Jewish Literary Links

an open book (with Hebrew pages visible); subtitle reads "Jewish Literary Links"
Image by Yedidia Klein from Pixabay

  • If you missed last Sunday’s Literary Modiin Israel Solidarity event, a recording is now available. (My own remarks about addressing antisemitism are included.)
  • There still time—until 4pm Eastern Friday (December 22)—to bid on the tempting array of items that Artists Against Antisemitism is offering in its auction to benefit Project Shema’s educational efforts.
  • For Tablet, Maxim D. Shrayer analyzes “the intifada generation that sacrificed its poets” that is valorized by the international literary community—”a valediction not forbidding Israel-hatred.”
  • Open for fiction submissions: Paper Brigade, the Jewish Book Council’s literary journal, until February 15, 2024. Note that they do charge a $3 fee for each submission; writers are paid for accepted/published work, although the rate is not specified.
  • And the December Jewish Book Carnival has gone live, hosted for the month by Barbara Bietz.

And one more note: If you haven’t checked it lately, you may want peruse the “After October 7: Readings, Recordings, and More” document-in-progress. May it be a Shabbat shalom for all.

Jewish Literary Links

an open book (with Hebrew pages visible); subtitle reads "Jewish Literary Links"
Image by Yedidia Klein from Pixabay

  • “As journal after journal, press after press, began to share statements of support for Palestine, with no mention of the massacre of Israelis or the hostages who remain captive in Gaza, as incidents of antisemitic hate crimes rose on campuses around the country, we realized we needed to address this issue more directly.” From Yetzirah Poets Executive Director Jessica Jacobs’s introduction to a current advocacy/outreach project.
  • Mazal tov to the authors longlisted for the 2024 Wingate Prize.
  • As noted in Los Angeles Magazine, Artists Against Antisemitism “is launching an online auction on Dec. 15-Dec. 22….The auction’s proceeds will support Project Shema, an organization that trains and supports the Jewish community to nurture compassion for Jews and disrupt the spread of anti-Jewish ideas.”
  • Aviya Kushner is “reading the Uruguayan poet Laura Cesarco Eglin [in translation by Jesse Lee Kercheval and Catherine Jagoe] –and singing Ladino in candlelight.”
  • If you missed it (I did), I highly recommend this recording of Literary Modiin’s second Israel Solidarity event, which featured readings by Yonatan Berg, Joanna Chen, Vivian Cohen, Sherri Mandell, Aviya Kushner, Joan Leegant, and Haim Watzman. And in related news: Literary Modiin’s third Israel Solidarity event is scheduled for this Sunday (December 17). It will feature readings by Rachel Neve-Midbar, Sarah Sassoon, Jonathan Dunsky, Diti Ronen, Elizabeth Edelglass, host Julie Zuckerman, and yours truly! Register here.

Quick reminder that you can continue to find new material in the document-in-progress titled “After October 7: Readings, Recordings, and More.” Wishing everyone a light-filled eighth night of Hanukkah and a Shabbat shalom.

Jewish Literary Links

an open book (with Hebrew pages visible); subtitle reads "Jewish Literary Links"
Image by Yedidia Klein from Pixabay

  • “The Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2023” (by Rachel Fremmer for Tablet).
  • Just launched: the Kickstarter campaign for Howard Lovy’s From Outrage to Action: A Practical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, envisioned as a “‘how-to’ book on challenging anti-Jewish attitudes from digital spaces to the real world.” (I’ve backed it.)
  • Two Etgar Keret pieces crossed my screen this week. First: a new short story written, as the Guardian introduces it, “in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.” Also inflected by the current moment: Keret’s (poignant) latest Substack post. Both pieces are translated by Jessica Cohen.
  • Missed my daily Jewish Book Month tweets? You can find them here. (I’ll eventually transfer the titles to a Bookshop list.) Note that recently, I’ve included “#ReadIsrael” for relevant tweets, a practice that I plan to continue and encourage others to adopt.
  • And just in time for Hanukkah—a new issue of JewishFiction.net.

Speaking of Hanukkah: This first night of the holiday, coinciding with the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is perhaps a particularly appropriate time to revisit “Fidelis,” my short story that was first aired on NPR’s 2011 “Hanukkah Lights” broadcast. (Apologies: NPR did not provide a transcript.)

Wishing everyone a Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.