New Books Network Wendy I. Zierler, "Going Out with Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebrew Poetry" (Jewish Publication Society, 2025)
Nov 18, 2025
Wendy I. Zierler, a professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies, shares her poignant journey through grief in her memoir, drawing deeply from Hebrew poetry. She discusses the challenges of mourning as a woman in an Orthodox community and the healing power of poetry amidst loss. Zierler highlights individual poets like Yehuda Amichai and introduces her hybrid approach of combining memoir with scholarly insight. Her passion for translating modern Hebrew women's literature shines through, as she reveals the deeper connections poetry provides to both personal and communal experiences.
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Grief Turned Into Weekly Poetry Study
- Wendy Zierler lost both parents in one year and then recited Kaddish for 22 months while teaching Hebrew poetry to her community.
- She used translation and weekly classes to connect personal grief with her scholarship and communal practice.
Mishnah Passage Triggered Her Poetic Quest
- While studying Mishnah Shabbat in her father's tallit, Wendy encountered a passage saying daughters "never miss their fathers," which felt invalidating to her grief.
- That confrontation pushed her to seek modern poetic resources to supplement traditional ritual.
Poetry Rebuilds Language After Loss
- Poetry restores language after loss by using careful diction and metaphor to reassert agency.
- Metaphor yokes unlike things to make the unfamiliar feel intelligible and movable.
