David Ehrlich, Israeli fiction writer, commentator, and
former journalist, will give a free reading and talk Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. in the
Women Resource Center, basement of Montgomery Court. Ehrlich is
writer-in-residence this September and October in the University's Harold
Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies.
Ehrlich was a staff writer for Ha'aretz, Israel's leading newspaper; a reporter and producer
for Israeli radio; and recently published two collections of short stories, Tuesday
and Thursday Mornings and 18
Blue. He has lectured widely in the U.S. on
topics such as literary representations of the Middle East crisis, and
regularly moderates readings and discussions at his literary café, T'mol
Shilshom. A founder of the Israeli AIDS Task Force in the 1980s, Ehrlich has
long been active on behalf of gay rights in Israel.
Ehrlich's residency is made possible by the Schusterman
Visiting Artist Program recently launched by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman
Family Foundation. Portland State was the seventh institution to be invited to
participate in this national program, which brings Israeli artists of different
disciplines to the United States for artist residencies. Michael Weingrad,
academic director of the Schnitzer Program, will direct the residency.
While in Portland, Ehrlich will be reading from his own
stories in English translation, and offering a range of talks and lectures on
Israeli literature and culture, gay and lesbian life in Israel, and his
experiences, humorous and poignant, running Jerusalem's premiere literary café.
