Words of the Week: Liel Leibovitz

by Erika Dreifus on
2

“But diversity, that sterling principle of our culture, is precisely what the privilege-checking throttles. To make an example of Fortgang once again, to assume that he, the grandson of a poor Jewish immigrant, stands shoulder-to-shoulder in the same privilege bracket as the grandson of, say, a well-heeled patrician just because both are white men whose parents can afford a good college is to assume that neither is able to transcend the happenstance of his birth and that both, despite having grown up in such radically different traditions, arrive at a conversation with precisely the same point of view, shaped exclusively by their skin, their cocks, and their cash. It is, in other words, to deny that diversity is even a possibility. And that, I hope it goes without saying, is a deeply illiberal thing to do.”

Source: Liel Leibovitz, “Liberals, Don’t Check Your Privilege,” via Tablet.

My Machberet to Host May Jewish Book Carnival

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

It’s my pleasure to invite contributions for the May Jewish Book Carnival, which will be hosted here on My Machberet.

You ask, what is the Jewish Book Carnival?

Per the Association for Jewish Libraries, the Carnival’s headquarters, it is “a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts.” It aims “to build community among bloggers and blogs who feature Jewish books, and it runs every month on the 15th.”

You ask, how do I participate? (more…)

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
2

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

  • Happening May 11-13 at Bar-Ilan University: International Creative Writing Conference – Second Site: Displacement, Revelation. Free and open to the public. (via Israel Association of Writers in English)
  • Happening next Tuesday (May 6) here in New York: “Love in a Time of Conflict: Contemporary Fiction Set in Jerusalem,” billed as “an evening of readings and discussion with two award-winning authors, Ruchama King Feuerman and Yael Unterman.” NB: “Entrance $25 (min.)—$35 (recommended).” Fee includes signed copy of both books.
  • Writing contest for high-schoolers. “The Norman E. Alexander Award for Excellence in Jewish Student Writing is seeking essays on the American Jew the writer most admires and who has made significant contributions to humanitarian causes, social justice, medicine or science. The contest subject relates to the 2014 theme of American Jewish Heritage Month, ‘American Jews and Tikkun Olam, Healing the World.'”
  • “JTA, the global Jewish news service, is looking to hire summer and fall editorial interns in our New York City office. The editorial interns will perform various editorial tasks, including writing and reporting news and feature articles, as well as work related to our website and newsletter products.” This is a paid opportunity.
  • Rebecca Klempner interviews Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein, author of I Live with My Mommy, “a new, groundbreaking picture book [that] for the first time focuses on growing up in a single-parent, Orthodox Jewish home.”

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week: Bernard Malamud

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Malamud“I’m an American, I’m a Jew, and I write for all men. A novelist has to, or he’s built himself a cage. I write about Jews, when I write about Jews, because they set my imagination going. I know something about their history, the quality of their experience and belief, and of their literature, though not as much as I would like. Like many writers I’m influenced especially by the Bible, both Testaments. I respond in particular to the East European immigrants of my father’s and mother’s generation; many of them were Jews of the Pale as described by the classic Yiddish writers. And of course I’ve been deeply moved by the Jews of the concentration camps, and the refugees wandering from nowhere to nowhere. I’m concerned about Israel. Nevertheless, Jews like rabbis Kahane and Korff set my teeth on edge. Sometimes I make characters Jewish because I think I will understand them better as people, not because I am out to prove anything. That’s a qualification. Still another is that I know that, as a writer, I’ve been influenced by Hawthorne, James, Mark Twain, Hemingway, more than I have been by Sholem Aleichem and I. L. Peretz, whom I read with pleasure. Of course I admire and have been moved by other writers, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov, for instance, but the point I’m making is that I was born in America and respond, in American life, to more than Jewish experience. I wrote for those who read.”

    Source: Bernard Malamud’s 1974 “Art of Fiction” interview in The Paris Review. (Thanks to Kyle Minor for bringing this to my attention on Twitter this past weekend, which marked the 100th anniversary of Malamud’s birth.)

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

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

  • Ellis Shuman reviews Nora Gold’s new novel about anti-Israelism in academe, Fields of Exile, for The Times of Israel. (We’ll have a Q&A with Nora Gold about the novel here on My Machberet next month.)
  • Aaron David Miller’s take on Lawrence Wright’s “Camp David” makes me wish that I could see the play myself.
  • Tablet introduces us to Israeli poet Vaan Nguyen.
  • Fascinating essay-review by Cynthia Ozick on “How Kafka Actually Lived.” (h/t Mosaic Magazine)
  • From Jewish Literary Journal: “We are proud to announce that we are holding a 1-year anniversary competition on the theme of “Creation/Building.” Entering is Free. There will be 1 winner each in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction, with a $50 prize per winner to be paid through Amazon Payments. The submission period is April 15-June 15 and winners will be published in issue 13, publishing July 1st. The Editors of the JLJ will decide who wins.”

    • Shabbat shalom.