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No Longer Giving Beinart the Benefit of Any Doubt

by Erika Dreifus on
3

Last week, just before Rosh Hashanah, I ran across Peter Beinart’s “The American Jewish Cocoon” online. Uh-oh, I thought, when I first saw the article’s title. Happy New Year to us.

But, as I’ve tried to do for some time (see the mention in “Among the Literati” from January 2012), I wanted to at least attempt to absorb what Beinart had to say. Because back when my primary acquaintance with his overall critique was “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” I sensed in his writing an authentic concern for Israel’s long-term health and viability–and I believed that I might be able to learn from his work.

Alas, I’ve since realized that I’m not Beinart’s therapist, and I can’t presume to know what motivates him. All I can say with any surety is that my faith in learning from his work had begun to erode even before this new opus appeared.

Some of the uneasiness came with the launch of his book, The Crisis of Zionism (I found Rabbi David Wolpe’s take on that situation at the time quite persuasive). Some of it had to do with Beinart’s March 2012 New York Times op-ed advocating a “settlement boycott,” a commentary rendered even more troubling by the fact that its publication coincided with a deadly attack on a Jewish day school in France, prompting Jeffrey Goldberg to comment: “You know what? I find it unpleasant to talk about boycotting Jews on a day when Jewish children have been murdered for being Jewish.” And some of it had to do with some of the writings I noticed over time on Beinart’s “Open Zion” blog.

Then came this new piece. (more…)

Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
2

Another Sunday in which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, which asks others to share the best sentence(s) we’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.” And another Sunday in which I cannot adhere to the instructions of “out of context and without commentary.” In fact, this week, I simply MUST provide some context and commentary. Because on this Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the “best” sentences I’ve read lately come from the Holy Day prayerbook, from the Unetaneh Tokef poem/prayer.

A full-text translation can be found here. Leonard Cohen’s famous interpretation (also preceded by context & commentary!) is below. Some writing of mine inspired by the prayer’s lines has appeared on this site in the past. And as we approach the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, another powerful version, led by the Chief Cantor of the Israel Defense Forces, can be found here.

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to read over the weekend.

  • “10 Rules of Submitting to Literary Magazines” – and Diane Lockward’s thoughts about one of them.
  • Tom Fields-Meyer’s “Letter to a Young Writer” may be enough to get me back to writing morning pages (or something like them).
  • “How Not to Pitch”: freelance advice from an Atlantic editor.
  • The latest in Prospect‘s interview series on the art of criticism: David Wolf interviews Ruth Franklin.
  • And on a bittersweet note: Paul Muldoon’s eulogy for Seamus Heaney.

    • Have a good weekend, everyone.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • In Jewish Woman magazine, Sandee Brawarsky introduces a slew of fall books, including Dara Horn’s latest novel, Jillian Cantor’s Margot, and Ruchama King Feuerman’s In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, all of which are on my tbr list.
  • And speaking of Dara Horn–icymi, you may want to read her essay in last week’s New York Times Book Review.
  • Etgar Keret has annotated for one of his stories. (via Galleycat)
  • Adam Kirsch reviews Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens, a novel that “traces three generations of an American Jewish family, showing how its tradition of radicalism mutates to meet the fashions of each new decade, and leaving us with the question of whether that radicalism still exists in any meaningful form.”

    • Shabbat shalom and shana tova!