Currently Browsing: Gloria Tessler 6 articles
Bone Woman
On Yom HaShoah, Gloria Tessler dedicates this poem to her grandmother Irma Kien, who was murdered in Riga. Bone woman, I am woman of bone. lone-woman, my eyes are stone. I break easily, small fissures have marbled me like cracked china. Do not expect me to sing for Old Zion under the sad willow The […]
Are our Jewish nightmares paling into insignificance?
Gloria Tessler asks has the pandemic deepened society’s consciousness and so we Jews have to worry less? Does it seem strange that during the pandemic so many important topics of conversation have suddenly assumed even greater magnitude? Racism in society, gender issues, women’s rights, everything is laid bare before us in terms that were muted […]
Shylock
Gloria Tessler shows how Shakespeare turned antisemitism on its head. I have often thought the Bard was the most enlightened philosemite of them all. And the reason? His controversial play, The Merchant of Venice. Many Jews applaud Michael Morpurgo’s decision not to include The Merchant in his forthcoming children’s book, Tales from Shakespeare, but I […]
Flirting and philosophising – the survivors I remember
On Holocaust Memorial Day, Gloria Tessler remembers the survivors in the North London of her youth.
Revisiting Israel: From Bauhaus Tel Aviv to Trump’s Jerusalem
From Bauhaus Tel Aviv to Trump’s Jerusalem – Gloria Tessler wonders how far the character of the Jewish State has changed.
The Lemon Tree and the Garden of Friendship
Gloria Tessler recalls how a small act of reconciliation and friendship could reinforce a soft peace