Book Launch: The Thirst by Hillel Zeitlin
Hillel Zeitlin’s The Thirst, first published in Hebrew in 1910, is a mystical work of poetic prose, tracing a spiritual odyssey from existential despair and desolation to a renewed sense of the wonder and mystery of being. Across six chapters, Zeitlin seeks, questions, despairs, and persists, writing from the tension between God-finding and God-losing, divine presence and divine absence.
This new bilingual publication is translated, annotated and introduced by Nathan Wolski, and features illustrations by exhibiting artist Tunni Kraus, in their latest collaborative creation.
Presented in partnership with Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC), this official book launch features the exhibition of illustrations from the book, presentations by the contributors, and live music by Yiddish band The Bashevis Singers. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
About the Contributors:
Hillel Zeitlin (1871-1942) stood at the very centre of Jewish cultural, intellectual and spiritual life in pre-war Warsaw. Scholar, mystic, journalist, and poet, Zeitlin wrote books about Nietzsche, Spinoza, the Zohar, Hasidism, countless articles on diverse aspects of Jewish thought, and stirring poetry in Hebrew and Yiddish. One of the great spiritual figures of 20th-century Jewish letters and thought, his oeuvre lies at the heart of Neo-Hasidism.
Nathan Wolski is the Liberman Family Lecturer in Jewish Studies with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University, Australia. He is the author of A Journey into the Zohar: An Introduction to the Book of Radiance (SUNY, 2010); the translator of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 10 (Stanford, 2016); with Joel Hecker, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 12 (Stanford, 2017); and more recently, Kabbalistic Yiddish: Aaron Zeitlin’s Mystical-Messianic Poetics (Cherub, 2020). Together with artist Tunni Kraus, he produced a bilingual, illustrated edition of Der Nister’s short story, “Der Kadmen” (The Primordium, Panui Press, 2024).
Tunni Kraus is a contemporary Melbourne-based visual artist whose exhibition profile spans from local artist-run spaces to major international institutions. Working across diverse mediums, his conceptual studio practice centres on immersive, long-term research projects. Kraus’ work is currently featured in Tree of Life: Four Perspectives at the Jewish Museum of Australia.
Nathan Wolski and Tunni Kraus, together with Husky Gawenda, Gideon Preiss, Evie Gawenda, and Anita Lester, form Di Farborgene Khalyastre, a small collective of musicians, scholars and artists dedicated to creative fusions of Yiddish poetry, music and art.
Image: ‘The Thirst’ book cover, illustration & cover design by Tunni Kraus.