John Irving to attend the Jerusalem International Writers Festival

It’s a challenge to keep Israel’s cultural life thriving during the war, and one of the most important literary events of the year, the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, just announced that it will be held from May 27-30 at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, and that its diverse program will feature a well-known guest: the acclaimed American novelist, John Irving, the author of The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire and many other books.

Irving said in a statement released by the festival, “I first came to Israel in April 1981. I was pro-Israel then; I’m no less pro-Israeli now.

Simon Schama, the British historian and the author of such books as The Story of the Jews, will be another of the festival’s distinguished guests, and he said, “There are moments when that old Hillel injunction, ‘If not now, when?’ becomes inescapable. This is one of them. At a time when a depressing number of writers, mired in historical ignorance and misunderstanding, are turning their backs on Israel and seeking to divide Diaspora Jews from Israel it seems crucial to deny them that morally misplaced satisfaction with one’s personal presence. So while I have been to Israel many times, coming to the Jerusalem International Writers Festival will be for me, the most meaningful visit of all and I look forward to standing resolutely with Israel’s literary and cultural community.”

Navigating the festival post-October 7

The festival, which is an event in which Israeli and international authors read from their works and engage in literary discussions and exchanges of ideas, will welcome Delphine Horvilleur, a rabbi and editor-in-chief of Tenou’a, a quarterly journal published by the Tenou’a association with the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, and German-Jewish novelist, Mirna Fink.  

The organizers of the festival have struggled to find a way to address the massacre and the war, and the festival will open with a literary remembrance of October 7. The event will feature a discussion with and readings by several Israeli writers, among them Dror Mishani, Noa Yadlin and Eshkol Nevo. A number of relatives of artists killed in the war will discuss their works.

This year marks the beginning of a special project with the European Union for the promotion and distribution of contemporary European literature in Israel, and Varujan Vosganian, a Romanian writer; Christos Chomenidis, from Greece; and Anne Berest, from France will take part. Three Israeli writers currently based abroad will also attend the festival: Ron Leshem, Maya Arad, and Ruby Namdar.

The artistic director of the festival, Julia Fermentto Tzaisler, said, “In the days after the October 7 massacre, we debated long and hard whether to hold the Jerusalem International Writers’ Festival. The shock and grief paralyzed us. Our lives will be shaken. We didn’t know how it would be possible to even think about a festival . . . in the face of bereavement and loss. We built the program with the intention of minimizing the festive aspect of the festival. Instead, we wanted to hold a literary event that would unite the community and provide us all with a little comfort: an event that combined the hope we have in literature, humanism, and solidarity and perhaps provide inspiration. We thought that precisely such an event, which supposedly stands in such sharp contradiction to the reality of our lives, is now needed by all of us like air to breathe.”

The full program of the festival is available at https://fest.mishkenot.org.il/en/home/a/main/