In Dog, Israeli writer Yishay Ishi Ron draws on his own expe­ri­ence of war and recov­ery to cre­ate an unflinch­ing, humane por­trait of a soldier’s life after com­bat. Geller, once a dec­o­rat­ed offi­cer, now roams Tel Aviv’s mar­gins, haunt­ed by mem­o­ries of bat­tle and the death of a dog in Gaza. When a stray cross­es his path, a frag­ile bond offers him a chance at care and redemp­tion. Beau­ti­ful­ly trans­lat­ed by Yardenne Greenspan, Dog explores trau­ma, loy­al­ty and the strug­gle to sur­vive with insight and com­pas­sion. Dog has been optioned by direc­tor and pro­duc­er Eran Rik­lis (Read­ing Loli­ta in Tehran) and is cur­rent­ly in devel­op­ment as a fea­ture film.

Join us for a con­ver­sa­tion with the author and translator! 

This event is a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Foun­da­tion. The Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Foun­da­tion (JLF) presents the best in con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture and ideas. From its flag­ship annu­al fes­ti­val Jew­ish Book Week, to its JLF Play­er stream­ing hub, cre­ative oppor­tu­ni­ties and live cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences, the JLF con­nects, inspires and enter­tains year-round. 

Buy a copy of Dog by Yishay Ishi Ron, trans­lat­ed by Yardenne Greenspan

About the Author:

Yishat Ishi Ron served in an elite IDF com­bat unit and is a sur­vivor of PTSD. He has chan­neled his expe­ri­ences into his writ­ing, with his U.S. debut nov­el, Dog, offer­ing a raw por­tray­al of a sol­dier grap­pling with trau­ma and addic­tion. The nov­el, orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten in Hebrew, was longlist­ed for the Sapir Prize, one of Israel’s most pres­ti­gious lit­er­ary awards. His next nov­el, Girl Who Rode the White Tiger, will be released in 2026. Yishay Ishi Ron is mar­ried and lives near Tel Aviv with his wife and three chil­dren. Yishay Ishi Ron occa­sion­al­ly steps out from behind the page usu­al­ly to post some­thing thought­ful, strange, or unex­pect­ed­ly ten­der. You can find him on Insta­gram, where he shares behind- the-scenes glimpses, reflec­tions on trau­ma and lan­guage, and proof that even writ­ers some­times leave the house. He also wan­ders through X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter) and Face­book when the mood strikes, espe­cial­ly if there’s a good sto­ry waiting.

Con­nect with Yishay on: • Insta­gram: @yishayishiron • X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter): @IshiRon1 • Face­book: Yishay.Ron.1

Stay updat­ed about upcom­ing events by vis­it­ing the author’s web­site at www​.yishay​ish​i​ron​.com.

About the Translator:

Yardenne Greenspan is a writer and Hebrew trans­la­tor born in Tel Aviv. Her work has been fea­tured in Tablet, Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, Lit­er­ary Hub, Haaretz, Words With­out Bor­ders, and as a reg­u­lar col­umn in Ploughshares. Her trans­la­tions have been pub­lished by Rest­less Books, St. Martin’s Press, Akashic, New Ves­sel Press, Ama­zon Cross­ing, and Far­rar, Straus & Giroux. Her trans­la­tion of Mem­o­ry Mon­ster by Yishai Sarid was a 2020 New York Times Notable Book, and her trans­la­tions have repeat­ed­ly been includ­ed in World Lit­er­a­ture Today’s Notable Trans­la­tions lists. Greenspan has taught cre­ative writ­ing and trans­la­tion work­shops at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty and at a VA hos­pi­tal. Yardenne has an MFA from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty and lives in New York City.

Mod­er­a­tor:

Ranen Omer-Sher­man is The Jew­ish Her­itage Fund for Excel­lence Endowed Chair in Juda­ic Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Louisville. He is the author or edi­tor of six books includ­ing Dias­po­ra and Zion­ism in Jew­ish Amer­i­can Lit­er­a­ture (2002), Israel in Exile: Jew­ish Writ­ing and the Desert (2006), The Jew­ish Graph­ic Nov­el: Crit­i­cal Approach­es (2008), Nar­ra­tives of Dis­sent: War in Con­tem­po­rary Israeli Arts and Cul­ture (2013), Imag­in­ing Kib­butz: Visions of Utopia in Lit­er­a­ture and Film (2015), and Amos Oz: The Lega­cy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond (2023), as well as numer­ous essays on Jew­ish writ­ers from Israel and North Amer­i­ca. He also serves as co-edi­tor of Sho­far: An Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Jour­nal of Jew­ish Stud­ies. He was a founder of a desert kib­butz, served as a com­bat sol­dier in the IDF and worked for many years as a desert guide in the Sinai and Negev.