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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments It is now my privilege and pleasure to thank those who have accompanied this book through its eight-year birthing process. In 2004 I was commissioned by Laurie E. Fialkoff to write a thousand-word book review for Studies in Contemporary Jewry that—with the blessing of the volume editor, my friend and colleague, Eli Lederhendler—grew into the longest review essay in that journal’s history. “What Is Holocaust Literature?” appeared in 2005, 21:157–212. The idea of expanding that review essay into a short history of Holocaust literature came from Sylvia Fuks Fried, the executive director of the Tauber Institute at Brandeis University. Sylvia has supported this project from its inception, as have her able assistants, Talia Graff and Golan Moskowitz. Phyllis D. Deutsch, editor in chief of the University Press of New England, encouraged me to unpack a cramped “communal” narrative into something more portable. Of the incomparable copy editor, Jeanne Ferris, I can only say that all writers should be so lucky. Before the contract was signed and sealed, however, I picked up the phone to Naomi Diamant. A former student and colleague, Naomi was the only person I trusted to do all three of the following things: cover French, Italian, and American Holocaust literature; think British; and speak the truth. The idea of compiling a guide to the first hundred books was born out of our collaboration, turning a monologue into a storytelling round. The dialogue between dgr and nd in that guide is but the formal aspect of our lunches at Saigon Grill and the Do-Jo Café in Greenwich Village, where a comment from Naomi would challenge and change the direction of whatever chapter we were going over. Other voices that echo through these pages come from the members of the Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar on Literature and the Holocaust, held in January 2007 at the us Holocaust Memorial Museum. A more ideal learning environment can hardly be imagined. Sitting in the seminar room were twenty-one handpicked professionals from across the United States and Canada, and directing the seminar with me was Professor Sara R. Horowitz of York University. Her critical approaches to gender, the second generation, and the ethics of reading inform parts of this book, as do the comments and questions of other participants, notably Professors Eric Rose and Brad Prager. But that was not all. A guest participant in the seminar was Professor Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska of Marie Curie University in Lublin, who has done so [ 316 ] Acknowledgments much to bring Polish Holocaust writing to the attention of American readers, and she in turn brought the writer and survivor Henryk Grynberg before the group. Monika and I stayed on in Washington, I to serve as the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the museum. This enabled us to continue conversations about Polish-Jewish relations in life and literature that had begun two decades before and were to continue—in New York, Lublin, Tel Aviv, and cyberspace. The first fruit of my tenure at the museum is this book. The other has still to be harvested. Another set of conversations were ongoing in my second home, Jerusalem: in-depth discussions about the literature and history of the Holocaust with Havi Ben-Sasson Dreyfus, Amos Goldberg, Alan Rosen, and Shira Wolosky. Alan’s support has been especially important. Tel Aviv was my third home, thanks to the hospitality and unflagging energy of Hana Wirth-Nesher. In cyberspace—the new symposium—the following people have selflessly responded to queries large and small: Mark Baker, Bryan Cheyette, Henryk Grynberg, Jack Kugelmass, Alina Molisak, Jeffrey Shandler, Maxim Shrayer, Ilán Stavans, Miriam Udel, and Annette Wieviorka. My students Ofer Dynes and Saul Zaritt were always ready and able to search and find. The word “colleague” hardly describes the role that five people have played in the shaping of this book. Precision, love of language, and the refusal to suffer nonsense are the triple attributes of Hillel Schwartz, who critiqued and line edited the entire manuscript as only he can. Samuel Kassow, Avrom Novershtern , and my sister Ruth Wisse set the gold standard by their very presence, as did Alan Mintz, my next-door neighbor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, through his writing, teaching, and discreet prodding, over many years. I owe a special debt of thanks to my soul mate, Shana. The first thirty years of our life together has been bracketed by big books...