Literary Modiin - March 2024 Event

About the authors:

Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author. Her first book, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her second book, Fields of Exile, won the inaugural Canadian Jewish Literary Award for best novel, and was acclaimed by Ruth Wisse and Irwin Cotler. The Dead Man was honoured with a Canada Council for the Arts translation grant and was published in Hebrew in Israel. Her fourth book, 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages, an anthology of translated works, was praised by Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, and Dara Horn. Her most recent book, published just ten days ago, is In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym (two novellas). In addition, Gold is the founder and editor-in-chief of the prestigious literary journal Jewish Fiction .net which has readers in 140 countries. She is also the co-founder of three progressive Zionist organizations in Canada: Canadian Friends of Givat Haviva, New Israel Fund of Canada, and JSpaceCanada (no affiliation with JStreet). Gold holds both Canadian and Israeli citizenship. noragold.com.

Jay Michaelson is the author of ten books, most recently The Secret That is Not a Secret. Jay’s previous book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship. As a journalist, Jay regularly appears on CNN and in Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, The Forward, and other publications, and won the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists Award for Opinion Writing. For ten years, he worked as an LGBTQ activist, and is the author of the bestselling God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality. Jay is also a meditation teacher in Buddhist and Jewish traditions, and serves on the leadership team of the New York Insight Meditation Center. Dr. Michaelson a fellow at American Jewish University and a field scholar at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality.  He holds a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a JD from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. He lives outside New York City.

Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Avi Shalev served in the Military Intelligence Research Division and in the Civil Administration in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In his last positions, he served as head of the Palestinian affairs branch and advisor to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories; head of the economics branch of the Gaza District Coordination and Liaison Administration, and head of the international organizations branch of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria. Avi Shalev holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics and Islamic studies. Lieutenant Colonel Shalev is a graduate of Al-Qasemi Academy and the author of the book “The Al-Qasemi Diary/The Only Jew in the Room”.