Two Scholars Who Were in our Town and other Novellas

About the Translators and Editor

Paul Pinchas Bashan (co-translator, “Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town”) was born to Holocaust survivors in a D.P. Camp in Vienna, and grew up in Israel. Upon completing his military service in the IDF he came to the United States where he initially worked for the Israeli Ministry of Defense in New York, working for several years in logistics and procurement, and finally becoming an executive recruiter. He went on to establish several successful executive search companies. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Itta, and is the proud father of two daughters, Aviva and Talia, and is active in several volunteer programs.

I.M. Lask (“In the Heart of the Seas”), born in London in 1905 and arrived in the Land of Israel in 1930, was a journalist, editor and poet, but most well known as a premier translator of Hebrew and Yiddish literature to English. In addition to the works of Yehuda Halevi, Tchernichovsky, Bialik, Hazaz, Shenhar, Martin Buber and numerous poets and authors, he was one of the earliest and most prolific English translators of Agnon. Additionally, as Holocaust papers and documents started to reach Palestine starting already in 1939, he was responsible for preparing English translations for the Jewish Agency. Israel Meir Lask, who died in 1974, was married to Luba Pevsner, and they had two daughters Ruth Rasnic and Bella Doron, both authors, and a son, Amittai, who was killed in the Israeli Air Force in 1956.

Walter Lever (“Tehilla”) was born in London and came to Jerusalem in 1947 to teach English Literature at the Hebrew University and was a significant translator of Hebrew literature to English. He published a memoir of his early days in Israel under the title Jerusalem is Called Liberty.

Gabriel Levin (“In the Prime of Her Life”) is the author of four collections of poems, most recently To These Dark Steps. He has also translated a selection from the poetry of Yehuda Halevi, Poems from the Diwan, and a book of essays, The Dune’s Twisted Edge: Journeys in the Levant. He lives in Jerusalem.

Rhonna Weber Rogol (co-translator, “Two Scholars Who Were in Our Town”), a Montreal native, attributes her passion for Hebrew language and literature to the inspiration of her 7th grade teacher and beloved lifelong friend, the late Shlomo Jaacobi. She studied Hebrew from childhood at Shaare Zion Academy and Herzliah High School and later at Brandeis University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. An attorney by profession, Rogol engages in volunteer work and Jewish and Holocaust education, enjoying both learning and teaching, and mostly spending time with her wonderfully supportive husband Brian, and their three children, Alissa, Joshua and Dane.

Jeffrey Saks is the Series Editor of The S.Y. Agnon Library at The Toby Press, and lectures regularly at the Agnon House in Jerusalem. He is the founding director of ATID — The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education and its WebYeshiva.org program. He edited Wisdom From All My Teachers: Challenges and Initiatives in Contemporary Torah Education; To Mourn a Child: Jewish Responses to Neonatal and Childhood Death; and authored Spiritualizing Halakhic Education. Rabbi Saks is an Associate Editor of the journal Tradition.