My Machberet

“Machberet” is the Hebrew word for notebook. Since it’s also (appropriately) one of the very first words I learned in my first Hebrew school in Brooklyn (and, until I returned to language study well into adulthood, one of the few conversational Hebrew words I still remembered), I’ve chosen it to title this blog, where I offer write-ups on Jewish news (especially of the literary sort) and occasional commentary.

Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
0
an open book (with Hebrew pages visible); subtitle reads "Jewish Literary Links"
Image by Yedidia Klein from Pixabay

Toward the end of each week, the My Machberet blog presents a collection of links, drawn primarily from the world of Jewish books and writing.

Friends, a prefatory note: It’s another week when there’s a lot to share regarding antisemitism in literary spaces. I wish that this weren’t so. It’s overwhelming, frankly—and I’m just sharing what’s public. You have no idea how much of my time has been devoted to this subject outside public view.

I want to start off, however, with some more celebratory and “routine” news.

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Words of the Week: Matti Friedman

by Erika Dreifus on
1

“After a night of tension and aerial booms here in Jerusalem—including family time spent in the safe room as the air-raid siren blared in the street and the Iron Dome worked overhead—the direct consequences of the unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel aren’t clear yet. But like a flash going off in a dark room, the attack has finally given the world something valuable: a glimpse of the real war in the Middle East. 

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Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
3
an open book (with Hebrew pages visible); subtitle reads "Jewish Literary Links"
Image by Yedidia Klein from Pixabay

Toward the end of each week, the My Machberet blog presents a collection of links, drawn primarily from the world of Jewish books and writing.

  • Jewish writers need some help—and Michelle Cameron has crowd-sourced some suggestions regarding how to provide it.
  • Although it’s geared toward school settings, Liza Wiemer’s expert tips on “how to handle antisemitic incidents” apply to other settings—including literary ones.
  • If I were a member of the UK-based Society of Authors, I’d surely follow the administration’s recommendations to vote against Resolution #3 at this upcoming meeting. And if I hadn’t let my dues lapse at AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), I’d sign on to this effort from Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry to create “a new caucus for Jewish writers at AWP. After what was for many a challenging experience at AWP’s annual conference in Kansas City, providing a space in which Jewish writers of all genres can come together and be in community at future conferences, as well as share suggestions and concerns with the AWP leadership, feels especially vital. We need signatures to show support for this proposal (you don’t need to be Jewish, of course, just a member of AWP) and I’m hoping you might consider signing. And please feel free to share and help get the word out! ” (Quoted with permission from a post by Yetzirah’s founder/president/executive director Jessica Jacobs in a private Facebook group.)
  • In a similar vein (encompassed within: the aforementioned AWP conference), Maxim Shrayer surveys “Poetry After October 7th.”
  • And icymi: You’ll find some explicitly “Jewish” opportunities in the latest issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0, including upcoming deadlines for the Natan Notable Books program (April 26) and the Rabbi Sacks Book Prize (May 1).

Reminder: 181 days later, I continue to update the “After October 7: Readings, Recordings, and More” document-in-progress. Check also cautionary information (also in-progress), compiled under the title “Writers, Beware.”

Shabbat shalom.