Jewish Literary Links
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.
- Earlier this week, Israel-based Julie Zuckerman posted a mid-month Substack update: “It should not be news to anyone that acts of creation continue in times of war, along with celebrations of literature/art/music etc. as well as attempts to preserve cultural items of value. As the Iran War enters week three, and those of us in Israel continue to run to our mamads (safe rooms) or public miklats (bomb shelters) several times a day, I thought I’d highlight a few of those literary activities. Call it whatever you wish: resilience or a distraction from reality or simply a stubborn refusal to allow weapons of destruction to dictate our inner lives.”
- Another of my favored newsletters isn’t, in fact, on Substack—it’s Stephanie Butnick’s Golda Guide (which, for me, makes it a little less easy/instinctive to amplify—I can’t just “restack” it!). I’m remedying that this week to let you know that Stephanie has just served up a real treat for those of us craving a distinctly Jewish-focused discussion of (Butnick’s former Unorthodox podcast co-host) Mark Oppenheimer’s new biography of Judy Blume. Go check it out!
- Big news from PJ Library: “To support the creation of high-quality Jewish children’s books for readers ages 0–12, PJ Library is launching a new funding opportunity for independent publishers: the Next Level Books Fund. PJ Library recognizes the financial investment and risk that small publishers take on when acquiring new titles. This initiative is designed to help independent presses develop, publish, and distribute compelling Jewish stories for young readers and families….The initiative offers up to $20,000 per book to support the creation of impactful Jewish children’s literature.” Note that Publishers Weekly has covered this; there, reporter Cathy Grossman’s article reminds everyone that “publishers don’t need to be Jewish presses to qualify; they need only propose a story told through a Jewish lens.” (Personally, I’m hoping that PJ Library’s expressed interest in funding translated titles may lead to some English-language versions of the late Dvora Omer’s work, which I only just learned about recently thanks to The Times of Israel‘s Docu Nation series.)
- ICYMI: A video recording from the inaugural “Read with JWI x AAA” event two weeks ago—featuring Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch discussing their co-edited volume Ruptured: Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7 with moi, is available! (And if you’re interested in purchasing the anthology, please consider ordering from Park Books, which is partnering with JWI and AAA for this series; as you’ll see, they’re offering free shipping.)
- And one more thing: If you’ve been contemplating a purchase of any of the titles featured in the list I curated that spotlights books and authors from my fall-semester course on Jewish Life Writing, you can currently do so with a 15% discount (off list prices; ebooks excluded). Just enter code BSO15 at checkout on Bookshop.org. This discount expires April 1, and you’re going to be increasingly busy with holiday prep, so why wait? 😉 Happy reading!
And not to over-pack this post with information connected in some way with, well, me—but also from the Department of ICYMI: my latest piece of writing: “What The New York Times Talks About When It Talks About ‘the Palestinian Cause,'” was published last Friday.
May it be a Shabbat shalom.
FYI, not for publication.
You are way too gracious and considerate to the responses you (finally!) got from the NYT “communications” dept. Ginia was great in giving you finally!) concrete references, etc., but the response from Ha is more legal staff response than from someone in editorial or consumer communications.
I believe that the phrase “Palestinian Cause” is a way to intentionally group together every organization that has interests in Israel’s destruction.
That no one, including the NYT, has actually defined who/what Palestinians are is absurd as it totally clouds up the issue(s) and seems intentionally irresponsible.
Many individuals and media people have conflated residents of what is called Israel with the word Palestinian. Others have refused to believe, much less understand, that a Palestinian was once considered an Arab resident of the land known as Palestine. Since the late 19th century, with the growing influx of immigration to that land, Palestinians were then defined as residents of Palestine, most of which were Jews and Arabs living side by side.
Then Israel came into being. Then oil companies and countries with oil to move from the fields to carriers to the ocean for delivery, felt threatened. Then the word Palestinians came to define Arabs who had “lost” their homeland and wanted it back.
Fast forward nearly 80 years, and the current regime under Netanyahu has conducted warfare on Gaza that is so outrageous that one needn’t be Arab, Palestinian nor Israeli to realize that this is the real reason for the surge in antisemitism, anti-Israel feelings, and sympathy (real and manufactured) generated toward the term, if not the people, known as Palestinians.
It will take a huge PR effort to help define, or re-define, what the words Palestine, Palestinian, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and others really mean.
My hope is someone truly objective can begin to do it by educating the media and non-Jewish politicians local to federal. Maybe we can convene historians, linguists, and journalists to do that. I’m not holding my breath, but that’s the only way I see to lower the vitriol, misunderstanding, and hate.