Author: Mikhal

An Iranian media company based in London is making a film in Tel Aviv about the Tehran Children ! Thanks a million to the amazing crew | Amir Terkel  |  Matilda – Makeup, Hair, Beautiful            

Ir would have been much more fun to meet in person but still loved listening to Benjy Balint, Yaakov Katz and Sarah Hurwitz & answering David L. Wolpe’s intriguing questions at the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Zoom ceremony.  

Not that you need to be up at 8.06AM (3.06 PM Israel time) Sunday, but if you are I’ll be interviewed on “Cross Currents” on 89.5 WNCK Nantucket’s NPR Station.  UPDATE: Here’s a link to the archived show. Tehran Children begins around 21:34

SO honored for TEHRAN CHILDREN to be named finalist for the Chautauqua Institution Prize alongside the brilliant works of Imani Perry, Myla Goldberg, Carolyn Forché, Isabella Hammad, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, and Petina Gappah! Honored and humbled 🙏.   https://chq.org/blog/seven-finalists-named-for-2020-chautauqua-prize

I’d like to share with you the first chapter, and WW. Norton said it is OK:)     Tehran_Children_Mikhal_Dekel_Intro

At the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards, the longest-run­ning and most prestigious North Amer­i­can awards pro­gram of its kind, Tehran Children is named Finalist in the category of Writing Based on Archival Material.

by Mikhal Dekel On September 6, 1939, my then twelve-year old father, alongside eleven members of his family, escaped from their hometown in eastern Poland towards the Soviet border. They knew the Wehrmacht was coming. They knew Nazi ideology targeted Jews. They read German papers. Still they hesitated whether to flee or not. Fleeing a …

Read more “Could What I Learned of My Father’s Catastrophe Be Useful to Me Now?”

Looking forward to this conversation with my friend and colleague Lale Can about migrations and pilgrimages in Central Asia & the Middle East. THURSDAY MARCH 19th  5:00 pm CCNY Rifkind Center, in conversation with Lale Can 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031 https://www.facebook.com/events/the-simon-h-rifkind-center/in-conversation-lale-can-and-mikhal-dekel/205385980657710/  

This month, the JDC published a review of Tehran Children on their Archives blog, focusing on the role that the JDC played in the lives of refugees like my father in the USSR, Iran, India and Palestine. The JDC, formally known as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, was originally founded in 1914 to provide …

Read more “How the JDC aided Jewish Refugees in Iran”