Fragile Spaces

Collections of essays can be risky, uneven and possibly untidy, affairs. After all, in this case, most were written or commissioned for different occasions in various unrelated forums. Some are longer research and “thought” pieces while others are in the shape of shorter reflections that appeared in journals such as the Times Literary Supplement and the Jewish Review of Books. Hopefully they retain their relevance and freshness and in the Introduction I try to outline some of the connections between them. An additional justification for their appearance here, however, is the fact that a number of these essays have not been previously published or have only appeared in a foreign language. Similarly, as many of these other forays appeared in rather specialized, not to say obscure, forums, this may provide easier access to the interested general reader.