Writing on the Wall

Writing on the Wall was born after an impromptu writing workshop led by Professor William Kolbrener after October 7th. Hearing the power of writers’ stories, Writing on the Wall was born. Bill (the Jerusalem religious American) and creative director, Ronit Eitan (the Tel Aviv secular Israeli), agree that fighting antisemitism starts with joining our different voices together through poetry and art. Our diversity is our strength – encounter the complexity and the layered reality that is Israel today.

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We are a creative movement fighting isolation and antisemitism through writing, art, and community.

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BALAGAN

A Magazine of Art, Poetry, and Perspective

BALAGAN, meaning “chaos” in Hebrew, is Writing on the Wall’s new quarterly literary magazine.

Through poetry, art, and storytelling, BALAGAN offers fresh perspectives on identity, culture, and everything in between.

נשימה: על יצירת מוזיקה אחרי הבלתי נתפס

מרינה מקסימיליאן

שישה הרהורים על נוכחות אנושית

פרופ' דנה אמיר

The Bell and The Siren

Certain sounds are forever programmed in us. Like a siren.

Tick–Tock: The Hope of the Hopeless

The Jewish optimism of hopelessness – kiviti – the hope that remains after all hope is lost.

Whiplash: Between Mourning and Celebration

The line between collective grief and celebration has become so thin that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.

Ba’avor Zeh – For this Moment, Now

From degradation to triumph, from idolatry to the one God, from slavery to freedom, we first remember and retell.

The Hierarchy of Shelter

The private mamad, the building miklat, and the public miklat — the new social hierarchy of the underground

Near Miss

I felt the car jolt – a sharp, sudden bang. I was sure I’d blown a tire.

Between the Sirens: Now Accepting Submissions

Be a literary witness from wherever you are. We are seeking creative responses - poetry, artwork, and essays - to the uncertainty of today. Click here to check out the series!

Flyover

Saturday was my father’s yahrzeit, the first anniversary of his death. I had planned a kiddush at home and was scheduled to speak in synagogue after the reading of Parshat Zachor. Every year on the Shabbat before Purim we read those verses: remember what Amalek did to the people of Israel on their way out […]

Why I Didn’t Cancel Milton

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a class trip to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students moved easily through a shared historical space, speaking from within their traditions without defensiveness or performance. What made that possible, I suggested, was narrative capacity: the confidence that one can enter a story without […]

10th of Tevet

Explore the meaning behind the Tenth of Tevet. The fast does not mourn the moment the walls fell, but the moment the city was cut off economically, politically, and spiritually.

Hanukkah: Reading the Signs

Remember when assimilation was the greatest threat to the Jewish people? Those were the good old days.

Tel Aviv Mon Amour

On a Saturday night thick with protests, guilt, and hunger, going out to eat in Tel Aviv leads to the realization that even our most ambitious food now tastes like survival.

Call Me Carol

In Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new series, a zombie hive-mind becomes a mirror for our own slow drift toward machine thinking.

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