet this week, I was...

Apr 17, 2023, 7:17 AM

Featured Post

The Tragedy of MacBibi

He set about crowning himself king by 'murdering' the ruling 'king,' which, in a liberal democracy, is the rule of law

About Me

David Stromberg is a writer, translator, and essayist whose work has appeared in The American Scholar, Speculative Nonfiction, Public Seminar, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. He is editor of "Old Truths and New Clichés" (Princeton University Press), a collection of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s essays, and a new translation of Singer's canonical story, "Simple Gimpl: The Definitive Bilingual Edition" (Restless Books). His recent work includes "A Short Inquiry into the End of the World" (The Massachusetts Review), the first speculative essay in his Mister Investigator series, and his follow-up, “The Eternal Hope of the Wandering Jew” (The Hedgehog Review). The third essay, "To Kill an Intellectual" (The Fortnightly Review), is now being published in installments.