Erika Dreifus

• Let’s begin on an up note. I’m pleased to note that the latest Holiday Highlights are here: “These titles are the Association of Jewish Libraries’ picks for the best Jewish holiday children’s books of Spring 2022.”
• More good news: Open for applications until March 15, Theater J’s Expanding the Canon initiative “will commission seven extraordinary racially and ethnically diverse Jewish writers to create new full-length plays that thematically and visually center diverse Jewish narratives. This program is for Jews of Color, Multi Racial/Multi Ethnic Jews, Indigenous Jews, and Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews who seek to correct and broaden the historically limited portrayals of Jewishness on stages in the US and around the world. Expanding the Canon is made possible in large part by funds granted by The Covenant Foundation. Each writer will receive a $10,000 commission to create a new play over two and a half years; each will also have access to a $5,000 developmental budget that can be used for readings, workshops, research, and travel.” 
• On a more somber note: Among the writing on current events/Ukraine, some of the Jewishly-inflected work that has affected me deeply includes “A Prayer for Those Who Stayed” by Jake Marmer (Tablet) and Gal Beckerman’s “How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero” (The Atlantic).
• The Jewish kidlit world is grieving the loss of illustrator and author Paula Cohen Martin—even as it rallies around the publication, on Tuesday, of her own debut picture book. Among the many moving online tributes I’ve read is this one from Miriam Udel.
• And on another bittersweet note: Last week I mentioned the passing of Faye Moskowitz; this week Moment magazine published Ethan Helfand’s lovely tribute, “Living Jewish Literature with Faye Moskowitz.” I’ve also learned (via Michelle Brafman) that the Moskowitz family has indicated that anyone wishing to honor Faye’s memory, may offer donations “to two of the many organizations close to her heart: The Sisterhood – Adas Israel Congregation [Designate the Faye Moskowitz Writer’s Retreat], and The Jenny McKean Moore Fund and Professorship.”

Wishing everyone, everywhere, a restorative Shabbat shalom.