Dance Elite Ballroom Studio, Inc. is introducing ballroom dancing instruction to Oakland County residents ages 5 and over. Frequently, he is asked says, referring to the title questions about Israeli character of his title story, politics and the possibili- an American who moves ties for peace. He answers to Hebron, feeling called briefly, without giving by God. much indication of his Eli, a former producer own opinions. "Speaking of lowbrow television as a fiction writer, the sto- shows in America, grows ries are pretty even-hand- his beard long, wears a ed. I would hope that peo- kippah (skullcap) and, ple can't tell if I'm a hawk when he joins a crowd in or a dove. I wanted to step burning Rabin in effigy, back, even though my feels a profound sense of perspective is Jewish." connection, even stronger When it's pointed out than when the Yankees In his collection of short to the author that the won the World Series. stories, the author transports Hebrew prayer Shema "You come to Israel Yisrael is invoked in sever- because you are a Jew and us to modern-day Israel — a country torn by war, al of the stories, he says you act like a maniac," a strife and controversy. that he hadn't made that soldier scolds Eli. The . connection. "But obvious- story unfolds in alternate ly it's important to one's being as a Jew. time frames, beginning and ending with These stories compress a lot of history Eli as a shepherd in the hills, guarding a and experience, with the most intense dark secret. moments of the seven characters' lives." Papernick's stories have bold titles: He notes that the Shema, "that pillar "The King of the King of Falafel," of faith," is an intense connection. about the competition between two In a review that was a first-time rival shops; "For as Long as the Lamp is writer's dream, Noah Richler wrote in Burning," about a man and his mother, the New York Times Book Review that a Holocaust survivor haunted by her Papernick's "penetrating, clear-sighted past; and "The Art of Correcting," in stories ring true." which an aging rebbe, who can no Papernick not only was very pleased longer stand up to pray, undergoes treatment from a Christian chiropractor. with the review, but also with the choice Papernick says the titles often come to of reviewer — the son of the late Mordecai Richler, Papernick's favorite him first, and then he spins the stories. Canadian writer. "I would have also On a recent Friday night, after a din- wanted Mordecai Richler to have read it." ner at Congregation Ansche Chesed in Manhattan, Papernick reads "An Unwelcome Guest" to an appreciative Young Jewish Writers audience. The story has a layer of fanta- Although they don't necessarily know sy, or nightmare. one another, at least not yet, Papernick Yossi Bar-Yosef, a New York-born is part of a growing number of young yeshiva student who's a resident of the Jewish writers who write about Jewish Arab section in the Old City of subjects with both pride and irrever- Jerusalem, wakes up late one night to ence. find an Arab man waiting at his kitchen "I see the world through a Jewish table. He's not shocked; he "knew that lens," he says. "My characters aren't many people wandered the dreamy going to wake up and have flashbacks of moonlit paths between sleep and prayer rosary beads. I'll write about people in this golden city of light and stone." from a background I can relate to and The Arab, Ziad Abu Youssif, explains care about." that he was born in the room where He is one of about 25 writers whose Yossi's pregnant wife is sleeping, and work will appear in a new collection that his father was born where Yossi is titled Lost Tribe: New Jewish Fiction from sitting, before the area was made into a the Edge, edited by Paul Zakrzewski, to kitchen. The Arab man takes out a be published by HarperCollins next backgammon game and they play and summer. disagree about history, as the kitchen This fall, Papernick began teaching fills up with Ziad's relatives. English at Friends School in Manhattan, When the muezzin's call to prayer is and also at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. heard, the unwelcome guests disappear He finds New York City to be, like into the blue morning light, but Ziad's Jerusalem, a great center of energy. son Youssif leaves bloodstained tracks. He says his next book is a novel, and Papernick, who says he loves backgam- mon and can beat most people, speaks at although it's set in Brooklyn, it will have much to do with Israel. ❑ book readings and other appearances. 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