Words of the Week, II

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Ellen Willis, z”l, “Is There Still a Jewish Question? Why I’m an Anti-Anti-Zionist” (essay originally published in 2003; reprinted online this week by Tablet):
And yet I count myself an anti-anti-Zionist. This is partly because the logic of anti-Zionism in the present political context entails an unprecedented demand for an existing state—one, moreover, with popular legitimacy and a democratically elected government—not simply to change its policies but to disappear. It’s partly because I can’t figure out what large numbers of displaced Jews could have or should have done after 1945, other than parlay their relationship with Palestine and the (ambivalent) support of the West for a Jewish homeland into a place to be. (Go “home” to Germany or Poland? Knock, en masse, on the doors of unreceptive European countries and a reluctant United States?) And finally it’s because I believe that anti-Jewish genocide cannot be laid to rest as a discrete historical episode, but remains a possibility implicit in the deep structure of Christian and Islamic cultures, East and West.

Oren Kessler, “Hamas Lies–and the Media Believed It” (U.S. News):
“It’s the Mideast equivalent of ‘Dog bites man,’ but it took the media nearly a month to recognize its sheer obviousness: Hamas lies.” (more…)

Wednesday’s WiP: New Day Job, One Week In

by Erika Dreifus on
6

FigTreeBooks LogoIt has been a very busy time! Things are buzzing along at my new job as Media Editor with Fig Tree Books (FTB). You may have noticed that the FTB Twitter account is active. Yesterday, we created our Facebook page. Along with our webmaster, I’ve been making some edits to our website. I’ve been digging in to our forthcoming books (our first list will be announced in September–stay tuned for that news).

Beyond the job, I’m still working on one outstanding freelance assignment, fielding responses (okay, rejections–but nice ones!) for my oft-cited literary humor piece and a new poem, and awaiting edits on a couple of other pieces that are in the print-and-virtual-works. Over the weekend, I also managed to sneak away from the city for my first visit to the annual Authors Night at the East Hampton Library (I was in reader mode, not author mode).

As I said, it has been busy!

Before signing off here, I want to thank all of you who have congratulated me–publicly or privately–on the new gig with FTB. Your thoughtfulness means more than you know.

And–I have to say it: Extra-special thanks to everyone who has heeded my request and followed FTB on Twitter. It is never too late to join us there, and I hope that you’ll choose to do so.

Words of the Week

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

As has been the case lately, I’ve discovered so many words worth sharing that I’m compiling some of the most compelling–and I may be back again with more before this week has ended.

Joanna Chen, “The Silence Within Silence” (Los Angeles Review of Books):
“Yesterday there was a ceasefire. The night before, the booms did not stop. At 3 AM the house shuddered and the walls shook. At 8 AM, as the ceasefire began, silence fell upon the house. I stood at my front door with a second cup of coffee. The cat kept close, curling herself around my bare feet. At 8:05 there was a final crescendo, a deafening boom from the direction of Gaza. A bird lifted into the air, and before I saw the bird I heard its wings beating: one, two, three. I listened to the silence that followed as if I were listening to it for the first time. There are nuances to silence, there are degrees and shades to silence. This was a heavy, ominous one and it lay upon the air the whole day and did not move.”

Rachel Delia Benaim, “An Open Letter to Selena Gomez, from Two 12-Year-Old Fans in Southern Israel” (Jewcy):
“Noa’s family has lived in Yad Mordechai since the kibbutz was founded in 1936. They came here to escape anti-Semitism in Europe. They built the kibbutz up with their own hands. They defended it from Egyptian invaders in 1948—there were only fifty kibbutzniks with twenty outdated guns between them, facing hundreds of trained Egyptian soldiers. But the kibbutzniks, Noa’s family, persevered. They then lived in peace with their Arab neighbors in Gaza. Sure, there were tensions and flare-ups, but for the most part they lived in peace. And then just after Noa and Yarden were born, the rockets started.” (more…)

From My Bookshelf: THE HOPE: American Jewish Voices in Support of Israel

by Erika Dreifus on
1

I need not tell you how absorbed I’ve been in certain current events of late–a look at the recent “Words of the Week” posts attests to that. But I have not yet shared one of the actions I’ve taken in response to those events: contributing a poem to a new anthology, the sales proceeds of which are being donated to The Lone Soldier Center (in memory of Michael Levin).

Edited by the indefatigable Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the book features an array of American Jewish voices that, as Rabbi Creditor notes, are united when it comes to “one sacred truth: Am Yisrael Chai!”. You can read more about the book via Jweekly.com, and you can take a “look inside” on The Hope‘s Amazon page.

If you are so inclined, I ask you to please spread the word about this meaningful volume. Thank you.