Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Yid Lit: Ben Greenman

Ben Greenman is an author and an editor at The New Yorker magazine who is worried about the state of written communication — now that the lightening speed of email has replaced the patience and thoughtfulness required to send someone you care about a hand-written note.

The stories in Greenman’s new collection, “What He’s Poised To Do” (Harper Perennial) span time and space, but letters link them together: a young mother writes of love and sibling rivalry in 1960s Nebraska, a real estate broker recounts an affair that began in a Chicago apartment he tried to sell, and a son adjusts to his family’s new life in a colony on the moon.

Greenman recently visited the Forward studio to discuss the rich Jewish history of letter-writing and the future of the medium — now that we’re more likely to click on a mailbox than to walk to one.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.