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Words of the Week: Adam Kirsch

by on Tuesday, September 06, 2011 (0) Comments

Thanks to Stephen Walt (of Harvard) and John J. Mearsheimer (of the University of Chicago), the phrase “Israel Lobby,” often enough translated into “Jewish Lobby,” has become almost as commonplace in American leftist discourse as the phrase “Jewish syndicate” was among the French right during the Dreyfus Affair.

Just one sentence from Adam Kirsch’s superb Tablet review-essay, the general subject of which is “the American Jewish response to Sept. 11″ and “the anti-Semitism, trauma, and mourning that still linger after the attacks .”

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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by on Friday, September 02, 2011 (0) Comments

  • According to D.G. Myers, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (1940-2011) “was probably not a great novelist, but she was and is the kind of writer upon whom a living literature depends — hard-working, indefatigable, utterly devoted to the life of words.”
  • Further reflections on Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), courtesy of Jewish Ideas Daily/David Curzon.
  • Four poets—Rachel Barenblat, Matthew Zapruder, Kathryn Hellerstein, and Yerra Sugarman—collaborate on a poem inspired by Genesis 22:13. (“So Avraham took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.”)
  • Author Wayne Hoffman wants straight Jewish readers to choose Jewish gay books. He provides a reading list to help.
  • For Jewish Woman, Sandee Brawarsky shares “A Quartet of Stores About Love and Loss,” new books by Katharine Weber, Lucette Lagnado, Ellen Feldman, and Alice Hoffman.
  • From New Jersey Jewish News: “the first in a ongoing series of columns on how best to communicate for Israel.”

    • Shabbat shalom!

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    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, August 26, 2011 (0) Comments

  • Next week, I’ll be publishing an interview with debut novelist Anna Solomon. But this week, you can read Anna’s fascinating essay on Jewish mail-order brides on Tablet.
  • Poet Samuel Menashe has passed away.
  • Some fall nonfiction titles of Jewish interest to anticipate.
  • Mazel tov to David Bezmozgis, author most recently of The Free World, which has been shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.
  • Eric Herschthal compiles a Jewishly-focused reading list for President Obama.

    • Shabbat shalom, with an emphasis on “shalom,” especially for our community in southern Israel.

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    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, August 19, 2011 (1) Comments

  • As an academically trained historian of modern France, I subscribe to an active listserv on French history. This week, the listserv presented a review of The Hidden Children of France, 1940-45: Stories of Survival, edited by Danielle Bailly and translated by Betty Becker-Theye.
  • Barbara Krasner (The Whole Megillah) recently returned from Prague, where she visited the graves of Franz Kafka and Arnost Lustig.
  • I neglected to create a dedicated post on the 15th to announce the latest monthly Jewish Book Carnival. But it’s a good one, so please go over to the August host, the HUC-JIR librarians’ blog, and take a look.
  • Tablet profiles the impressive founder of Yaldah magazine.
  • Commentary magazine has launched a literary blog: Literary Commentary. According to the magazine’s editor, John Podhoretz, the blog “will be a place to discuss matters fictional, science-fictional, Jewish-fictional, and all other manner of story, and it will be the charge of D.G. Myers, long a professor of English literature at Texas A&M and now a member of the faculty of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State University.”
  • The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow, is Chicago’s latest “One Book, One Chicago” pick.
  • I purchased two novels for my Kindle this week: The Submission, by Amy Waldman (whom Eric Herschthal has just profiled for The Jewish Week), and, at long last, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, which I hope to read before going to see the movie (my parents saw it last week, and they are still talking about it).

    • Shabbat shalom!

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    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, August 12, 2011 (0) Comments

  • Advance praise for Anna Solomon’s debut novel, The Little Bride in “An Unorthodox Take on the Jewish Migration Tale.” (Can’t wait for the Q&A with Anna coming in September’s Practicing Writer newsletter.)
  • Have you heard about the new U.S. Poet Laureate? He’s Philip Levine.
  • From Colorado Review: “We are delighted to announce that Joan Leegant’s story “Beautiful Souls” was selected by final judge Ron Carlson as the winner of the 2011 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction! Ms. Leegant will receive $1,500 and her story will appear in the fall/winter 2011 issue of Colorado Review.” On her Facebook page, Joan shares that “Beautiful Souls” is set in Jerusalem. I can’t wait to read it!
  • Speaking of short stories, Tablet’s Sara Ivry previews a debut collection by Stuart Nadler.
  • Another Tablet item–and also about short fiction: Miriam Krule presents Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi’s posthumous debut in this week’s New Yorker.

    • Shabbat shalom!

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