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.

• Published this week: the latest issue of Jewish Fiction Journal, featuring 20 stories (originally written in seven languages).
• Also published this week: the September edition of The Practicing Writer 2.0 (my general newsletter for writers) . Among the 55+ fee-free and paying/funded opportunities listed there are the PJ Library College Storytellers Fellowship (deadline: September 22) and a call from University of Virginia Jewish Studies for a Distinguished Artist/Writer/Musician Writer in Residence (deadline: October 1). Within the issue’s Editor’s Note, I’ve commented on an evident dearth of “mainstream” attention to two September books (yes, by Jewish authors) that I want others to know about; I’ve also devoted the issue’s “Featured Resource” space to the new guide for libraries that has been co-created by The Artists Against Antisemitism and the Association of Jewish Libraries. Find all of this, and more, on Substack.
• A new documentary, The Campaign: Disinformation in a Time of War, “finds orchestrating hands behind global online hate after October 7”; as Jessica Steinberg reports for The Times of Israel, it’s a companion work to Warren Kinsella’s recent book The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda.
• “A man I think of as a friend and respect as a writer, a volcanically angry Australian, has recently told an audience at a festival in Sydney (let’s keep the man and the venue anonymous) that the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach on December 14 2025 (the first day of Chanukah, remember) was not antisemitic. ‘Other than the murderous evil of the two gunmen, where was the antisemitism to be found at Bondi on that terrible day. Nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere.’ Other than? Other than! ‘Other than that Mrs Lincoln…’” In which one novelist who has won the esteemed Booker Prize (Howard Jacobson) addresses another (whom Jacobson chooses not to identify…but you don’t need to search too far to match “Hugo” with his real-life model).
• Closing on a cheerier note: The Jewish Literary Foundation has announced a Jewish Children’s Poetry Competition “for primary school-aged children based in the UK.”

Shabbat shalom.