Erika Dreifus

• Unless you avoided social media altogether this week, you probably caught some mention of Seth Rogen’s podcast convo with Marc Maron. The episode’s Israel-related content, in particular, made me wish that someone would send Rogen some reading material, perhaps starting with Yossi Klein Halevi’s Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (the paperback edition, with responses from Palestinian and other readers; here’s my take on the original hardcover). Rogen might also consider some reading recommendations that I offered on Tablet a few years ago.
• Speaking of Tablet, that’s where you’ll find Matti Friedman’s latest must-read, a piece in which Friedman updates views about media coverage of Israel.
• During a week when British Jews were in the news—largely because they did, in fact, opt to absent themselves from social media—British Vogue published Hayley Maitland’s “8 Brilliant Novels About the Contemporary Jewish Experience.” (And if you didn’t know about the online walkout, it’s summarized at the beginning of the article.)
• Please mark your calendars for my next online event: a reading from Birthright on August 30 at 1pm New York time/8pm Jerusalem time. Jerusalism will host, and an open mic session will follow. Details tk. (But why not follow Jersualism on Facebook right now?)
• And these are poignant times for this consumer of/contributor to Jewish newspapers. The week brought both the final print issue of New York’s Jewish Week and an announcement that the New Jersey Jewish News will cease publication. (On the former, I recommend Douglas Aronin’s “Eulogy for a Newspaper.” I also recommend that you spend some time with Sandee Brawarsky’s reflections on her 27 years of cultural coverage for the paper.)

Shabbat shalom.