Benny Ziffer

Israeli author Yoel Hoffman, who died Friday at 86, was a unique mitteleuropean voice in Israeli literature. I met him two months ago for one last conversation Get email notification for articles from Benny Ziffer Follow Get email notification for articles from Benny Ziffer Follow Yoel Hoffmann, the great novelist, inched toward me in tiny steps. He had returned to life after the last stroke that felled him, though his body was still betraying him.

The heart of the large district of Eyüp, which lies outside the old city walls of Istanbul, was at one time a vast necropolis that was surrounded and eventually swallowed up by the expanding city. Out of respect for the dead, the ancient burial monuments have not been touched, and they still stretch heavenward on all sides - in the parks and playgrounds, in the courtyards between buildings, at times even between the tables of a coffee shop.

KONYA, Turkey - The World Cup final that day felt like a distant memory. Reality seemed a bit less palpable during the celebration marking 749 years since the Muslim mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, the founder of the whirling dervishes, rose to heaven. Surprisingly, Rumi (1207-1273) is considered the most widely read poet in the United States today. He and his mystic doctrine have admirers all over the world.