Melody Barron

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May 24, 2018, 9:44 AM

Philip Roth: Life in the Shadow of Portnoy

She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise.” -- Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint Philip Roth wrote several books...

Apr 24, 2018, 11:51 AM

When Romeo and Juliet Became Ram and Yael

The continued popularity of William Shakespeare’s plays is such that it is as though the Bard never died. Immortal and timeless are his words- in Elizabethan English at least- but the translations of Shakespeare’s works are not to be...

Apr 11, 2018, 3:37 PM

Abba Kovner and the Jewish Avengers

Abba Kovner (back row, center) with members of the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (The FPO – Eng: United Partisan Organization) in Vilna, 1940s (Courtesy Israel National Library)

Abba Kovner, a leader of the Vilna Ghetto uprising, planned to use poison to avenge the murder of Jews

Mar 8, 2018, 12:51 PM

A nice Jewish doll: She goes by ‘Barbie’

Contemporary Barbie. (Melody Barron, via the National Library of Israel)

The cultural icon immigrated from Europe, changed her name, and wove herself into the fabric of America

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About Me

Melody Barron is a writer and editor at the National Library of Israel. Jewish heritage, culture, and history are her bread and butter.