Words of the Week

“Jews have a tradition, born of a combination of persecution and self-scrutiny, that sometimes makes them uncomfortable with the particularity of being part of a people. These days you can see it in people who repudiate the state that actually saved millions of Jews, the State of Israel. The latest execrable entry in this sweepstakes to flee from yourself is an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz by two historians, Hasia Diner and Marjorie Feld, on why they have ‘left Zionism behind.’ (more…)

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.

  • Some Israeli publishing data for 2015, courtesy of the country’s National Library.
  • “The Koffler Centre of the Arts is proud to announce a significant new literary award in Canada – the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.” (Unfortunately, I’ve found out about this too late to help anyone for the current round–submissions closed in early June.)
  • If I can manage to sit through a three-hour play, it may well be this one. And I’m sorry to have to miss this one–which I’ve just learned about but won’t be able to catch during its brief engagement.
  • In this talk, novelist and literary scholar Dara Horn explores the role Hebrew can play in a living contemporary American Jewish culture, as she has experienced it as a reader and as an American writer. This lecture was part of the 2016 Stroum Lectures, ‘Hebrew and the Creative Imagination,’ hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies of the University of Washington.”
  • And ICYMI: a note about a new essay of mine, on being a “3G” writer.
  • May it be a good and peaceful Shabbat for all. 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.

  • Whatever happened to Hodel? We’ll soon learn one possible outcome for Tevye’s second daughter, via Alexandra Silber’s After Anatevka (as described in The New York Times).
  • Simone Zelitch writes about “How Philip Roth Predicted the Rise of Donald Trump” for the Forward.
  • Chaya Lester memorializes “Hallel, Of Blessed Memory…” on Hevria.
  • Some strong words from Cynthia Ozick in this Boris Kachka piece.
  • And a powerful essay by Carly Pildis—“I Am Woke: Why I Am Finally Raising My Voice Against Jewish Erasure in the Anti-Racism Movement”—on Tablet.
  • Shabbat shalom.