Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

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.

  • On Tablet, in time for Yom HaShoah: an excerpt from Leela Corman’s forthcoming graphic novel Victory Parade, in which a Jewish American soldier helps liberate Buchenwald—and is haunted by the experience.
  • Also connected with Yom HaShoah: “UnWitnessable: A Reading of Contemporary Poetry and Prose Related to the Holocaust,” an event for those in the Philadelphia area, happening next Wednesday, April 26.
  • “Washington Jewish Week, a print and multi-platform digital publication covering the capital region’s diverse Jewish community, is looking for an enthusiastic, quick-learning general assignment reporter/writer to join our Rockville-based news team full time.”
  • Check out the April Jewish Book Carnival, hosted this month by Yael Shahar.
  • And enjoy Judy Bolton-Fasman’s super write-up of Lilith magazine’s recent 40th-anniversary celebration at Brandeis University. Included: a sneak peek into Rachel Kadish’s forthcoming novel.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week

    “From the very start, Lilith positioned itself at the place where feminism and Jewish life intersect, where the x and the y axes—the abscissa and the ordinate of our identity—meet. (Or is it the Scylla and the Charybdis?)

    In 1994, for Lilith’s 18th anniversary issue, I outlined the magazine’s origin story:

    “While our Jewish backgrounds ranged from Orthodox to assimilated, and our politics pretty much covered the map too, we all identified strongly as feminists and as Zionists.” We believed unwaveringly in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, while publishing writing unequivocally critical of some Israeli government policies.

    This season, some have declared the intersection of feminism and Zionism unacceptable. Who has the right to confiscate either part of my identity?”

    Source: “Intersections and Intersectionality,” Susan Weidman Schneider’s Editor’s Note in the current issue of Lilith magazine. Full text available online.

    Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

    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.

  • Nice to see this Q&A with my former poetry teacher Matthew Lippman over on The Whole Megillah.
  • A powerful essay by Pearl Abraham, centered around her mother’s final Passover, over on Literary Hub.
  • With echoes of the stories of Lucette Lagnado and André Aciman, Ashley Jacobs recalls her grandparents’ “20-Century Exodus” from Egypt on JewishBoston.com.
  • A pretty great week for Abigail Pogrebin’s My Jewish Year: a review in The New York Times, an appearance on The Today Show—and, coming up on Sunday morning: an appearance on Face the Nation.
  • And, ICYMI, what I consider to be yesterday’s necessary deed of the day: calling out anti-Israel bias on a major radio show’s website.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

    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.

  • It was quite a moment when Judy Bolton-Fasman told Gold Star father and American patriot Khzir Khan about the lamed vavniks—and her belief that he stands among them. (I dare you not to tear up at the last paragraph of this piece.)
  • And another poignant, powerful piece: a review-essay by Nina Badzin on the resonance, this Passover holiday, of Abigail Pogrebin’s My Jewish Year.
  • Pogrebin’s aforementioned new book is one of “Eight New Books for Passover 5777” recommended by the Jewish Book Council’s Nat Bernstein.
  • An especially good episode of “Israel in Translation” includes a link to Almog Behar’s website, where you can freely download, a new draft version of collected translations of Behar’s poems and stories and some other texts, in a bilingual (Hebrew/English) edition.
  • And over on my other blog, I’ve shared some exciting news about a poetry contest sponsored by the Manhattan Jewish Experience.
  • Shabbat shalom, and happiest Passover wishes!