My Year in Jewish Books: 2023 Edition
Once again, I’m taking a quick look back at my Jewish reading for the past year.
(more…)Once again, I’m taking a quick look back at my Jewish reading for the past year.
(more…)Shabbat shalom.
Quick reminder that you can continue to find new material in the document-in-progress titled “After October 7: Readings, Recordings, and More.” Wishing everyone a light-filled eighth night of Hanukkah and a Shabbat shalom.
Speaking of Hanukkah: This first night of the holiday, coinciding with the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is perhaps a particularly appropriate time to revisit “Fidelis,” my short story that was first aired on NPR’s 2011 “Hanukkah Lights” broadcast. (Apologies: NPR did not provide a transcript.)
Wishing everyone a Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.
Months ago, when I volunteered the My Machberet blog to serve as host site for the October 2023 iteration of the Jewish Book Carnival, a monthly event where those who cover Jewish books online “can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts,” I never—not even in my most pessimistic nightmares—envisioned that said Carnival would post barely one week after the deadliest, bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Organized by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL), the Carnival travels around and is hosted on a different participant’s site on the 15th of each month. I’ve hosted it here on My Machberet 15 times in the past.
Nothing is “normal” this week. At least, not for us in the Jewish world.
So I reached out to everyone who had already submitted a Carnival post. I invited them to replace their previous submissions. I suggested that contributors send along either something they’d just posted in response to the current tragedy, or something from their archives that seemed particularly relevant—and resonant—at this terrible time.
This is what they’ve offered:
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