Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

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

  • Summer reading recommendations, collected by Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder from other rabbis. (I’ll admit that our team at Fig Tree Books is very happy to see Jessamyn Hope’s Safekeeping featured within.
  • Another list of recommended Summer Reads comes from the Detroit Jewish News. (Here, too, a Fig Tree title—this time, our-reissue of Edward Lewis Wallant’s The Pawnbroker—made the cut.)
  • Yes, there’s an emphasis on Fig Tree Books in this post! I can’t keep myself from mentioning the latest issue of the FTB newsletter. It contains several goodies, including a “cover reveal” for Abigail Pogrebin’s forthcoming My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, and the happy news of an award for Ben Nadler’s The Sea Beach Line.
  • Just realized that I neglected to share the June Jewish Book Carnival in last week’s post; it’s hosted this month by The Whole Megillah.
  • “Of Cynthia Ozick Q & As there can surely never be enough, so after I just mentioned one it’s still good to see yet another, by Eric Farwell: A Story Made Purely of Feeling: The Millions Interviews Cynthia Ozick.” Amen, M.A. Orthofer. (I’ll be cross-posting this one on Practicing Writing.)

    • I’m heading out to a family Bar Mitzvah on the West Coast and will be away from the computer for a bit. Please excuse any delays in responding to comments. And Shabbat Shalom!

    Words of the Week

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “It is dispiriting to find voices who otherwise support the freedom of expression speaking out to deny free expression to one country and one group of people. Despite constant existential pressure there is more freedom of expression in Israel than the majority of countries in the U.N. and more self-criticism than almost any other society on earth.”

    From “Boycotting Israeli Authors Is an Affront to Free Speech” by Rabbi David Wolpe (TIME)

    Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

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

  • Terrific profile of Cynthia Ozick—whose 18th book is about to be published—in The New York Times Magazine.
  • A beautiful essay “on what a dying language leaves behind” (the dying language in this case being Ladino), by Rachel Hall. (Bonus: a radio broadcast in which Rachel discusses her forthcoming book of short fiction.)
  • Reminder: The June 30 deadline for Moment magazine’s editorial fellowship is approaching.
  • In this week’s mail: the latest issue of the Jewish Review of Books (some content can be accessed online).
  • And for those of us who missed the latest conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, the #AJLCon16 hashtag provides some highlights.

    • Shabbat shalom, all!

    Words of the Week

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    “I recognize high-quality, handcrafted Jew-hatred when I see it, and the far-right, which has lately been gaining attention for supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy for president (and for trolling Jews such as yours truly), is so over-the-top obvious in its deployment of anti-Semitic memes; so uncreative in the manufacturing of Judeophobic tropes (call this the banality of oven jokes); so bad at Photoshop; and so awful at spelling, that I find them as pathetic as I find them offensive.”

    Source: Jeffrey Goldberg, “A Brief Introduction to Pro-Holocaust Twitter” (TheAtlantic.om)