Opening pages of Purim chapter in Althea O. Silverman’s children’s book HABIBI AND YOW. Every Friday, the My Machberet blog presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.
New book news: I have been waiting for this one—Kevin Haworth’s The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secretsis now available.
In the Twin Cities, TC Jewfolk is hiring summer interns. “If you or someone you know might be interested in being a part of the Jewfolk, Inc. operation, have them send us a DM or email their resume/coverletter” at the email address indicated on Twitter (Twitter is also where I was able to confirm that this is a paying gig).
Recommended listening: a terrific podcast episode from the Virtual Memories Show, in which author Bram Presser talks about “his award-winning, fantastic debut novel The Book of Dirt, a memoir-fiction hybrid about his family’s experience in the Shoah. We get into the myths of how his grandfather survived the concentration camps and what they meant for his family and his book, the years of detective work (and the lucky breaks) researching his grandparents’ stories and records and the limits of knowing anyone else’s life, the exceptionalist vibe of Czech Jews, the stories he was afraid to learn and the heroism that redeemed his great-grandmother and her family, the challenges of researching an unheard-of story of survival when archivists are already put off by your punk-rock appearance, and how Bram avoided Holocaust cliches while giving agency, dignity and social dynamics to the prisoners in the camps.”
I had a special opportunity this week to attend an event in New York that focused on the work of Jerusalem’s Maaleh School of Film and Television, which describes itself as “a boutique film school devoted to exploring the intersection of Judaism and modern life.” If you’re intrigued, check out their website.
Here’s hoping that you had a Happy Purim. ICYMI: Here’s an English translation (by Tina Lunson) of “Motl Farber, Purimshpieler,” a Purim story by Yiddish writer Jacob Dinezon (via Jewish Storyteller Press).
