Notes from Around the Web

A big todah rabah to the Jewish Book Council for tapping My Machberet for a "Beautiful Blogger Award" (now, it seems I need to script a post to "claim" the award proper).

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Other news from the JBC: The group's next Twitter Book Club will take place on Wednesday, September 15. The chosen title: Mitchell J. Kaplan's By Fire, By Water.

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"Hans Keilson is not entirely unknown in America," writes Adam Kirsch for Tablet. But before I read Kirsch's article, Keilson was unknown to me. I am glad that Kirsch (and, in the Boston Globe, Linda K. Wertheimer) have enlightened me, and I plan to read both Death of the Adversary and Comedy in a Minor Key asap.

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Meantime, of course (and as per usual), Josh Lambert, also writing for Tablet, also adds to my tbr list.

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So, too, does the Jewish Book Council reliably provide tbr titles. In this case, fall fiction from Israel (in translation).

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Wise words from Allegra Goodman.

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Thanks to Jewish Ideas Daily for pointing me to this very interesting review of Inventing the Israelite: Jewish Fiction in Nineteenth-Century France.

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The latest Jewish Reader book-group guide from the National Yiddish Book Center focuses on Joan Leegant's new novel, Wherever You Go.

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And if you're looking for a new calendar to mark the quickly-approaching Jewish New Year, consider the latest offering from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute's calendar project, which features "Jewish Women Writers: The Cities Behind the Stories."

Notes from Around the Web/Twitter

Benjamin Ivry's account of the disinvitation of Israeli writer and translator Esther Orner from an academic conference in France motivated me to respond: I immediately ordered two of Orner's books from Amazon.fr.
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Also from Monsieur Ivry: an intriguing description of a new play, "an imaginary conversation between [Georges] Mandel and [Léon] Blum when, during Germany’s occupation of France, both were imprisoned at Buchenwald." What can I say--this appeals to the historian-of-twentieth-century-France in me.
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Barbara Krasner provides a report on the first annual New York Sephardic Book Fair.
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Some new Jewish poetry has been posted over on the New Vilna Review's website. See especially Matthew Hartmann's "Warsaw is Burning."
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If you're between the ages of 22 and 35 you are eligible for an incredible opportunity: a "Writers' Seminar on the Jewish People," led by Samuel Freedman. (I'll 'fess up and admit that I tried [unsuccessfully] to gain admission the last time this seminar was offered...although I was already beyond 35!) There's no application fee, and you have until September 5 to apply. (Thanks to our friends at the Jewish Book Council for the news about this year's seminar.)
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Moment magazine is looking for an Assistant Editor. Details here.
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Oh, have you heard that Gary Shteyngart has a new novel out? I laughed a little when I saw this tidbit on Twitter: "SUPER SAD Moving Up List: Another day, another review, or two, for Gary Shteyngart’s satiric Super Sad True Love S... http://bit.ly/b3YhON" (source: earlyword). The publicity for this book has been incredible! I have to admit I am getting curiouser and curiouser...and the book is on my tbr list.

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web

The always-sagacious Josh Lambert rounds up a group of "beach reads" for Tablet.
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The New York Times follows up on the brouhaha surrounding a new play, Imagining Madoff.
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Benjamin Ivry writes about Frédéric Chouraki's new novel, La Guerre de Kippour (the subject matter isn't quite what you may guess from the title).
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The Poetry Foundation takes note of a collection of Yiddish poetry (translated by Dr. Sarah Traister Moskovitz) originally written by Jews who were trapped in the Warsaw ghetto.
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Sarah Seltzer reflects on being the only Jew in her MFA program's incoming cohort. Brought back quite a few memories of my own similar experience. (via @JewishMuse)
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Paid internship opportunities at Tablet magazine.
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And still more from Tablet: Rachel Shukert (whose work I've mentioned here in the past) has a new book out, and Tablet is co-hosting a celebration next Tuesday.

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web

Israel, Orthodoxy, and much more appear in Sarah/Sara, Jacob Paul's debut novel--and in my review for the Fiction Writers Review website.
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Speaking of the above review, I'm proud that it's part of the first installment of the Jewish Book Carnival, organized this month by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Please do check out this month's collection of carnival contributions.
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One of the links in the aforementioned carnival will take you to this review of Natasha Solomons's Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, which I began reading this week (also for a review, so I won't say too much else until the review is done and published).
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As To Kill A Mockingbird celebrates its 50th birthday, Eric Herschthal asks "Did Harper Lee Whitewash the Jewish Past?"
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The summer issue of the Jewish Review of Books is out, and some of the content is available online.
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It was Bastille Day this week, in case you forgot. Which makes this a good time to mention that Benjamin Ivry's Arty Semite posts routinely provide insights into French-Jewish literary culture. And the What Would Phoebe Do blog is a good source for "Francophilic Zionism."

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web/Twitter

So excited to see more attention directed toward Ludwig Lewisohn and his novel, The Island Within. For additional info on this important book, see the essays by Josh Lambert and yours truly.
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Comme j'adore l'oeuvre de Patrick Modiano! And how happy I was to see this write-up on Monsieur Modiano from Benjamin Ivry!
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From Tablet: an excerpt from Benjamin Balint's new history of Commentary, focusing on the fiction published in the magazine's early years.
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Just in time for summer: The Forward's special summer books section. (I am especially grateful for the reminder about Joan Leegant's upcoming book!)
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Did you miss the Canadian Jewish Book Awards? Me too. Hence, my interest in Ezra Glinter's post (which prompted me to order a copy of What the Furies Bring, by Kenneth Sherman, right away).
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Learn about Artists4Israel through this interview on the New Vilna Review site.
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Did you miss Wednesday's Jewish Book Council lunchtime Twitter book club? The JBC has posted the transcript. (I thought it was a particularly good chat. I wonder how the transcript will read to someone who wasn't "there," though.)
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And last, but (hopefully) not necessarily least: The Jewish Journal has just published my review of Every House Needs a Balcony, a debut novel from Israeli author Rina Frank (translated by Ora Cummings).

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web/Twitter

Adam Kirsch writes about the newly-translated biography of Irène Némirovsky.
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Despite efforts to prevent it from happening, a literary prize goes to Amos Oz. (via MassWriter)
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In the Forward, Benjamin Ivry reports: "One of France's most daring postwar writers, perhaps best known for writing an entire novel without the letter 'e' (a lipogram), French-Jewish author Georges Perec, is coming back into vogue. Two of his books were reprinted by publisher David R. Godine last year, and new interest is being taken in his Polish-Jewish roots."
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Another name that comes up in Ivry's article is that of another French-Jewish writer, Patrick Modiano, who recently won the Prix mondial de la Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca, which is worth €300,000.
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Quite a lively interview with Gary Shteyngart here. (via the Jewish Book Council)
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Sholom Aleichem's granddaughter turns 99.
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The death of Chaim Grade's widow may signal the rebirth of the writer's works and reputation.
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Congratulations to Joanna Smith Rakoff, winner of the 2010 Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for her novel, A Fortunate Age.

Notes from Around the Web

In case you couldn't make it to the latest Jewish Book Club Twitter "Twunch and Talk" (featuring Dara Horn responding to questions on All Other Nights), you can read the Twitter transcript (twanscript?) here. NB: The next JBC Twitter Twunch and Talk is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, and will feature Jennifer Gilmore's new novel, Something Red.
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From David Kaufmann, writing for Tablet: "Ilya Kaminsky and Matvei Yankelevich are not the only Russian-born Jewish poets in the United States these days, but they might be the best known."
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I'm always glad to see Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers receive more attention, but you'll forgive me if I'm not so quick to dispense with the feminist interpretations.
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Debates over Irene Némirovsky's attitudes toward her fellow Jews continue.
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Helpful insights on Israeli literature in Eric Herschthal's Jewish Week profile of author Alex Epstein.
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Mazel tov to the winners of the 22nd Annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards.

Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage in NYC

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend an extraordinary "double-feature" at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Here's how the two films--both from acclaimed filmmaker Pierre Sauvage--were billed:

And Crown Thy Good: Varian Fry in Marseille (USA, forthcoming in 2011, digital video)

Sauvage presents a preview of his documentary about the most successful private American rescue effort during the Nazi era. The mission led by a New York intellectual Varian Fry helped some 2,000 people escape from France, including many scholars and artists.

Not Idly By: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust (USA, 2009, digital video, 40 minutes)

Post-screening discussion with Pierre Sauvage interviewed by author and Vanity Fair writer-at-large Marie Brenner.

This film presents the challenging testimony of a militant Palestinian Jew who spent the war years in the U.S. leading a group that struggled to make saving the Jews of Europe an American objective. The controversial Peter Bergson is given his posthumous say as he castigates American Jewish leaders at the time for failing to pressure the American government to save European Jews.

I've been a fan of Pierre Sauvage's work since I saw Weapons of the Spirit at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts 20 years ago. (A paper I wrote about that film and Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants helped convince an esteemed professor to take me on as an undergraduate thesis advisee; I am proud to still count that professor as one of my dearest friends.) And having the chance to see Marie Brenner interview him was an additional lure (and kept me going to the Museum of Jewish Heritage even when the NYC subway system seemed determined to stop me).

The Varian Fry film is not yet complete. Fry's story, with which I became familiar in my doctoral research on Franco-American relations during the WWII era, is one that should certainly be better known. The excerpt we saw on Sunday was great; I look forward to seeing the completed film.

The Peter Bergson film is, in Brenner's words, "shocking." Yes, it can be difficult (and unfair) to judge others' actions when separated by decades. And, as with so much else related to the war years, one is ill-advised to make categorical statements. But after seeing this film, it's hard not to think that American Jews--particularly American Jews in high places--could have done more to save their coreligionists in Europe. Peter Bergson's story is deeply disturbing. Screenings will continue this spring at various film festivals (Los Angeles, Toronto, Warsaw, Zagreb are currently listed). Try to see it.

Notes from Around the Web

Rebecca Gruber advocates for Jewish Artists Residencies. What an excellent idea (so long as writers are included).
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Clark Hoyt, Public Editor for The New York Times, has called for the paper's Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, to be reassigned. Why? Because Bronner's son has enlisted in the IDF. Jeffrey Goldberg reacts.
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Bagels and Books reports on a trip to Paris for the latest Rencontres des Livres des Mondes Juifs.

Susan Suleiman to Speak on "Irene Nemirovsky and the 'Jewish Question' in Interwar France"

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has announced that the 2010 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture will feature Professor Susan Rubin Suleiman, speaking on on "Irène Némirovsky and the 'Jewish Question' in Interwar France." The lecture is scheduled for Thursday evening, February 4, 2010, in Washington.

Susan Rubin Suleiman (with whom I have had the privilege of studying) is the C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. In her lecture, she will discuss the life and work of French writer Irène Némirovsky in relation to questions of Jewish identity in France before, during, and after the Holocaust.

A reception will follow the lecture. Reservations are requested.

Notes from Around the Web

Benjamin Ivry's superb article on a new exhibit about Romanian-French poet (and critic and filmmaker) Benjamin Fondane (1898-1944) inspired me to revisit the Web site of the museum at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, where the exhibit runs through the end of January. If you read French (I promise not to make French proficiency a prerequisite for appreciating My Machberet), I encourage you to go over and check out elements of the exhibit yourself (unfortunately, this material does not appear to be included among the translated items on the English version of the site).
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Inside Higher Ed reports on a panel at the 2009 Modern Language Association convention: "The underlying premise of the panel was that English departments that would never allow themselves to be without experts in the literatures of many racial and ethnic groups in the United States don't think twice about failing to have a knowledge base in American Jewish literature. Further, the view of many here is that discussions about multicultural literature that ought to include Jewish writers simply don't."
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The New Jersey Jewish News gives us an extraordinary profile of Peter Hirschmann's extraordinary life (Mr. Hirschmann happens to be a member of my home congregation, and his son and I were Temple Youth Groupers together back in the day).

January in Paris

J'adore Paris! There are many reasons I'd be happy to be planning another trip to this beautiful city. But for the purposes of this blog, I'll point simply to a series of Jewish-inflected literary events that will be taking place there the evening of January 23 and all day on January 24, 2010.

These "rencontres," bringing together "Livres des mondes juifs" ("Books from/of Jewish worlds") and "Diasporas en dialogue," have taken place for the past couple of years. (If you understand French, you will enjoy the archived videos from 2008 and 2009.) This year's program will begin with a session on "Minorities and Citizenship in France," followed by a reading and discussion with Amos Oz. Several more events will take place on the program's second, full day, and books will be available for purchase. Check out the full program and ticket information.

(And if any of you should happen to be lucky enough to find yourselves attending all or part of the program, please get in touch with me about the possibility of a guest post!)

Jewish Book Week: Past and Present

Jewish Book Week, an annual London event, will release its 2010 program (slated to take place from February 27-March 7), on January 7.

In the meantime, however, you can enjoy a plethora of recordings from past festival sessions. Truly, the site provides an amazing trove of podcasts and videos to enjoy. (I've started with one from last year featuring Philippe Grimbert discussing his autobiographical novel.)

Notes from Around the Web

Loved this article on Jewish life in Montana. My six-year-old niece, rapidly acquiring proficiency in Hebrew, was intrigued when I told her about the dog mentioned in the article, who understands commands only in Hebrew (not in English). On the other hand, Jack Shafer is far less impressed.
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Josh Lambert's latest books column for Tablet opens with an introduction to a new book about antisemitism in 19th-century France.
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Leaping ahead to the 20th century, Ian Buruma's review essay on books about Jews--and others--in Occupied France is well worth a read.
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And in selecting the top foreign fiction for 2009 for NPR's listeners, Jessa Crispin spotlights Israeli author Gail Hareven's novel, The Confessions of Noa Weber (trans. Dalya Bilu). A choice I applaud.

Kisufim 2009: The Jerusalem Conference of Jewish Writers and Poets

The good news: Just yesterday, I found out about Kisufim 2009: The Jerusalem Conference of Jewish Writers and Poets (courtesy of the Foundation for Jewish Culture e-newsletter).

The bad news: Just yesterday, I just found out about Kisufim 2009: The Jerusalem Conference of Jewish Writers and Poets.

You see, this conference is slated for December 7-10, 2009. As in: next week. As in: way too late for me to arrange a trip to Israel around it. I have been very much focused on finding a literary-oriented event around which to plan my next trip to Israel, and this would have been fantastic.

Here's a description of what I'll be missing:

"The significance of Jewish creativity, in Israel and throughout the world, is increasing during a period characterized by a Jewish absence from post-Holocaust Europe. Also evident is the need for close, unmediated contact between contemporary Israeli and Jewish literature worldwide.

The conference provides a venue for an experiential encounter and for clarification of textual and cultural issues concerning the writer’s identity, focusing on questions such as the meaning of Exile today, the identity of text and place and the function of translation in a literary work with a Jewish identity and the change that Jewish literature has undergone from the Second World War and the establishment of the State of Israel to the present. It is no coincidence that the Hebrew acronym for this gathering is Kisufim (yearnings). Jerusalem has been the heart of yearning in Jewish literature for many generations. We have a special opportunity to continue the process that began in 2007 with the first Kisufim Conference by gathering for four days and nights at Mishkenot Sha’ananim and Beit Avi-Chai, with the participation of the best Jewish literary creators in today’s world, in various languages, to discuss literary works with a Jewish connection and identity.

This international meeting of Jewish creative writers encourages encounter between Israeli creativity – in Hebrew and other languages – and world Jewish creativity that is both multilingual and multicultural.

The Conference will include poetry and prose-reading evenings, workshops and meetings with poets and writers in various languages, as well as meetings among writers and poets who share a common language, such as Russian, English, French, Hungarian, Serbian and Spanish, from Israel and all over the world.

The Kisufim Conference seeks to elucidate and reinforce ties with various types of Jewish literature and increase public awareness of literary issues. By bringing together the creative and intellectual powers of Jewish writers, poets and publishers, wherever they may be, it reinforces mutual ties and increases translation efforts.

The international writers are: Miriam Anisimov (France), Jonathan Rosen (USA), Dara Horn (USA), Rodger Kamenetz (USA), Linda Grant (UK), Marcelo Birmajer (Argentina), Ilan Stavans (Mexico/USA), Emmanuel Moses (France) Robert Schindel (Austria), Esther Bendahan (Spain), Lucette Lagnado (Egypt/USA), Lisa Ginzburg (Italy), Geza Rohrig (Hungary/USA), Angel Wagenstein (Bulgaria), Alessandro Piperno (Italy) and Norman Manea (Romania/USA)

The list of Israeli writers include: Aharon Applefeld, Hava Pinhas-Cohen, Dov Elbaum, Nava Semel, Asaf Inbari, Michal Govrin, Yehoshua Sobol, Eli Amir, Rafi Veichert, Yoel Hoffman, Eshkol Nevo, Meron C. Izakson, Menachem Lorberbaum, Roni Somek, Yisrael Pincas, Itamar Yaoz-Kest, Tal Nitzan, Yisrael Eliraz, Haviva Pedaya, Admiel Kosman, Zeruya Shalev, Eyal Megged, Yochi Brandes, Hagit Grossman, Sabina Messig, Ori Bernstein, Anna Shomlo (Serbian), Linda Zisquit (English), David Markish (Russian), Peter Cole(English), Karen Alkalay-Gut (English)"

There's a full program you can download at the site for further information.

Anyone going? Want to write a guest post for this blog? Please contact me if so.

French Connections

Two articles in yesterday's New York Times really caught my attention.

First up is this profile of Samuel Pisar. I met the Pisar family back in 1990, when I was spending a semester in Paris. During my undergraduate years at Harvard, I held a termtime job in the admissions office, and while I was in Paris I was an unofficial "greeter" for local students who had just been admitted to the school. One of them was named Leah Pisar (Leah is multiply referenced and quoted in the article, too). Meeting her father, a Holocaust survivor, all those years ago made my subsequent reading of his harrowing memoir, Of Blood and Hope, all the more powerful.

Next, sadly, is a story of all-too-contemporary anti-Semitism in my beloved France. In the print edition, this appears on the same page as the Pisar profile. Which, for some reason, also affects me profoundly.

Notes from Around the Web

Believe it or not, not everything I'm reading on the Web these days is about what's happening in Israel and Gaza. Here are few other noteworthy items:

The prolific (to say the least) Adam Kirsch reviews a new history of French cultural life under Nazi occupation for Nextbook. (And I'm prompted to post my first-ever Internet comment in French!)
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Also on Nextbook: A fascinating account describes how a new book of immigrant autobiographies--My Future is in America: Autobiographies of Eastern European Immigrants--came to be. (I seem to have found the perfect book to buy as a gift for my mother's upcoming birthday.)
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Not sure exactly how/where I was pointed to this one (possibly, the credit must go once again to Nextbook), but here's an article chronicling the increasing popularity of Limmud, "the festival of festivals."

Irène Némirvosky and the Jewish Question

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend last week's panel discussion at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on "Irène Némirovsky and the Jewish Question." On the bright side, though, the Museum has made podcast segments available on its Web site, and I've had some time this weekend to listen. Well worth my time, and, if you're interested in Némirvosky and her work, quite likely worth yours, too.

Woman of Letters and Other Goings-on at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

In the current (November) issue of The Writer magazine, I've contributed a short news item on Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française, an exhibition at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Woman of Letters runs into March 2009, but if you can't get to the Museum to see it, you can still check it out online.

Plenty of events are being planned in conjunction with this exhibition, among them a discussion of "Jews in Vichy France" (featuring scholars Robert Paxton and Michael Marrus) and another session on "Irène Némirovsky and the Jewish Question," with my own former professor, Susan Suleiman, and The New Republic's Ruth Franklin. Check out these sessions, and other events planned for this fall at the Museum, right here.

(I won't be blogging on Yom Kippur. See you back here in a few days.)

Sharing "Un Secret"

Last weekend I saw an extraordinary film: A Secret ("Un Secret"), based on the autobiographical French novel by Philippe Grimbert.

The New York Times review got it right:

To describe “A Secret” as a Holocaust movie would be perfectly accurate but also somewhat misleading. Its chronology is complex and elusive. It shifts from the immediate postwar years into the 1980s...and then back into the anxiety and panic of impending and actual war. In those days Maxime spelled his last name Grinberg, he was married to a woman named Hannah (Ludivine Sagnier) and the two of them occupied the stolid center of a large and complicated extended Jewish family.

That family, as it heads toward catastrophe, is as much the setting of the story as its subject, and their fate as Jews under Nazi occupation is entangled in murky, sticky domestic issues of jealousy, betrayal and desire. An erotic spark ignites the first time Maxime and Tania meet — the day of his wedding to Hannah — and it causes plenty of guilt and tension. But it might have been safely (if agonizingly) extinguished in more peaceful times....

What is most impressive about “A Secret” is the way Mr. Miller artfully and gently gestures toward such enormous themes without spelling them out. Nearly every melodramatic impulse has been suppressed in favor of a calm precision that serves both to intensify and delay the emotional impact of the film’s climactic disclosures.

There is so much more to say about this movie, and given my past studies in 20th century French history, I feel compelled to say it. But I also want to wait until I have the chance to discuss it with one of my mentors and friends to get his take (and to ask him if he agrees with me about one possible anachronism amid all the incredibly good historical detail).

The film is just becoming known here in the United States, where Grimbert will be meeting with American readers/audiences in the coming days. I've already ordered the original novel from amazon.fr (it has been published in English in the United States as Memory), and I'm looking forward to hearing what the author of this intense, and intensely sad, story has to say when I attend this event at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction in Manhattan. Keep an eye out for any Grimbert appearances near you. And go see that movie. ASAP.