About the Author
Image credit: photo by David Olds
Series
Works by Lev Raphael
Stick Up for Yourself: Every Kid's Guide to Personal Power & Positive Self-Esteem (Revised & Updated Edition) (1990) — Author — 231 copies, 2 reviews
Another Life {short story} 1 copy
The Vampyre of Gotham 1 copy
Associated Works
Wrestling with the Angel: Faith and Religion in the Lives of Gay Men (1995) — Contributor — 257 copies, 2 reviews
Criminal Kabbalah: An Intriguing Anthology of Jewish Mystery and Detective Fiction (2002) — Contributor — 64 copies
A Taste of Murder: Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers (1999) — Contributor — 48 copies, 1 review
Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging (2010) — Contributor — 13 copies
James White Review (Volume 14, Number 2) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Raphael, Lev
- Other names
- Steinberg, Reuben Lewis (birth)
- Birthdate
- 1954-05-19
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Fordham University (BA, English)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (MA, English and Creative Writing)
Michigan State University (PhD, English) - Occupations
- author
professor (Jewish studies) - Organizations
- Michigan State University
- Short biography
- The son of Holocaust survivors, Lev Raphael is a pioneer in writing fiction about America's Second Generation, publishing his first short story about children of survivors in 1978. Many of his early stories on this theme were collected in his award-winning book, Dancing on Tisha B'Av, while the best of those and newer ones appear in his second collection Secret Anniversaries of the Heart.[from Michigan State University website]
Lev Raphael (Ph.D., English, Michigan State University) is the author of 25 books in many genres: memoir, mystery, literary fiction, short fiction, advice for writers, essay collections, historical fiction, horror, psychology, biography, a teacher's guide, and literary criticism. Raphael earned an MFA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he won the Harvey Swados Fiction Prize. His first book of short stories, Dancing on Tisha B'Av, won a Lambda Literary Award. Raphael has published hundreds of stories, essays, articles, and reviews in a wide range of newspapers, magazines, and journals—from Redbook to Reform Judaism. His short fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in over two dozen anthologies in the US and England, and his writing is taught at colleges and universities in the US and Canada. He also blogs on books and cultural issues for The Huffington Post. Raphael is the resident book critic for WKAR, 90.5 FM, East Lansing's NPR station. MSU's Library collects his literary papers, and he teaches ENG 356: “Readings in Jewish Literature” and other courses in the English Department. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Okemos, Michigan, USA
New York, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
This collection of essays by the author of Dancing on Tisha B'av, Winter Eyes, not to mention the Nick Hoffman mystery series, focuses on his twin comings-out, as a Jew and as a gay man. The child of Holocaust survivors, Raphael was raised in a secular Jewish household, and it was not until he was an adult that he began to explore and embrace his religion. In the process, he met Gersh, whom he would also explore and embrace ;-)) (sorry, irresistible!).
In an excellent essay, "Empty Memory? show more Gays in Holocaust Literature", Raphael addresses the question of gays in Nazi Germany, and has it right, I think, when he says that it is wrong to ignore or belittle the persecution of gays, but that it is also wrong, and historically inaccurate, not to understand the difference between the treatment of gays and the treatment of Jews, and the policy differences between them.
He does not allow himself, however, to separate his Jewishness and his gayness. He mentions speaking at a Jewish community center, along with a lesbian who is also the child of survivors, and being asked by other children of survivors why they "had to be gay" that evening! They could not understand his and Beck's "multiple identities as Jews, children of survivors, and homosexuals".
Here he says something important for all communities of faith, who ground their hatred of gays in the phrase, "It's religion". "Lies are lies. Hatred is hatred. As Jews we know what it sounds and feels and smells and tastes like. " When, at Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance, a ceremony to remember the gay and lesbian Jews who died in the Holocaust is interrupted by right-wing demonstrators calling the group "evil" and accusing them of blasphemy, this is no less hatred than the the demonization of Jews as Christ-killers, and the anti-Semitism of the Pat Buchanans of the world.
Not everything is this book is so intense, though. "Okemos, Michigan" is a heart-warming essay, describing how he and Gersh bought a house together, and how the house became a home. A humorous essay, "Selling Was Never My Line", will be appreciated by any author who has ever done a book tour.
I found connections between this book and my last, Isabel Allende's My Invented Country. Each is about how the writer's family history affected their writing, each describes exile (Allende's a physical exile from Chile, Rafael's a psychic exile as apart from the mainstream of straight, Christian America). And each tells us in the introductions of the impact of an act of terrorism. For Allende, two acts of terrorism: Tuesday, September 11, 1973, when a CIA-sponsored coup occurred that would send her into exile, when she lost a country, and Tuesday, September 11, 2001, which would make her view herself as an American, a day she found a country. For Raphael, the Oklahoma City bombing, which occurred on the day he received the offer to publish this book, sent the message that the terror that had savaged his family in Europe could strike much closer to home. show less
In an excellent essay, "Empty Memory? show more Gays in Holocaust Literature", Raphael addresses the question of gays in Nazi Germany, and has it right, I think, when he says that it is wrong to ignore or belittle the persecution of gays, but that it is also wrong, and historically inaccurate, not to understand the difference between the treatment of gays and the treatment of Jews, and the policy differences between them.
He does not allow himself, however, to separate his Jewishness and his gayness. He mentions speaking at a Jewish community center, along with a lesbian who is also the child of survivors, and being asked by other children of survivors why they "had to be gay" that evening! They could not understand his and Beck's "multiple identities as Jews, children of survivors, and homosexuals".
Here he says something important for all communities of faith, who ground their hatred of gays in the phrase, "It's religion". "Lies are lies. Hatred is hatred. As Jews we know what it sounds and feels and smells and tastes like. " When, at Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance, a ceremony to remember the gay and lesbian Jews who died in the Holocaust is interrupted by right-wing demonstrators calling the group "evil" and accusing them of blasphemy, this is no less hatred than the the demonization of Jews as Christ-killers, and the anti-Semitism of the Pat Buchanans of the world.
Not everything is this book is so intense, though. "Okemos, Michigan" is a heart-warming essay, describing how he and Gersh bought a house together, and how the house became a home. A humorous essay, "Selling Was Never My Line", will be appreciated by any author who has ever done a book tour.
I found connections between this book and my last, Isabel Allende's My Invented Country. Each is about how the writer's family history affected their writing, each describes exile (Allende's a physical exile from Chile, Rafael's a psychic exile as apart from the mainstream of straight, Christian America). And each tells us in the introductions of the impact of an act of terrorism. For Allende, two acts of terrorism: Tuesday, September 11, 1973, when a CIA-sponsored coup occurred that would send her into exile, when she lost a country, and Tuesday, September 11, 2001, which would make her view herself as an American, a day she found a country. For Raphael, the Oklahoma City bombing, which occurred on the day he received the offer to publish this book, sent the message that the terror that had savaged his family in Europe could strike much closer to home. show less
An excellent little collection of essays and reviews, by a writer who doesn't limit either his writing or his reading to one genre. I especially liked his essay on "Shakespeare Deniers" in which he demolishes the silliness of barious people who think someone else wrote Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. I was also happy to be reminded of a book I had really enjoyed (Frederic Morton's A Nervous Splendor) and to learn that Morton had written another book about old Vienna. Recommended.
I don’t think I’m the kind of person anyone really imagines would read Lev Raphael’s story collection, Secret Anniversaries of the Heart ($15.95). Or perhaps I should say, when the marketing department at Leapfrog Press got together (I’m imagining a couple of guys and a six pack) to discuss their target audience or likely readership, I probably didn’t make the list. There is some justification for this—the overwhelming reason people like a book is because they like, or think they show more are like, or perhaps wish they were more like its main characters. One of my greatest hurdles when I was a bookseller was trying to convince people to read a book about somebody they didn’t think they would want to know.
Secret Anniversaries of the Heart is a strongly-themed collection of stories that deals with issues of Jewish identity, the loss and finding of faith, growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, coming of age and homosexual identity, and the insidious nature of anti-Semitism and homophobia. These are stories about what it is to be Jewish in a culture that consigns Jews forever to the realm of the exotic and foreign. What it means to be religious in an era that is materialistic and spiritually barren. What it means to be homosexual in a country where the veneer of tolerance is sometimes as thin as the membrane around the yolk of an egg, and what it means to live in the shadow of a horror so great its victims will never again be at peace.
These stories explore what it is to be a young, gay, Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors.
I am almost none of those things. . .read full review show less
Secret Anniversaries of the Heart is a strongly-themed collection of stories that deals with issues of Jewish identity, the loss and finding of faith, growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, coming of age and homosexual identity, and the insidious nature of anti-Semitism and homophobia. These are stories about what it is to be Jewish in a culture that consigns Jews forever to the realm of the exotic and foreign. What it means to be religious in an era that is materialistic and spiritually barren. What it means to be homosexual in a country where the veneer of tolerance is sometimes as thin as the membrane around the yolk of an egg, and what it means to live in the shadow of a horror so great its victims will never again be at peace.
These stories explore what it is to be a young, gay, Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors.
I am almost none of those things. . .read full review show less
16 of 75 for 2015. Most of what I know about Judaism I learned from reading Lev Raphael. His collection of stories Dancing on Tisha B'Av came out in 1990, and it must have been that year I read it. I've since read most of his work, skipping only the children's books and the psychology works he co-authored with his partner Gershen Kaufman. Secret Anniversaries of the Heart came out in 2006, and I may have read it then, but when I found it on my shelves last week, I pulled it down to (re)read show more it. Some of the stories were very familiar, others seemed new to me, but all were engaging, well told, and thought provoking. Many of the stories involve the children of Holocaust survivors growing up in the United States--a place their parents find extremely foreign. Many of the stories are centered on gay men who are trying to reconcile their sexuality with their religion. All involve the struggle of faith with modern American life. Secret Anniversaries is divided into three sections. The final section is a group of five stories starting with the original Dancing on Tisha B'Av and then building from that story--more deeply probing the life of Nat, Mark, Brenda and their parents. This alone would have made the collection valuable to me, but the twenty stories in the first two sections are outstanding in themselves. As a gay man, I can relate to the homosexuality of the characters, if not their religion. As a student of World War II in Europe, I appreciate the stories of the Holocaust survivors--as much as we learn from these people who in Raphael's world are mostly closed off and silent about the past. These are stories I will read again and again, never tiring of Raphael's prose. I recommend the book to anyone sincerely interested in the humanity of the "other" whether the other be a Lithuanian immigrant, an Orthodox Jew, a gay man. My quibble with this edition is that at times it feels as if the book was proof-read by word check: "gay" becomes "gap," "know" becomes "no." This happens all too frequently and is disappointing in a book by an author as accomplished as Lev Raphael. That said, by all means, read this book! And anything else you find of Raphael's. You won't be disappointed. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 15
- Members
- 1,609
- Popularity
- #16,021
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 24
- ISBNs
- 64
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 1
