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.

• My networks were abuzz yesterday with the announcement of the winners and finalists for the 75th National Jewish Book Awards. I’m especially happy for the friends/colleagues whose wonderful work has been recognized this year. Mazal tov!
• Yesterday also brought the start of the Adar Poetry Reading Challenge, coordinated by Esther Poetry Journal. I’d love to say that I’m going to participate every day of the month of Adar, but aware of my schedule, I’m honest enough to say that won’t happen. Still, I’m going to follow along, and I suggest that you do the same! I’m tracking it on Substack, but evidently if you’re a more avid Instagram it’s going on there, too.
• Speaking of Substack: This week has brought two essays published there that I want to highlight: Aviva Gat’s “Survival in Israel,” for On Being Jewish Now, and Yardenne Greenspan’s “The Dark Castle” for Judith magazine.
• In “Another Month, Another Anti-Zionist Jewish Literary Manifesto,” Canadian Jewish News opinion editor Phoebe Maltz Bovy offers a necessary response to some of the most annoying, maddening “critiques” of Jewish writers and “the Jewish literary establishment” that some of us have had the misfortune of reading lately. (Thank you, Phoebe!)
• And while I wait for The New York Times to decide whether they’ll publish the letter I sent them a few days ago after reading this article about PEN America (they require “exclusivity” while they make their decision), there’s no reason not to share Ari Ingel’s (much more extensive and detailed) “PEN America’s Jewish Exception,” published yesterday over on Tablet.

Shabbat shalom.