Strange and Breathing: The Launch of Lilach Lachman's New Book

Lilach Lachman takes her readers, against the continuum of remembrance, from the figure of the mother as she experiences her in the poetry of Hedva Harechavi to her son’s yard in the moshav of Shuva in the western Negev after October 7; from the inferno and guilt in the aftermath of World War II (Celan and Yeshurun) to “Noah’s Ark, over which the new world grows dark,” on the eve of World War I (Proust, translated by Helit Yeshurun); and from Nurit Zarchi’s writing desk in Kibbutz Geva, through exile in the alleyways of Jerusalem in Haviva Pedaya’s work and the chariot of fire in the streets of Sderot in Shimon Adaf’s poetry, to Acre, Jaffa, and Venice—submerged cities emerging from oblivion in Sheva Salhov’s poetry.

Her essayistic writing moves between intimate contemplation of the poet’s world and the poem, and thought-provoking revelations about the role of translation in the interwoven history of Israeli-Jewish lyric poetry.

Lilach Lachman is an essayist, poetry scholar, and editor. Her works include Poems and Cradles (2025), A Golden Kid Will Come (2015), What Shall We Call Avot Yeshurun (2011), and Perhaps the Heart (2006).

With: Shimon Adaf, Oded Wolkstein, Vered Lev-Kanaan, Haviva Pedaya, Galili Shahar

Music: Avata Barihun

Moderator: Shir Lev-Ari