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."

Recent Reads: Grace Schulman's First Loves and Other Adventures

Now that I've joined Goodreads, I've been chronicling most of my "recent reads" over there. Hence, today's My Machberet post is actually a cross-posting of the write-up I gave earlier this month to Grace Schulman's First Loves and Other Adventures, a recent release from the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry series.

Grace Schulman has to be one of the most generous writers out there. I had the privilege of meeting her for a profile I wrote not too long after I began working at The City University of New York, where she is a Distinguished Professor at Baruch College. I left our first meeting with an armful of books, and when we met again a few months back, she asked if she might send me her latest: First Loves and Other Adventures.

I probably can't be completely unbiased, but having had the opportunity to get to know this author a bit, I find the opening and closing essays in this collection most striking. They are also, arguably, the most personal.

In the first, "Helen," Schulman describes family history, the experience of growing up Jewish in New York while the Holocaust unfolded across the ocean, and the connections she sensed from an early age with her father's sister, Helena ("my parents Anglicized it"), who died in the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. The closing piece, "An Uncommon Friend," recounts the relationship Schulman and her husband had with author Richard Yates. I was in the room at the 2008 conference in New York where Schulman presented this text on a panel honoring Yates's life and work; I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to revisit it.

In the introduction to this volume, Schulman describes the essays within as being "of two kinds: first, about becoming a writer; second, about some of the books I love." The book encompasses reflections on May Swenson, Marianne Moore, Octavio Paz, and others. And anything Schulman writes is worth reading. Still, the first and last essays are the ones I'll remember the longest.

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

Direct from the Association of Jewish Libraries convention: book reviewing resources.
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The Boston Bibliophile interviews Carla Jablonski, author of a graphic novel, Resistance: Book 1, "which focuses on the French resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II and in particular about the efforts of a French family to save French Jews."
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Tablet tells us about 10 novels in a "Jewish fall fiction preview."
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You may have noticed a new addition to the blogroll: Jew Wishes, a superb site that features "book reviews on Jewish-related books and films, news on Jewish community, Judaism and such." (Thanks to Nina Badzin for leading me to it!)
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And, as a follow-up to Wednesday's post, you can learn more about JewishFiction.net in this "Arty Semite" interview with editor Nora Gold.
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Finally, although you can't read it online, I am THRILLED to announce that the July-August issue of Moment magazine includes my poem, "Pünktlichkeit" (see p. 32).

Shabbat Shalom!

Notes from Around the Web

Author Allison Amend blogs for the JBC/MJL Author Blog series on Jews in odd places and on the real-life store that inspired a fictional one in her new novel, Stations West.
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Tablet Magazine is looking for a part-time (25 hrs/week) publicist/outreach coordinator.
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Assaf Gavron's Almost Dead (translated with James Lever by the author) is already on my tbr list, and I was pleased to see it reviewed favorably on the Three Percent website.
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Barbara Krasner gives a report on her recent research trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Jordana Horn reviews a "puppet show about Auschwitz." Read the review--all the way to the end.
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Looking for more weekend reading material? This week, the American Jewish Press Association announced its latest Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. You can download/read winning journalism in nearly 20 categories.

Shabbat Shalom!

Translated Poetry by Avrom Sutzkever in Hayden's Ferry Review

The current issue of Hayden's Ferry Review, a literary journal from Arizona State University, features poetry by Avrom Sutzkever (1913-2010), introduced and translated by Miri Koral. And luckily for us, this material is available online.

As Koral writes:

"The Yiddish poet and writer Avrom Sutzkever is considered to be the greatest Yiddish poet of modern times, and the greatest post-War Jewish poet. He was born in the town of Smorgon, Lithuania in 1913, near the city of Vilnius (Vilna). Vilna, the venerable center of a great flowering of Jewish cultural and intellectual life, became his enduring spiritual and creative home. Already prior to WW II, he enjoyed a well-established reputation as a member of the literary group Yung Vilna (Young Vilna).

The body of work that he then produced under hellish circumstances in the Vilna Ghetto is both rigorous lyrical poetry as well as a magnificent artistic witnessing of the systematic destruction of Jewish Vilna. During this period, at risk of death, he was instrumental in rescuing many rare Jewish books and manuscripts that were otherwise destined for nefarious ends by the Nazis. In 1943 he escaped to the partisans and then to Moscow, subsequently serving as a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

In 1947, he emigrated to Israel, where he continued his efforts to safeguard what remained of Yiddish language and culture. He founded the literary group of Yiddish writers, Yung Yisroel (Young Israel), as well as Di Goldene Keyt (The Golden Chain), the leading Yiddish literary journal, which he edited from 1949 to 1995. Sutzkever was awarded the Israel Prize in 1985, the only Yiddish poet to have received this honor. His good friend Marc Chagall was also an illustrator of Sutzkever’s poetry.

In addition to undertaking to memorialize through his oeuvre both the glories and devastations of Jewish Vilna, his many published works address a wide array of themes, including life in Israel, metaphysical and artistic inquiries, and lyrical celebrations of the natural world.

Sutzkever’s poetry in general is a challenge to translate well because of its often extraordinary musicality (sounds and cadences) and multifaceted concepts dealing with spirituality, creativity, and the ephemerality of human experience. He also is known for enriching the language of his poems with words that he coined and with those no longer in use from Old Yiddish. In other words, much of this uniqueness inherent in the original cannot help but be lost in translation. In spite of these translating challenges, English translations of Sutzkever’s poetry can be found in numerous anthologies, collected works, and in The New Yorker.

The two Sutzkever poems translated here were written in the Vilna Ghetto and have the challenge less of complex language than of keeping some of the rhythm and rhyme of the original while adhering as much as possible to the poems’ exact wording and compact power in depicting acts of spiritual resistance in inhumane situations."

To read the two poems, "A Little Flower" and "Scorched Pearls," please click here.

Notes from Around the Web (and Twitter)

There's some impressive new poetry posted on the New Vilna Review website.
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Happy Birthday to Herman Wouk (he turned 95 yesterday).
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This is a very informative article by The Jewish Week's Eric Herschthal on U.S. availability of Israeli fiction in translation. It's true that more than once, I've relied on my ability to read French to access Israeli writing when it was unavailable in English. And at the moment, I'm working on a review of a translated Israeli novel, so Herschthal's article seems especially timely and raises some particularly interesting issues for me.
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From the Religious Action Center (@theRAC): "We're hiring! Know of someone who might make the perfect RAC Press Secretary? Help us spread the word!http://rac.org/aboutrac/job/."
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On the Forward's "Sisterhood" blog, Renee Ghert-Zand writes about Katie Orenstein's Op-Ed Project.
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New Twin Cities Jewish arts resource: diaTribe.
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One of my forthcoming poems alludes to this sad piece of history, noted on the @HolocaustMuseum Twitter feed: "5/27/39: Jewish refugees on St. Louis ship are denied entry at Havana & are forced to return to Europe. C film footage: http://j.mp/dAwJSb." For that matter, a short story I wrote many years ago mentioned it, too. An unforgettable and tragic episode.

Notes from Around the Web

"Germau Mangistu (35), who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia 16 years ago, is a new star that has surfaced in the world of Hebrew short stories. Several weeks ago, he submitted a story to the annual Haaretz Hebrew short story contest and won first place. The award came as a surprise to Germau." Read more here.
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Attention, Twin Cities writers: "We're looking for film/book/theater/music writers for @TCJewfolk's new Jewish culture column. Unpaid but awesome. Hit us up." (via a retweet from @JewishPub)
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Dispatches from the International Writers Festival, Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Jerusalem.
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Nice article on PJ Library's positive impact on Jewish children's book publishing.
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Lots of super content in the current (35th anniversary) issue of Moment, and some of it is available/excerpted online: a symposium on Jewish identity (featuring the likes of authors Geraldine Brooks, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Gary Shteyngart, and others); a "guide" to Jewish American literary sites; and an interview with Lois Lowry.

Shabbat Shalom!

Learning Something New (Almost) Every Day

"Jewdayo," maintained by Jewish Currents magazine, provides a daily dose of Jewish history. Sometimes, I'm familiar with the history that's presented there. But quite often, I find myself learning something that's at least partially, if not altogether, new to me.

Such was the case when I saw today's post on the Lubeck Harbor Tragedy, which took place on May 3, 1945:

On this date in 1945, more than 7,000 survivors of Nazi concentration camps were killed by Britain’s Royal Air Force in Lubeck harbor, Germany, in a tragic case of “friendly fire.” Almost 10,000 Jews, Russian POWS, and other “enemies of the Reich” had been marched by the Germans from several concentration camps to the German Baltic coast and crowded onto three ships, which were probably scheduled to be deliberately sunk. Instead, in the course of two hours of bombing and strafing, British planes, under orders to “destroy the concentration of enemy shipping in Lubeck Bay,” killed all but a few hundred of the survivors. The incident, which took place just a day before the British accepted the surrender of all German forces in the area, was hardly acknowledged and never memorialized, and RAF records about the disaster were sealed until 2045.

I never knew. Did you?

Notes from Around the Web

For personal and other reasons, I point you this Forward article on "Holocaust Remembrance at a Distance," about the artistic and other work coming from the "Third Generation," grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. I place myself at the oldest end of this spectrum--I'm older than anyone cited as "3G" in the article--and in some ways, I suspect I don't adhere to the model sketched out here.
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Another article on the new Jewish Review of Books, this time by Mark Oppenheimer for The New York Times--and also covering Books & Culture, a Christian-focused publication.
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Some interesting job postings: The International Fellowship of Christians & Jews (Chicago) is looking for a Senior Editor, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (Rockville, Md.) seeks a Hebrew Librarian, and MyJewishLearning.com (New York City) is looking for a (paid) intern to work on a new parenting site.

Some More History Behind My Book

As I've mentioned before, the animating spirits behind my forthcoming story collection, Quiet Americans, are my paternal grandparents, Jews who left Germany in the late 1930s. What seems to surprise some people is that rather than having immigrated to the United States together, my grandparents met and married here in New York. This photograph was taken at their wedding in January 1941. The bridal couple is toward the right side of the photo: Grandma is wearing a corsage and Grandpa is touching her shoulders.

I'm not sure when I started to imagine some of the emotions of that wedding day. Given the engagements and weddings I've seen in my lifetime, and given our own family's closeness, it was, and remains, very hard for me to envision a wedding where not only are no parents of the bridal couple present, but none have even met or spoken with their child's spouse.

But that was my grandparents' situation. My grandmother had left her parents behind in Germany; they were eventually able to immigrate to South America and join her brother there. My grandfather's biological parents were both long dead by the time my grandfather reached adulthood, and the woman he called mother was trapped in Europe (soon after this photo was taken, however, she did manage to get to New York, where she moved in with the newlyweds).

Not all of this has made its way into the book (some of it, frankly, seems more apparent in my abandoned novel). But now that you are sharing this pre-publication journey with me, I wanted to introduce you a little more fully to two of the "real" people behind Quiet Americans.

P.S. On the far left side of the photo you will see Rabbi Herbert Parzen, who officiated at the wedding (he also performed my parents' wedding ceremony 25 years later). Rabbi Parzen was himself married to one of my grandmother's American-born cousins--Sylvia--who was instrumental in helping to arrange my grandmother's immigration. Part of "Uncle Herbert"'s rabbinic life was dedicated to serving as a chaplain for Jewish prisoners in New York. Which may be why this call for Judaica items from Jewish Prisoner Services International, which I discovered via the Association of Jewish Libraries just last week, has resonated with me. My family and I will be checking our own collections to see what we can donate. Perhaps some of you can, too.

Notes from Around the Web

Thank you, Josh Lambert, for telling us about new translated fiction from Israel.
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And thanks to Naomi Firestone for sharing more information about the new Dalkey Archive Press series of translations of Hebrew literature to which one title Lambert mentions (Eshkol Nevo's Homesick, translated by Sondra Silverston) belongs.
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Speaking of translation, reviewers of literature written in Hebrew (as well as in other languages) will be happy to learn that Massachusetts Review is amplifying its translation content--and adding a new annual translation award: the Jules Chametzsky Prize in Literary Translation.
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Reviewer Margot Lurie finds David Lehman's latest poetry collection, Yeshiva Boys, "at times excellent and at times conspicuously bad, but always unfailingly interesting," and calls the long title poem the book's "beating heart."
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Finally if you have access to PBS this evening, try to catch Blessed is the Match, a remarkable film about poet-diarist-heroine Hannah Senesh. (If you're in Boston, though, you have a tempting option: novelists Anita Diamant and Jennifer Gilmore will be reading from their books at Brandeis in an event titled "The Personal and the Political: Historical Fiction and the Jewish Experience.")

On Yom HaShoah

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. And, as is customary this time of year, the Jewish press has been offering us a great deal of Holocaust-related material to read and consider. For me, one of this year's most important contributions is The Jewish Week's article (by staff writer Steve Lipman) on financially needy Holocaust survivors.

"On the streets of Jerusalem, their plight is well chronicled, and even debated in the corridors of power in the Knesset. It is a well-told story across Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union, too, where a frayed social safety net affords little protection.

But here in New York, probably the world’s wealthiest Jewish community, the story of needy Holocaust survivors exists beyond the media’s glare. The overall level of Jewish poverty here — exacerbated by the economic downturn — has come into much sharper relief of late in the wider Jewish community. Soup kitchens have opened, UJA-Federation has launched a major recession-fighting initiative and reports have trumpeted unprecedented numbers of Jews living a paycheck or two from financial ruin.

Yet the plight of Shoah survivors — most of them in Brooklyn — struggling to eke out an existence remains stubbornly out of view. 'It is a totally unknown problem,” says Louise Greilsheimer, senior vice president for agency and external relations at UJA-Federation.'"

Well, for my family, it isn't an entirely unknown problem. We have supported The Blue Card, one of the resource organizations cited alongside the article, for years. My sister has served on The Blue Card's board. As I've mentioned, I plan to donate portions of proceeds from the sale of my story collection, Quiet Americans, to The Blue Card, too.

But there is so much need. This article just reminded me. Whether you're also being reminded, or you're learning about the plight of these elderly people for the first time, won't you please consider, today, contributing to one of the organizations mentioned by The Jewish Week?

"The Conference on Material Jewish Claims against Germany ([646] 536-9100; claimscon.org) funds more than 100 Jewish organizations, primarily Jewish family and children’s service agencies, in more than 20 states.

In the last decade, the Claims Conference came under attack from survivors, who complained about its lack of transparency and accountability, and its funding of educational programs at the expense of survivors’ immediate needs. In response to the criticisms, the Claims Conference has changed many of its operating procedures, decreasing the amount of its annual grants to educational projects from 20 percent to about 13 percent.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty ([212] 453-9500; metcouncil.org) coordinates services for survivors provided by a local network of Jewish community councils and other agencies. These services include kosher food programs, minor home repairs, transportation and home care.

The Blue Card ([212] 239-2251; bluecardfund.org) was founded to assist indigent refugees from Nazi Europe and now provides modest stipends to nearly 1,900 indigent survivors each month, 80 percent in the New York area.

Selfhelp Community Services ([866] 735-1234; selfhelp.net) is the largest provider of services to survivors in North America, offering 'enhanced case management services' for home health care, guardianship and financial management, and assistance accessing benefits and government entitlements.

iVolunteer, ([646] 461-7748; ivolunteerny.com) coordinates a visitation-companionship program for survivors.

The New York Legal Assistance Group ([212]613-5000; nylag.org) has a Holocaust Compensation Assistance Program that helps survivors obtain legal information about various benefits.

The Project for Holocaust Survivors of the Bikur Cholim of Boro Park ([718] 438-2020; info@bikurcholimbp.com) has a special outreach to childless survivors.

Project Dorot ([212]769-2850; dorotusa.org) on the Upper West Side and Project Ezra ([212]982-4124; projectezra.org) on the Lower East Side number several Holocaust survivors among their elderly clients."

Thank you.

Elie Wiesel on Writing and Anger

"All my writing was born out of anger. In order to contain it, I had to write. If I had not written, I would have exploded." - Elie Wiesel

via The Paris Review (on Twitter)

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.

Anita Diamant and Elinor Lipman to Discuss Diamant's Day After Night

Recently received via e-mail from JBooks.com:

Dear Readers,

Bestselling author Anita Diamant recently published a novel called Day After Night. Bestselling novelist Elinor Lipman read it, loved it, and promptly emailed Diamant to express her enthusiasm. Now JBooks.com and Peet's Coffee & Tea have arranged for the two writers to continue the conversation, in person, at the Peet's store in Newton Centre, Mass., on April 8. The conversation will last from 7-8 p.m. You're invited to eavesdrop as these two talented writers talk shop—with no critics or editors or academics to get in the way. Seating is extremely limited, so click here, right now, to register.

Address: 776 Beacon Street
Store phone number: 617.244.1577

Happy reading,
Ken Gordon, Editor, JBooks.com

I recently read Day After Night, myself, and would love to attend this event...if I still lived in the Boston area.

Notes from Around the Web

Poet Anne Whitehouse returns to Poetica's JWorld Cafe blog to discuss a Holocaust-related poem in her collection, Blessings and Curses.
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At the CUNY Graduate Center on March 4: Leon Wieseltier.
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The Boston Globe profiles Harold Grinspoon, the philanthropist behind the PJ Library, which provides books to Jewish children at no cost.

Notes from Around the Web

Over on Poetica magazine's blog, poet Anne Whitehouse describes the genesis of a poem written in the voice of a Holocaust survivor.
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As usual, David Harris gets it right.
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On the Lilith blog, a list of Jewish organizations participating in Haitian relief efforts.
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If you're a writer, you've probably seen only celebratory remarks (like these) circulating within literary circles about the State Department's decision to allow Tariq Ramadan to enter the U.S. Paul Berman has some other views, and shares them with Tablet.

JBC Announces Next Selection for Twitter Book Club

I wish I'd been able to post a bit more this past week, but I've been battling what appears to be the flu. One online discovery does have me feeling better: The Jewish Book Council has announced the next title for its Twitter Book Club.

The chosen book is Chris Bohjalian's Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel. The Twitter discussion is slated for Thursday, February 25, 2010, starting at 12:30 p.m. EST. The author will be participating.

For more information about the book and the event, please visit the Jewish Book Council .

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.