Lamed-E
A Quarterly Journal of Politics and Culture Selected and Edited by Ivan Ninic
Winter 2008 Number 1
About Lamed- E
By Ivan Ninic
If the entire world was populated with fools, we would not recognize foolishness. If the entire world was populated with wise people, we would not recognize wisdom. Every opposite lends definition to the other, as is written: "This, too, opposite the other did God create." (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
A year ago I founded an electronic magazine named Lamed with the intention to share with friends the pleasure of reading my selection of essays and books. After a year of continuous publishing, I am very satisfied with the reception that Lamed has meet, not only among my friends, but also among their friends, and the way this is spreading around.
Nevertheless, in the meantime, I have also understood that there is one thing that I have to modify, and this is the reason to start the publication of Lamed-E. Specifically, many of my friends here in Israel, where I currently live, as well as around the world, do not know the Serbian language. They have been curious about Lamed and who reads it. My answer to them is Lamed- E.
However, what is Lamed, either in the Serbian, or the English version?
A long time ago, I found a book in a secondhand bookstore in Belgrade (published by Geca Kon, a renowned Belgrade publisher and book shop owner, in 1931), written by the unjustly forgotten author [[Marko Car]]: Ogledi i Predavanja (Experiments and Lessons). Among the fifteen essays, one especially stayed in my mind for ever: Around Writing-table.
In that essay, Car described in detail his writing desk; what was in the drawers; which books were on the table; what kind of thoughts were brought to his mind by all this written chaos around him. I have also wanted, through my entire life, to write a book about the stuff that I was surrounded by – books, essays, and letters. Over time, all of these have grown ever more important in spite of modern technology, telecommunication and virtual reality in which we live.
However, in my case all of this has been blended together. I did not write a book that I wanted, but instead I started Lamed, in which I have been sharing interesting articles that I read, bringing in a personal touch, precisely as Marko Car did in his essay. And this is the way I communicate with the world. The refined aesthete Marko Car is not forgotten by me.
In Jerusalem
By David Albahari
The Wish to be A Jew
Or The Struggle Over Appropriating The Symbolic Power Of "Being A Jew" In The Yugoslav Conflict
By Marko Zivkovic
Destroying Memory
The Destruction of the Memory of Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe
A Case Study Former Yugoslavia, Interview with Ivan Ceresnjes
Tina Morpurgo (1907-1944)
By Mirjam Rajner
Sadness in Palestine
By Dan Miron
Daniel Pearl, Gilad Shalit and the exercise of power
By Bradley Burston
An Age of Murder Ideology and Terror in Germany
By Jeffrey Herf
Jihad and Jew-Hatred Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11
By Matthias Kuntzel, translated by Colin Meade
Barak Urges U.S. to Focus on Iran Nuclear Threat
By Gwen Ackerman and Calev Ben-David
Seven Questions / Richard Perle's Advice for Barack Obama
S. Yizhar's Khirbet Khizeh
Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck Afterword by David Shulman Ibis Editions, 2008 By Tsipi Keller
Occupational Hazards
By Fareed Zakaria
Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz
An Essay in Historical Interpretation
By Jan T. Gross
A Quarterly Journal of Politics and Culture Selected and Edited by Ivan Ninic
Shlomo Hamelech 6/21 42268 Netanya, Israel Phone: +972 9 882 6114 e-mail: li.ten.noisivten|cinin#li.ten.noisivten|cinin
