Celebrated Israeli writer, A.B. Yehoshua, will discuss "Israelis and Palestinians: New Dangers in the Current Crisis" at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 24 in the UCSB Corwin Pavilion.  Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, copies of his books will be available for purchase and signing at this event. 

Described by The New York Times as "a kind of Israeli Faulkner," A.B. Yehoshua is one of Israel's foremost authors - a novelist, essayist, and playwright with a particular gift for capturing the mood of his country. Yehoshua’s gripping narratives describe the physical and psychological ambivalence of those living in modern Israel.  All the subjects of life in Israel - its difficulties, its conflicts, its admixture of joy and sorrow - emerge through Yehoshua’s examination of the personal lives of his characters who, despite living a life fraught with concern and anxiety, stubbornly endure.  A lively, controversial, and prophetic voice in his homeland, Yehoshua rigorously tests his community's deepest pieties: religion, Zionism, the agony of the Holocaust. A Jew who does not believe in God, he is a committed Zionist and member of the "peace camp" in Israel. 

His most recent book, The Terrible Power of a Minor Guilt: Literary Essays (2001), argues for a moral interpretation of literature. His previous book, Facing the Fires: Conversations with A.B. Yehoshua (1998) explores a range of ideas - from family to geopolitics - from Zionism to the Holocaust.  Yehoshua's 1997 novel, A Journey to the End of the Millennium - a Novel of the Middle Ages has been called vivid, timeless and provocative.  His other works include Open Heart, Mr. Mani (for which he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature), A Late Divorce, Five Seasons, and The Continuing Silence of a Poet: The Collected Short Stories of A. B. Yehoshua. He has written four plays, all produced at the Haifa Municipal Theatre and other theatre companies in Israel: A Night in May, Last Treatments, Objects, and Night Babies.

Since 1972, he has been a professor of comparative and Hebrew literature at Haifa University. His visiting professorships include Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of Chicago.

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies are co-sponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures, Department of Religious Studies, Hillel, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. This event is being put on in partnership with UCSB Bookstore and Santa Barbara Jewish Federation.