The Golden Chain: Fifty Years of The Jewish Quarterly

The Golden Chain recalls a great Yiddish idea - die goldene keyt - the handing on of the enormous cultural wealth of Jewish tradition from generation to generation. This was the mission of the founding editor of The Jewish Quarterly , Jacob Sonntag, who, as he later recalled, felt called upon to add a link to the ‘golden chain’ . For many years, The Jewish Quarterly has published the finest Jewish writing from around the world. It remains true to its founding ideals of cultural pluralism and open debate about the many issues of interest and concern to Jews in Britain and internationally. This volume brings together the finest writing to have been published in The Jewish Quarterly since it began. It focuses on central themes of London, community, vanished worlds, literature, Israel, and includes: poetry by Dannie Abse, Al Alvarez, Ruth Fainlight, Bernard Kops and Nelly Sachs; short stories by Sholom Aleichem, Bernice Rubens and Arnold Wesker; memoirs by Vera Elyashiv, Emmanuel Litvinoff, Frederic Raphael and Gabriel Josipovici; and essays by Aharon Appelfeld, Jonathan Freedland and Sonja Linden.