Words of the Week: Hillel Halkin

LettersToAmericanJewishFriend

“I didn’t write the book to defend Israeli policies, and I have never believed that, as a Jew, I should have to make the case for Israel’s existence to anyone. Whoever disputes it deserves to be scorned, not reasoned with.”

Source: Hillel Halkin, “Letters to an American Friend,” in Mosaic magazine.

This piece is a version of the introduction to a reissued edition of the book, which I’ve already pre-ordered.

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.

  • Big news: A translation of a new David Grossman novel is coming in March. Check out Library Journal‘s Barbara Hoffert’s “prepub alert” for the details.
  • On Moment‘s blog, Claudia Roth Pierpont answers questions about her forthcoming study of Philip Roth.
  • The 3rd Annual Jewish Playwriting Contest is taking submissions until November 21st.
  • The Yiddish Book Center has an intriguing weekend program coming up in November: “The Family Singer: Three Siblings and Their Stories.”
  • The 2013-2014 track of the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artists Program has officially kicked off, bringing 10 Israeli artists [including writers] for residencies at top universities across the United States.”
  • Just added to my tbr list: Molly Knight Raskin’s No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet. Liel Leibowitz’s Tablet piece is the reason why.
  • I’d already heard about MOST of the books included in Sandee Brawarsky’s big fall preview article for The Jewish Week. But not all of them.
  • Please be sure to come back here to My Machberet on Sunday, when the September Jewish Book Carnival will be posted. In the meantime, Shabbat Shalom. And a good fast!

    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.

  • In Jewish Woman magazine, Sandee Brawarsky introduces a slew of fall books, including Dara Horn’s latest novel, Jillian Cantor’s Margot, and Ruchama King Feuerman’s In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, all of which are on my tbr list.
  • And speaking of Dara Horn–icymi, you may want to read her essay in last week’s New York Times Book Review.
  • Etgar Keret has annotated for one of his stories. (via Galleycat)
  • Adam Kirsch reviews Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens, a novel that “traces three generations of an American Jewish family, showing how its tradition of radicalism mutates to meet the fashions of each new decade, and leaving us with the question of whether that radicalism still exists in any meaningful form.”
  • Shabbat shalom and shana tova!

    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.

  • Publishers Weekly has given a starred review to Jason K. Friedman’s short-story collection, Fire Year, which won the Sarabande Press Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction. Here’s the review’s first line: “These seven funny, fearless outsiders’ tales set in Savannah and Atlanta—some depicting bygone orthodox Jewish communities, others the rife-with-irony “New South”—gravitate toward taboo.” The book will be published in November. (h/t Racelle Rosett)
  • Over on Tablet, Marjorie Ingall recommends three Jewish biographies (ostensibly for children) that “are so unabashedly fabulous, such a perfect blend of writing and art, so good at explaining complicated subjects, so inspiring without being sappy, you need to stop what you’re doing and buy them all right now.”
  • An exemplary “negative review”Michael Berenbaum’s sage and sensitive analysis of BDS advocate Alice Walker’s latest book. (On a related note: my reaction to the news that the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women had rescinded an invitation for Walker to address its 50th-anniversary celebration gathering.)
  • On Bloomberg.com, Manuela Hoelterhoff takes readers through what Laurie Muchnick calls “surprising tour of novels and memoirs about the Nazi period.”
  • The Forward‘s “The Sisterhood” blog is asking readers for brief submissions (up to 200 words) to include in a larger package on the role of Jewish women in mourning. Submission deadline is August 28. Details and submission form provided here. (NB: This is a nonpaying opportunity.)
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Playwriting 101 Update

    GeorgeRemember back in April, when I shared with you my interest in learning how to write a play? Well, three months later, I thought that it might be time for an update.

    My progress, such as it is, has been negligible. I’m only a couple of chapters into Kathleen E. George’s Playwriting: The First Workshop. Even so, I’ve finished reading A.R. Gurney’s The Dinner Party (discussed and assigned in George’s book), and I’m about to start David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (analyzed in my current chapter). I’ve drafted my own first scene, and I’m looking forward to my next generative assignment.

    I’m also trying to attend at least one live theater performance each month. My July foray will likely take place next weekend…though I may dodge my own requirement somewhat by watching a free performance of Glengarry Glen Ross from the comfort of my home thanks to Amazon Prime Instant Video.

    I’m having fun with this–it’s always exciting to try to take my writing practice in new directions, especially when the stakes are low: I’m not being graded, I have no deadline, I’m not (yet) submitting work for anyone else to see. All of that may happen in due course, to be sure, but those pressures are off for the moment.

    How about you? Trying anything new with your writing this summer?