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.”
We should pray for the day when the leaders of Gaza react to this sort of massacre in the manner of Yitzhak Rabin.
Source: Jeffrey Goldberg, “Hamas Endorses a Massacre” (The Atlantic)
“There’s something else that bothers me about the binary formulation that Zionism = particularism and Diaspora = universalism. It doesn’t take into account the attachment Jews feel for one another and the need for community — even, dare I say it, that squishy word ‘peoplehood’ — that undergirds a Jew’s sense of being in the world.
Such attachment doesn’t have to take the form of Adelson’s crass particularism and unthinking solidarity. But it does require liberals to do something that many of us obviously find difficult: To privilege our own. To be able to say that Jewish tradition is special, that Jews should feel a responsibility to one another that does not negate our responsibility to the wider world but sometimes preempts it.”
Source: Jane Eisner, “Is Exile Good for the Jews” (The Forward)
Shabbat shalom.
I’ll be honest: I haven’t spent much time on my own writing practice this week. Yes, I’ve jotted down some notes for a new essay, and I’ve received yet additional rejections for submitted work, and I’ve continued attending the excellent fiction workshop I’ve been mentioning here. But things have been very busy at my “day job” with Fig Tree Books, and that’s where most of my attention is focused.
One of the projects that reached completion this past week was FTB’s hosting of the November Jewish Book Carnival. I am very happy to have connected FTB with this terrific project of the Association of Jewish Libraries (please click over to the post for a full explanation). I’m especially glad that FTB is hosting at this time, because now that we are in the month before Hanukkah, we are celebrating Jewish Book Month. And as the days tick down to the holiday, I’ve thought of eight easy ways–one for each of the days/nights of the Hanukkah observance–by which any of you who appreciate the resources of this blog, the website, and The Practicing Writer newsletter can provide me with meaningful “gifts” at this season. If you are so inclined!
1. Follow Fig Tree Books on Twitter (@FigTreeBks). I’m pretty laissez-faire when it comes to attracting new followers to my own account, but my boss is really eager for us to build up a following for FTB, and our team is working hard to make that happen.
2. Sign up to receive the FTB e-newsletter. (November issue coming soon!)
3. “Like” FTB on Facebook.
4. Tell at least five friends/family members that you’ve done any of the above, and suggest that they do the same. (Or to keep things simple: share this very blog post! Widgets below!)
5. Enter the very first Goodreads giveaway for an FTB book: Alan Cheuse’s Prayers for the Living. (NB: Giveaway closes December 17!)
6. Pre-order any of FTB’s first four books: Cheuse’s Prayers for the Living, Meyer Levin’s Compulsion, Jonathan Papernick’s The Book of Stone, and Jessamyn Hope’s Safekeeping.
7. Ask your favorite local library or bookstore to order/stock the titles in #6.
8. And, last but not least, please remember my own story collection, Quiet Americans, as you consider your holiday book-buys. One dollar from every sale goes to support The Blue Card.
Thank you all!
