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Pre-Rosh Hashanah Notes from Around the Web

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Here’s a really lovely post about the connections between a temple-based writing group (located in Tuscon, Ariz.) and the Holy Days.
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Michelle Cameron, a self-described “writer of Jewish-themed books,” guest-posts on my friend Lisa Romeo’s blog.
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The aforementioned Scribblers on the Roof Web site has launched! Check it out. And look forward to a Q&A with founder/editor Kelly Hartog, right here on My Machberet, in the not-too-distant future.
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Jeffrey Goldberg links to an outrageously hilarious spoof of Mad Men (retitled for these purposes “Meshugene Men“).
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Finally, and on a more somber note, the new issue of Brevity, which bills itself as “a journal of concise literary nonfiction,” is online, featuring an amazing piece, “Somebody Else’s Genocide,” by author Sherman Alexie.

Shanah Tovah, everyone! See you back here in a few days.

Streaming Shabbat Services

by Erika Dreifus on
2

I remember, growing up, listening to the weekly radio broadcast of early Friday evening Shabbat services live from New York’s Temple Emanu-El. This was, of course, in the days before the Internet.

But now that we are living in an Internet society, services can be accessed online. Or, at least services held at Temple Beth Or in Morristown, N.J., can be accessed online.

According to the New Jersey Jewish News:

“Since May, the synagogue has been streaming its Shabbat services on Friday evenings and some Saturday mornings on a live webcast available to anyone with Internet access.

That puts B’nai Or in the vanguard of high-tech shuls. A search using — what else — the Internet revealed only two other synagogues with such an offering: Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Ala., and Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in Winnepeg, Canada.”

It’s a really interesting development, and, according to the article, one that is not limited to Jewish congregations.

Learn Yiddish Online

by Erika Dreifus on
1

Want to study beginning Yiddish online? The National Yiddish Book Center brings you the opportunity to do so, via the University of Massachusetts’ online instructional program.

“The course is for students who wish to explore the language and culture of Ashkenazic Jewry. There are no prerequisites, and no knowledge of any Jewish language or the Jewish alphabet is expected. Over the course of the semester, students will learn to read, write, and converse in Yiddish and will be introduced to a number of Yiddish songs, poems, and folktales. By the end of the term, students should be able to converse in Yiddish on a variety of topics and to read simple Yiddish texts.

The instructor, Yuri Vedenyapin, is the academic director of the National Yiddish Book Center’s Summer Yiddish Program. He teaches Yiddish language and culture at Harvard University, and his scholarly interests include old and modern Yiddish literature, East European Jewish folklore, and the history of Yiddish dialects and literary standards. He is especially interested in ethnographic fieldwork and has conducted numerous interviews with Yiddish writers, actors, and members of Hasidic communities. He holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Columbia University. In addition to his work at Harvard, he has taught Yiddish at Columbia University, Moscow State University, and the Yiddish Summer Program in Warsaw, Poland. Besides his academic pursuits, he also performs songs in Yiddish, Russian, and Polish.”

More info here.

NYT: Gary Shteyngart’s Apartment is a "Good Deal"

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

From The New York Times:

A seventh-floor 800-square-foot co-op apartment at 575 Grand Street on the Lower East Side is listed by LoHo Realty for $425,000. The apartment has a small balcony and good light. There is a laundry in the building as well as access to a gym, and the maintenance charges are low, $623 a month, with a $35 monthly fuel surcharge. Although there is a bus stop outside, the subway is a hike.

This being New York City, the owner of this one-bedroom happens to be Gary Shteyngart, the Russian-born author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook” (Riverhead, 2002), the winner of both Stephen Crane and Jewish Book Council awards for fiction. He bought the apartment in 2004, and it’s where he wrote much of “Absurdistan” (Random House, 2006). Now, he wants to upgrade to a bigger place in the neighborhood.

“I wanted to price it in a way that seemed reasonable, so the sale wouldn’t take too long,” he said. “I also want to sell it at a point so I don’t lose money over what I paid for it after all the fees and taxes. Maybe it’s the immigrant in me. I just want to come out even.”

The apartment’s living room is pictured in this slideshow (#3).

Andre Aciman on "The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention"

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Of all the analyses that have followed President Barack Obama’s recent speech in Cairo, none has affected me as much as André Aciman’s op-ed in today’s New York Times:

The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century. With all his references to the history of Islam and to its (questionable) “proud tradition of tolerance” of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.

Nor did he bother to mention that with this flight and expulsion, Jewish assets were — let’s call it by its proper name — looted. Mr. Obama never mentioned the belongings I still own in Egypt and will never recover. My mother’s house, my father’s factory, our life in Egypt, our friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle. We are, each one of us, not just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but also by the things we call our own. Take away our things and something in us dies. Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn’t die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off.

Mr. Obama had harsh things to say to the Arab world about its treatment of women. And he said much about America’s debt to Islam. But he failed to remind the Egyptians in his audience that until 50 years ago a strong and vibrant Jewish community thrived in their midst. Or that many of Egypt’s finest hospitals and other institutions were founded and financed by Jews. It is a shame that he did not remind the Egyptians in the audience of this, because, in most cases — and especially among those younger than 50 — their memory banks have been conveniently expunged of deadweight and guilt. They have no recollections of Jews.

Read the full column here.