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.

• “Under extraordinary circumstances, PJ Library in Israel pivoted to respond to families’ needs after October 7.” That’s the focus of just one article in the latest (Summer 2024) issue of Proof, a PJ Library publication.
• Also kidlit-focused: the Am Yisrael Chai project. “Following the events of October 7, 2023, the pressing need for more children’s books about Israel has become urgent. To help strengthen pride in and connection to Israel, we decided to do something about it ‘Israeli style’ – with chutzpa. We are gifting 18,000 books about Israel to children in North America over the next 18 months. The costs will be covered by donations, some books will be printed in Israel to support the local economy and some books will be purchased from publishers outside Israel.”
• “In the wake of Oct. 7, American Jewish writers found themselves blacklisted and demonized by literary institutions and publications, adding to a general sense of uneasiness and precarity in the country. Tablet responded by launching its inaugural creative nonfiction competition, ‘First Personal,’ which invited writers to submit an essay on the theme of ‘Belonging.’ This was an effort to create a space where Jewish writers could find just that—a place of belonging—by coming together and sharing in each other’s work.” You can now read the winning essay, by Kitty Hoffman, on the Tablet site; you’ll find available on the same page a downloadable compilation that includes all the finalists’ essays, too.
• From Aviya Kushner’s latest Substack post, which arrived yesterday: “The past 24 hours in Tel Aviv have been about two assassinations, and degrees of fear. How quickly will history turn? No one knows. I feel fortunate that for weeks, I have been completely immersed in the world of Avraham Ibn Ezra, who lived through another very dangerous moment in Jewish history, the Second Crusade. It gives me a deeper context for all that is happening, and I hope it will do the same for you.”
• And in the latest issue of my own newsletter for writers, I’ve shared some reflections from my latest trip to Israel—occasioned by the latest gathering of the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute—as well as the current call for entries for the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award.

On this, Day 300 since that first terrible morning in October, I note that this week I have continued to update  “After October 7: Readings, Recordings, and More” and “Writers, Beware.”

As I wrote in the newsletter mentioned above: May every living hostage be released; may the dead be returned to their families; and may the war end and peace prevail on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border, and beyond.

Shabbat shalom.