Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Stunning piece by Rachel Kadish on teaching creative nonfiction in Israel.
  • Terrific work by William Giraldi on “the long journey of Aharon Appelfeld.”
  • The Internet has been abuzz with the news that Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent will be made into a miniseries.
  • ICYMI: The May Jewish Book Carnival posted yesterday. Plenty of goodies there for you.
  • Also: some recent poems of mine (and a poem for/about me, too!).
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week: Shlomo Avineri

    “It is also true that what is called the Nakba is the result of a political decision by the Palestinian leadership and the Arab states to reject the United Nations partition resolution, to try to prevent its implementation by force and to attack the Jewish community in the Land of Israel before and after the state’s establishment.”

    Source: Shlomo Avineri, “The Nakba According to Haaretz,” in (to its credit) Haaretz.

    From My Bookshelf: “Helpful to Israel and the Jewish People”–An Interview with Nora Gold

    FieldsofExileDr. Nora Gold’s Fields of Exile has been described as the first novel about anti-Israelism on campus, and it has received enthusiastic advance praise from Phyllis Chesler, Thane Rosenbaum, Steve Stern, and others. Gold is also the author of the acclaimed Marrow and Other Stories, which won a Canadian Jewish Book Award, as well as praise from Alice Munro, who – after reading the title story – wrote Gold: “Bravo!”

    I’ve been a fan of the Toronto-based Gold and her work since reading that collection. And I’ve also had work published in Jewish Fiction.net, an online journal that Gold founded and edits. When I discovered that Fields of Exile was slated for a May 2014 release, I knew that I’d be eager to read it (and I said so in a piece for The Forward‘s Arty Semite blog at the beginning of the year). As I noted then, the new novel seems all-too-timely to anyone following news accounts about the vilification of Israel in academia. According to the novel’s publisher, Dundurn, this novel is “about love, betrayal, and the courage to stand up for what one believes as well as a searing indictment of the hypocrisy and intellectual sloth that threatens the integrity of our society.”

    Gold is also a blogger for “The Jewish Thinker” at Haaretz, and the Writer-in-Residence and an Associate Scholar at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education (CWSE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Gold holds both Canadian and Israeli citizenship.

    Please welcome Nora Gold! (more…)

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    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.

    Words of the Week: Jen Psaki

    “’Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties,’ Ms. Psaki said, citing conditions Hamas has repeatedly rejected. ‘It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.'”

    Source: Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, quoted in The New York Times