How do works of Jewish American writers serve as sites of cross cultural translation? We will discuss the artistic strategies, cultural dynamics, and the politics of translation as these are exemplified in texts that mediate between cultures in terms of language, religion, and ethnicity. Among the many aspects of cross cultural translation, we will be emphasizing the place of Hebrew in Jewish American writing: as icon, typeface, transliteration, intertext, liturgy, ethnic and religious signifier. Readings will be drawn from Sholem Aleichem, Lamed Shapiro, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Michael Chabon, Dara Horn, Henry Roth, Gilles Rozier, and others. Theoretical readings will draw on Walter Benjamin, David Damrosch, Naomi Seidman, George Steiner, Geoffrey Hartman, and others