Words of the Week

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

“In a new article published in The Forward, Stephen Walt claims that time has proved his and John Mearsheimer’s writings on the Israel lobby correct. Ten years ago, they wrote that a loose network of pro-Israel political and policy organizations negatively influence U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East. Yet, Walt’s efforts to show how the last ten years have proven him right would not pass muster in an introductory international relations course.”

Source: Mitchel Hochberg and Dennis Ross, “Stephen Walt Is Still Wrong About the ‘Israel Lobby'” (Forward)

Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • New issue alert! Lilith‘s fall 2017 edition is now available!
  • A Twitter thread on the Unetaneh Tokef prayer—featuring the Israel in Translation podcast, Matti Friedman, and yours truly.
  • “Baltimore Jewish Times, a nearly century-old weekly news magazine and multi-platform digital publication covering the Baltimore region’s diverse Jewish community, is looking for an enthusiastic, community-minded reporter to join our Owings Mills-based news team full time.”
  • A mini-festival of Israeli literature is coming to New York.
  • And I am immensely proud to present my first column for the U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle.

    • Shabbat shalom, and a meaningful fast and holiday to all who will be observing.

    Words of the Week

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “Jews are a tiny population. And we keep finding ways to splinter ourselves into smaller factions.

    If I could hit the ‘reset’ button for 5778, I’d make a plea for kinder disagreement.

    We are split on Israel.
    We are split on who is authentically or adequately Jewish.
    We are split on whether women can be rabbis.
    We are split on the U.S. president.
    We are split on refugees.

    And worst of all, we are split on whether we can even talk honestly about what splinters us.”

    From Abigail Pogrebin’s “A Jewish Reset: One People,” in Hitting Reset: A Fresh Start for 5778, a booklet presented by the UJA Federation of New York.

    Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Over on the On Being blog: a beautiful poem, “Reasons for Liturgy,” by my friend Amy Gottlieb.
  • “Reading novels published in the last year by some of America’s best Jewish writers, I found myself struck by a recurring character—Israel. That Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am and Joshua Cohen’s Moving Kings both feature Israel and Israelis as important plot devices might have been a coincidence. But then this fall came Nathan Englander’s Dinner at the Center of the Earth and Nicole Krauss’s Forest Dark, both of which are set mostly in Israel. Something’s going on.” Over on the Jewish Review of Books site, Matti Friedman explores.
  • In “Where Crime Fiction Meets the Talmud,” over on Electric Literature, we’re told that “Tod Goldberg’s gangster-turned-rabbi series is the madcap spiritual noir you didn’t know you were looking for.” I’m intrigued.
  • As the publicist who’s running it, I’m compelled to remind you that there’s still time to enter this giveaway for a chance to win the second volume of Rabbi Shai Held’s The Heart of Torah. (Some superb new attention to Rabbi Held and his work includes a conversation on WBEZ (Chicago)’s “Morning Shift” and marvelous profiles on JewishBoston.com and in The Jewish Week.
  • And ICYMI: two items of my own this week. For Tablet, I wrote something in response to a New York Times-suggested reading list. And right here on My Machberet, I published something that The New Yorker didn’t.

    • Happy 5778 and Shabbat (Shuvah) Shalom.