In episode 16, I talk with literary scholar Na’ama Rokem about her work-in-progress, Dispatches in Translation: A German-Hebrew Epistolary Network, which studies the correspondences between mid-century Jewish intellectuals writing in and between German and Hebrew. The project focuses on ambivalences and debates surrounding Zionism from the 1930s through the early 70’s. We discuss and read from Hannah Arendt’s correspondences with Gershom Scholem and James Baldwin, and Paul Celan’s exchange with Yehuda Amichai. We get into two of Celan’s poems, “Discus” and “Mandorla,” as we think about the ethics of orienting “towards another,” of dwelling in the dynamic between presence and absence, or between something-ness and nothingness.Discus,starred with premonitions,throw yourselfout of yourself.- Paul Celan, trans. Washburn & GuilleminTexts and events mentioned and discussedThe Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem, edited by Marie Luise Knott, translated by Anthony DavidHannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On RevolutionAriella Aïsha Azoulay, Potential History: Unlearning ImperialismJames Baldwin, Letter from a Region in my MindPaul Celan, “Mandorla” and “Discus” in Breathturn Into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, translated by Pierre JorisPaul Celan, “Discus” in Last Poems: A Bilingual Edition, translated by Katharine Washburn and Margret GuilleminFranz Kafka, Letters to Milena, translated by Philip BoehmDavid D. Kim: Arendt’s Solidarity: Antisemitism and Racism in the Atlantic WorldEmmanuel Levinas, Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism, translated by Sean HandAudre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”Stanford Conference on Hannah Arendt’s Jewish Questions

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