Erika Dreifus

• “An early 20th-century historical literary discovery made possible by our 21st-century technology.”—In which Scott Hilton Davis, champion of the Yiddish writer Jacob Dinezon, recounts the latest chapter in his Dinezon-related adventures over on the blog of the National Library of Israel.
• Happening next week (courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center): “Family Secrets and the Graphic Novel: Rutu Modan’s ‘The Property’ and Nora Krug’s ‘Belonging’ with Tahneer Oksman.” More info/registration for this May 11 event.
• Observed in the latest issue of Nellie Bowles’s “Chosen by Choice” publication: “We now pay essayists $300 for their time and effort.” So if you’ve got a Jewish-conversion essay to pitch, check out the instructions toward the end of the issue.
• Last weekend I finished reading Noa Tishby’s Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. There’s much to admire about this book, as Adrienne Ross Scanlan’s review for New York Journal of Books makes clear.
• And this may seem like a small thing—especially for those of us who don’t follow a two-day Shavuot observance—but it meant a lot to me this week when the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) made this move. (If you’re inclined to amplify or otherwise share your appreciation directly with SCBWI, please do. And may many other writing/publishing communities soon follow their inclusionary example!)

Shabbat shalom!