The Fiction section of the New Vilna Review offers short stories by writers who are actively engaged in helping to craft the present and future of modern Jewish literature. In their nuanced explorations of Jewish themes, they offer a mirror up to the American Jewish community and to Jewish communities around the world, in an effort to help us see ourselves more clearly.

Yeshiva Student

by Larry Lefkowitz

July 27, 2010

He did not stop as was his custom to read the notices pasted on the wall, not even one signed by the rabbinical council which denoted a matter of extreme importance. Once he would have devoured such a message – perhaps there would be a demonstration. For a respected yeshiva student like himself, one who drove himself to excel, demonstrations were a way of clearing his head, in addition to performing a mitzvah.

Was God a Libertarian?

by Ted Roberts

Waiting

by Ted Roberts

September 12, 2009

As in every construct in G-d’s world, there are only two sides.  So it is with the Cosmos - not only stars, constellations, and galaxies, but the Divine mind we call the universe.  One side lived like us; suffering, exalting, hoping, dreaming.  In my villiage, they tell the story of Israel, the kite flyer, who lived a mile or two down the road towards Vlank. A nice stroll from the Shtetle.

Closing Doors

by Linda J. Goldberg

May 19, 2009

At last, the sun shone through the blue gray sky. Bessie fastened her glasses squarely onto her nose and remembered the phone call from her son Harry. “Come next week for the High Holidays. We all want you to come.” Bessie pictured Harry’s dark bushy eyebrows frowning as she said, “I’ll let you know.”

We all want you to come reverberated in her ears as she remembered the days when she entertained the family for the holidays. She spent the week setting the table with her Israeli hand-woven red tablecloth, her mother’s Russian wine glasses, and her grandmother’s silver candlesticks. For almost fifty years her husband Sam had reminded her to “Clean my Pa’s brass samovar so we can use it for tea.”

The Parade

by Martin Lindauer

Shmuel crowed with obvious pride. "Our boy is the first in the family to graduate from college--and the first to be an officer of the United States Army of America."

"And a Jewish officer, too," Ruchel beamed.

"Our boy is a real American," Shmuel said with matching fervor.

A son with a Lieutenant’s commission in the Army of their adopted country was well worth the five-hour bus trip from Brooklyn to Fort Evans, Massachusetts. Ruchel and Shmuel, impressed by the official invitations to attend officer’s boot camp graduation, stamped with the engraved seals of the United States Army and the Department of Defense, sent off their acceptance letter the day the announcement was received.

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