“Two American Poets: Emma Lazarus and Bob Dylan”
After the Netanya Residential Workshop in May 2024, the renewal of war forced us to revert again to Zoom, so that it took us 16 months to meet in person again. But on September 2, 2025, we gathered once more in Haifa, at the Hadarim community centre. 16 attendees, two presenters and Elana Dorfman, our energetic workshop coordinator, enjoyed two very fruitful sessions.
This workshop featured the following presentations, each of course with a writing exercise and enough time for all participants to read the poems written during the exercise period:
- Wendy Blumfield, of our Haifa group, took us through the life and poetry of Emma Lazarus, better known perhaps as a political activist than a poet, with insights into two leitmotifs of her poetry: the theme of exile and loss, with especially reference to her Jewish identity; and the theme of the majesty of Nature and the sense of awe and mysticism it aroused in her.
- Pesach Rotem, from our Upper Galilee group, introduced us to the poetry of Bob Dylan, especially from the viewpoint of his mentions of other poets and his use of references to them to convey scepticism, sarcasm, or an “opposite” view to the accepted.
Each session was followed by a writing period, with exercises carefully chosen by the presenter to accord with the session.
Many thanks to our two presenters, to Elana for organising the workshop, and to our President, Julian, for his help. Also to Naomi Yalin, who snapped most of the photos at the bottom of this page, which may help to give a feel of the occasion.
As usual following in-person workshops, we produced a printed chapbook of poems written during the workshop, or edited versions of them, and distributed it to all the workshop participants who ordered it. Copies may also be ordered directly from this website for 29 NIS (20 NIS plus 9 NIS postage within Israel) via Our PayPal account, by clicking the following button:
If you don’t see the button, click on this link: PayPal.me/VoicesIsrael.
You will be asked to log in to your PayPal account and then fill in the amount to send Voices Israel and a note saying what the payment is for. Please also send an email to whoever is distributing them (currently, our President, Judy Koren) giving your current postal address.
Below are a few photographs, taken by Naomi Yalin and Judy Koren, to give a feel of the occasion:
Pesach presenting
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 