Erika Dreifus

Toward the end of each week, the My Machberet blog presents a collection of links, drawn primarily from the world of Jewish books and writing.

• Essential reading this week from Ruth Franklin dispelling some misapprehensions (including one of my own) about Anne Frank’s diary.
• An all-too-timely excerpt adapted from Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s forthcoming memoir reveals abortion stories from a time before Roe.
• “Natan and the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil are thrilled to announce the Spring 2022 Natan Notable Book: Michael Frank’s One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World….In One Hundred Saturdays, Michael Frank unearths and reveals – week by week, Sat­ur­day after Sat­ur­day — the lives, cul­ture and his­to­ry of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty of Rhodes. Through the sto­ries and mem­o­ries of one of its mem­bers, Stel­la Levi, the vibran­cy of the Jud­e­ria — the Jew­ish neigh­bor­hood in Rhodes that had exist­ed for half a mil­len­ni­um until the Nazis deport­ed the entire com­mu­ni­ty to Auschwitz — and of Stel­la her­self jump off the page. Stel­la shines as a sto­ry­teller and as a char­ac­ter, as she relates her life in Rhodes, her com­mu­ni­ty and its his­to­ry, bring­ing the read­er into a Jew­ish world that few have knowl­edge of today.”
• I missed this one in real time, but fortunately, there’s a recording of Dr. Mark Schneegurt presenting his Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews for the American Sephardi Federation, Institute of Jewish Experience.
• And icymi via the latest Words of the Week post, please do check out Heidi Rabinowitz’s superb speech and Jewish kidlit action checklist. (And speaking of Jewish kidlit: Just as I was finishing up this post, I became aware that my latest article for Moment magazine had gone live on the website. Subscribers should look for this one in their soon-to-arrive print copies, too!)

Shabbat shalom.