Leon Wieseltier

Leon Wieseltier ( born June 14, 1952 in Brooklyn ) is an American journalist.

Life

Wieseltier visited the yeshiva in Flatbush, where he received a Zionist education. He studied at Columbia University, Oxford University and Harvard University from 1979 to 1982 he was a member of Harvard 's Society of Fellows.

Wieseltier has written poetry and nonfiction. In public, particular attention was in 2000, his book Kaddish, it was a finalist in the National Book Award. He published posthumously essays by Lionel Trilling and translated poems by Yehuda Amichai into English, which he had published in The New Republic and The New Yorker. Since 1979, Wieseltier is a member of the editorial The New Republic in 1983 and her literary editor. His opinionated articles caused more frequent debates in the American and Israeli public. He was co-founder in 2010 of the Jewish Review of Books. 2013 he received together with Michel Serres the Dan David Prize.

Wieseltier spent four years as the companion of the choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Writings (selection )

• Kaddish. From the Amerikan. by Friedrich Griese. The Hague: Mouton, 2000
• Against identity. New York: W. Drenttel, 1996
• Peace through deterrence. Strategic considerations for the prevention of nuclear war. Munich: Goldmann, 1984
• What not to be done - Israel, Palestine and the return of binantionalen imagination, in: Ernst Piper (ed.): Theodor Herzl. The Jewish State: Attempt at a Modern Solution of the Jewish question. Texts and materials from 1896 to today. Berlin: Philo 2004, pp. 225-236, first in 2003 in The New Republic.