Jewish Literary Links
- It’s Jewish Book Month! (Never heard of it? Don’t remember how or when it became A Thing? Check out Heidi Rabinowitz’s article for the Forward.)
- “We had a joke between us that we might have been better suited to doing each other’s job — the rabbi becoming a writer, the writer becoming a rabbi. I quite fancied the idea myself. Chief Rabbi, yes, why not. But I’d require him to teach me for the next 100 years. He, on the other hand, needed no instruction to become a writer.” From Howard Jacobson’s lovely tribute to the late Lord Jonathan Sacks.
- This week brought the November edition of the Jewish Book Carnival, hosted for the month by Gila Green, and featuring fresh news, reviews, and interviews from the world of Jewish books.
- There are so many excellent Jewish literary events happening online these days! I’m not able to keep up with all of them, but happily, many of them post recordings that can be enjoyed post-facto. Last evening, for instance, I caught up with a terrific conversation between Ruth Franklin and Adam Kirsch, occasioned by the release of the latter’s book, The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century.
- Speaking of Ruth Franklin: I’m hoping to spend some quality reading time this weekend with a new piece of hers in The New Yorker, “How Paul Celan Reconceived Language for a Post-Holocaust World.”
Shabbat shalom, everyone.
Your comment on Howard Jacobson’s assessment of Rabbi Dr. Lord Sacks is most appropriate on the one-week milestone of his passing.
A Guten Shabbos
Thank you so much for stopping by, and for your comment, Kenny. Shabbat shalom to you and all the family!