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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Via JewishFiction.Net: a Purim-related excerpt from the forthcoming translation (by Jeffrey M. Green) of Aharon Appelfeld’s Suddenly, Love.
  • Publishers Weekly interviews Boris Fishman, whose debut novel A Replacement Life I am looking forward to reading.
  • Not sure how long this discount will last, but you can currently register for The Whole Megillah Seminar on Jewish Story for $99.
  • Interesting story from Tablet on Halban, “the best little Jewish publishing house in London.”
  • New Moment magazine contest, “Become a Senior Critic,” invites book and movie reviews from those 70+. Prizes: publication & gift subscriptions. Enter by August 1.

    • Shabbat shalom & chag Purim!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Superb review by Ron Radosh of a new book by John Judis, Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict. (You’ll recall my enthusiasm for the book that Ron Radosh co-authored with Allis Radosh covering some similar territory.)
  • This week also brought an excellent piece by another author I admire: Lucette Lagnado’s “Anti-Israel Jews & the Vassar Blues.” (And to refresh your memory, here’s my take on Lagnado’s The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.)
  • Learn more about Fig Tree Books, a new publisher for fiction on American Jewish experience, in this Q&A with senior editor Michelle Caplan.
  • Beth Kissileff writes about “‘Ex-Frum’ vs. ‘Datlash’: Two Very Different Literary Genres.”
  • “Sotto Voce” is “a dream play in which a passionate, Jewish-Cuban young man (Saquiel) sets out to recover memories of the S.S. St. Louis which, in 1939, left Nazi Germany for Cuba filled with Jewish refugees but was turned back by Cuba, the U.S. and Canada.” And it’s in New York until March 9. (h/t @BarbaraKrasner)

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week: Amos Oz

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    AmosOzA Jew, in my unhalachic opinion, is someone who chooses to share the fate of other Jews, or who is condemned to do so.

    Moreover: to be a Jew almost always means to relate mentally to the Jewish past, whether the relation is one of pride or gloom or both together, whether it consists of shame or rebellion or pride or nostalgia.

    Moreover: to be a Jew almost always means to relate to the Jewish present, whether the relation is one of fear or confidence, pride in the achievement of Jews or shame for their actions, an urge to deflect them from their path or a compulsion to join them.

    And finally: to be a Jew means to feel that wherever a Jew is persecuted for being a Jew—that means you.

    Source: Amos Oz, “The Meaning of Homeland” (trans. Nicholas de Lange)

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Rabbi David Wolpe: “I’m often asked to recommend books. Here are five unique and powerful modern works that you may have missed or forgotten. These works will enrich, elevate and educate any Jew, indeed any human being.”
  • Moment magazine is looking for a part-time online editor.
  • Fathom shares an interview with Sayed Kashua, “one of the [Israel]’s most successful writers.” (A lot to think about here–but I admit getting stuck with the suggestion that Gaza is currently “occupied” by Israel.)
  • I’ve got other plans, but if I were free to attend, I’d be interested in hearing Ruth Wisse speak about Jacob Glatstein at YIVO on March 4.
  • “As I discovered while conducting dissertation research on this topic, the ‘belle Juive’ (beautiful Jewess) trope was to early 19th-century French literature something like what the ‘shiksa’ would become for American Jewish writers: an exotic object of desire, but also someone one might marry to affirm progressive, universalist ideals.” Phoebe Maltz Bovy offers some interesting thoughts on “the intermarriage script.”

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • This Fiction Writers Review interview with Molly Antopol heightened my interest in Antopol’s debut story collection The UnAmericans (although my interest level was already pretty high). Note the segment in which Antopol answers the question, “So do you consider The UnAmericans a Jewish book?” (On a related note: I have a guest post this week on The Whole Megillah in which I reflect [again] on what defines a “Jewish story.”)
  • Joanna Chen’s essay for the Los Angeles Review of Books introduced me to the poetry of Agi Mishol.
  • If, like me, you missed the chance to see the Elif Batuman/Gary Shteyngart double-feature at the 92nd Street Y earlier this month, you can catch the video here.
  • You’ve probably seen plenty of laudatory reviews of Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land (including some cited here on My Machberet). More recently, I’ve caught two less enthusiastic takes: one on The Daily Beast and one from Moment magazine. See what you think about them.
  • And last, but definitely not least: the latest Jewish Book Carnival, hosted most graciously by the Jewish Book Council.

    • Shabbat shalom.