Pre-Shabbat Jewish Lit Links

by Erika Dreifus on
2

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.

  • Presenting this month’s Jewish Book Carnival–hosted by the Jewish Book Council.
  • On the Fig Tree Books blog: a stroll down literary-memory lane (and a re-assessment of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America).
  • Jewish Currents has announced the theme for the Fourth Annual Raynes Poetry Competition: “Urge.” NB: This competition charges an entry fee of $18, which includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.
  • Here’s hoping that Baba Joon, the next official Israeli selection for nomination as “Best Foreign Language Film” at the Oscars, makes it to U.S. distribution soon.
  • From Mosaic magazine: a review of Edward Alexander’s Jews Against Themselves, which is on my tbr list. It’s a thorough review but doesn’t quite contain any spoilers: I’d already sensed that this book won’t be happy read.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Sunday Sentence

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    In which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

    Sentence first read and marked during the fall semester of 1989. Reread countless times--most recently, this week.
    Sentence first read and marked during the fall semester of 1989. Reread countless times–most recently, this week.

    Source: Stanley Hoffmann, “In the Looking Glass,” introduction to The Sorrow and the Pity: A Film by Marcel Ophuls (filmscript translated by Mireille Johnston), 1972.

    Words of the Week

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    On Thursday, Regent Norman Pattiz urged the body to take a real stand against the anti-Semitic incidents described by students and said that was the intent behind making such a declaration. UC is the first statewide university to consider adopting such a set of principles against intolerance.

    “To not recognize why this subject is even being brought up is to do a disservice to those who brought it up in the first place,” he said.

    His comments were echoed by other regents and welcomed by Jewish students and groups. They said they hope a new statement will address a rash of anti-Semitic incidents.

    Source: “U of California’s new tolerance rules fail to condemn anti-Semitism” (The Times of Israel)