Face to face with Judith Shulevitz

By Elizabeth Stille

One well-known name coming to Festival 2012 is Jewish author Judith Shulevitz. Shulevitz wrote The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time, which The New York Times editors named one of their 100 Notable Books for 2010. She has also contributed to The New Yorker, Slate, The New Republic, and The New York Times Book Review.

In her book, The Sabbath World, Shulevitz speaks in depth on the value of a Sabbath, and not only from a religious point of view. As she tells Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, the Sabbath lets us “not work, together” (watch the interview here). In a technological age she advocates for setting aside a time to be with people. By this she means face-to-face interaction to build community with other physical people while truly relaxing, devoting all attention to the present.