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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

  • From Women in Judaism: “We are delighted to announce the electronic publication of two new issues of Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal. The journal can be accessed at www.womeninjudaism.org. Click on the following links to access the new issues: Vol. 8:1 http://tinyurl.com/7plstwa; Vol. 8:2 http://tinyurl.com/lgo2br.”
  • Lisa Katz goes “Beyond Amichai” in her take on contemporary Israeli poetry.
  • Discovered this extraordinary photo-essay-exhibit by Beth Burstein thanks to the lively discussion unfolding in a Generations of the Shoah (GSI) Facebook discussion group. As curator Sura Levine describes it, this work “explores[s] Burstein’s dual identity as an American born well after World War II and as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Intimate and public, these images function at the margins of both the documentary and fine art.”
  • Mazel tov to the National Jewish Book Awards’ latest winners and finalists.
  • Coming up February 16 in NYC: “Soviet-Jewish Experience in NYC, 1972-2000, In Fact and Fiction.” Featuring Anya Ulinich, Lina Zeldovich, Mikhail Iossel, Emily Rubin, and Anneliese Orleck. Tickets are $10 ($8 for Members of the CUNY Graduate Center).
  • Attention, book bloggers! “The Sydney Taylor Book Award committee is preparing to announce the best Jewish kidlit published in the past year. Winners will be revealed in mid-January, and there will be a blog tour for medal-winning authors/illustrators in February! If you’re interested in interviewing a winner and hosting a stop on the blog tour, please let us know! If you’d like to participate, please email Barbara Krasner(at)barbarakrasner(dot)att(dot)net and CC Heidi Estrin at Heidi(at)cbiboca(dot)org.”
  • Yesterday’s main feature on Jewish Ideas Daily was a piece titled “Among the Literati.” Its author: yours truly.

    • Shabbat shalom!
    (Photo by Reut Miryam Cohen.)

    Words of the Week: Harvey Freedenberg, on Tony Judt

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “Because Judt’s fearless opinions are expressed so pointedly and with such passion, it’s unlikely readers will ever find themselves in total agreement with him. But whether one adopts or rejects his worldview, this invigorating dialogue grants us the privilege of encountering a fertile mind in all its vibrancy, gone far too soon.”

    Source: Harvey Freedenberg’s Shelf Awareness review of Thinking the Twentieth Century, by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder. I’m grateful to Harvey helping me articulate some of my own complicated feelings about Judt and his work, which I first encountered (and admired) as a student of European history, but later shrank from when it came to Judt’s take on Israel.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • André Aciman writes about Irène Némirovsky.
  • Joan Leegant’s remarkable, Israel-set short story, “Beautiful Souls,” was chosen by Ron Carlson as winner of the 2011 Colorado Review Nelligan Prize. It is extraordinary, as is Leegant’s novel, Wherever You Go, which I finished reading on New Year’s Day. Hope to write more about Leegant’s work soon.
  • The New York Times reviews the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Emma Lazarus exhibit.
  • More cultural news from NYC: Next week marks the start of the 21st annual New York Jewish Film Festival.
  • Looking for some book-club possibilities? Check out the Jewish Book Council’s themed reading lists.
  • Can you believe that it’s been almost one whole year since my short-story collection, Quiet Americans, was published? To celebrate this anniversary, I’m offering three free copies of my book. There’s no cost to enter this giveaway and the guidelines couldn’t be simpler. Read more here.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2
  • Some fascinating literary history involving Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emma Lazarus, courtesy of Benjamin Ivry on The Forward‘s Arty Semite blog.
  • Thanks to the Yiddishkayt site, I discovered a fabulous video profile of author Arnost Lustig (1926-2011) that was produced for Czech TV. Thankfully, there are English subtitles. And the profile perfectly captures Arnost, with whom I had the privilege of studying in the Prague Summer Program in 2004. Arnost would have turned 85 last week.
  • On her Jewish Muse blog, Linda K. Wertheimer reflects on writing about faith and related writings that she published this year.
  • It’s not common for me to publicly utter anything resembling a criticism of Israel. (See this poem on that subject.) On the contrary, one link I planned to share this week is The Jewish Week‘s editorial chiding The New York Times, which includes a number of sentiments that I share about the latter’s Israel coverage. But that same New York Times was also the source this week of an Israel-related op-ed that I find deeply disturbing—and this time my upset is not directed toward the newspaper. I hope that Yad Vashem will correct the injustice described in the piece (and confirmed by an easy online search).
  • After an inexcusable delay, I’m currently reading Joan Leegant’s Wherever You Go. I’m sorry that it took me this long to begin this excellent novel.

    • Shabbat shalom and Happy 2012, all!

    Words of the Week: President Barack Obama

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    In fact, I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact.

    Source: President Barack Obama’s keynote address before the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial.
    Read the text online, or (even better), watch the President give one of his best speeches ever. (IMHO, as the kids say.)

    It didn’t hurt that he wished the group a “Shabbat Shalom”; mentioned that “NFTY, I understand, is in the house”; shared his fatherly concerns over the skirts and curfews involved when his daughter Malia attends Bar and Bat Mitzvah events these days; credited the Reform movement for its essential, foundational work on civil rights; and gave a D’var Torah worthy of a pulpit rabbi.

    But in the end, he needed to convince his readers that he supports Israel.

    He convinced me.