last word
Lynn Levin
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
I n the short story “Frieda and Her
Golem,” the titular character, a lonely
rabbinical student, takes inspiration
from the Jewish lore of the golem and
builds a companion out of meatloaf
(being sure to use a kosher recipe).

The creature, with the Hebrew
word for “friend” carved into her brow
with red bell peppers, animates and
becomes Frieda’s partner. The story
ends dismally, however, with the golem
becoming a lifeless mass of meat by
Frieda’s hand.

The story, rooted deeply in Jewish folk
tradition but peppered with contempo-
rary Jewish humor and wit, is the forte
of Jewish author and Drexel University
English Professor Lynn Levin. “Frieda
and Her Golem,” as well as 19 additional
short stories, are featured in her collec-
tion “House Parties,” published by
Spuyten Duyvil, out May 1.

The collection features other Jewish
stories such as “The Husband and the
Gypsy,” which takes place in 1970s
Northwest Philadelphia. Centered
around a violinist father in a string
quartet, the story tackles the Soviet
Jewry movement advocating for the
emigration of Soviet Jews.

Though the topics of her stories
have breadth, Levin has an interest in
combining tradition and history with
modern sensibilities.

“I really like taking something ancient
and completely modernizing it,” Levin
said. Though “House Parties” is Levin’s
first published work of fiction, the
72-year-old Southampton resident has
published eight works of poetry and
translations. Even in verse, Levin draws
from the well of Jewish literature. In a
series of poems on Lilith, the mytho-
logical foil to Eve, Levin has the Jewish
demon creating an online dating profile.

28 APRIL 13, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
“She uploads a fairly recent photo/
lists herself as divorced, no children/
lies about her age, posts a profile that
makes/ no mention of her lusty past/ no
clue that her fountain has run dry,” Levin
writes in “Lilith Tries Online Dating.”
Levin has written short fiction since
2005 and finds it an opportunity to
dig deeper into characters and the
contexts in which they live.

“I got real interested in seeing where
plots would go and how I could make
characters’ personalities take them
here and there,” she said.

Levin’s stories have led her into
deep internet rabbit holes at times. For
example, for her story “Monkey Island,”
about a high school girl who becomes
stranded on a research Island in Puerto
Rico, Levin conducted research on
monkey bites.

But mostly, Levin draws inspiration
through observation. The story “House
Parties,” about a wealthy commu-
nity in the Poconos, was inspired by
Levin watching a woman jog every
day through her window during the
pandemic. If one removes the absurdity and
fantastical elements from Levin’s works,
one would find a host of flawed, yet
earnestly determined characters, many
of whom share similarities with the
author. “I like to have my characters be
thoughtful, serious people,” Levin
said. “They’re not all professionals and
geniuses, but they think deeply about
where they’re going in their lives, what
they’re going through.”
Levin grew up in an assimilated
Jewish home in St. Louis. Though she
attended a Reform temple weekly with
her family, she didn’t have her bat
mitzvah ceremony until she was 40.

“The Judaism was always there,”
she said of her upbringing. “I think
it was probably more cultural than it
was religious.”
Levin fell in love with poetry at a
young age. During her public school’s
phonics and phonetics classes, teach-
ers would encourage students to rhyme
words and create poems about nature,
putting together words like bees and
trees to create simple couplets. Levin
mastered the activity quickly, and her
little poems found places on a teach-
er’s bulletin board or in the school
newspaper. “That little encouragement meant so
much to me,” she said.

Now teaching creative writing at
Drexel, Levin is interested in where her
students find inspiration. Increasingly,
she’s found that they like to draw on
what is personal to them: internal strug-
gles, health problems and difficult times
with family or friends.

“I admire the bravery and the boldness
with which my creative writing students
engage their personal lives and their
personal struggles,” Levin said.

As a writer, it’s Levin’s goal to create a
safe space where students feel comfort-
able exploring challenging themes in
their writing.

“I always find there’s a lot of sharing in
a classroom,” she said. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Randl Bye
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