Yossel Rakover’s Appeal to God

Born in Alytus, Lithuania, the writer Zvi Kolitz produced screenplays and Broadway shows, and wrote one much-anthologized story, “Yossel Rakover’s Appeal to God,” a searing tale set amid the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto. Soon after World War II ended, Kolitz went to Palestine and joined the underground anti-British resistance. He remained in Israel; he cowrote the country’s first full-length film. He later immigrated to New York, where he wrote fiction and philosophy, lectured at Yeshiva University, and, like his character Yossel, retained a deep connection to God and religion.