“‘New Jews’ stake claim to faith, culture”

Posted by Naomi Firestone

CNN looks at the “New Jews”:

Meet the “New Jews,” as some call them: pockets of post-baby boomers — or more accurately Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y) Jews — who are making one of the world’s oldest known monotheistic faiths and its culture work for them and others in a time when, more than ever, affiliation is a choice.

Read the full article here.

Check out some of the great organizations mentioned in this article:

Jumpstart

PunkTorah

Mechon Hadar

Limmud

Wilderness Torah

Jewish Milestones

American Jewish World Service

J Street

Zeek

Heeb

G-dcast

JDub Records

Jewcy

Tattoo Jew

Tamar Yellin on Jewcy

Posted Naomi Firestone

Our first Sami Rohr Prize winner, Tamar Yellin, author of The Genizah at the House of Shepher and Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes, blogs for Jewcy all week:

Hunting the Tribes

Perpetual Longing and the Wandering Jew

You Write What You Read

Perec and Kabbalah

Posted by Naomi Firestone

Joshua Cohen of TabletMag looks at the relationship between Georges Perec, whose 1978 Life: A User’s Manual was just republished by Godine and translated by David Bellos, and Kabbalah. Read the article here.

Irina Reyn wins the Goldberg Prize

Posted by Naomi Firestone

A belated congratulations to Irina Reyn, who just won the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for her 2008 book, What Happened to Anna K (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster).

For those of you who don’t know about the Goldberg prize:

Established in 1999 and supported through a generous grant from the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers is among the very first of its kind to highlight new works by contemporary writers exploring Jewish themes.

Irina Reyn, photo (c) Amy C. Elliott

The prize spotlights promising new talent, and is awarded to an American fiction writer for a first or second full-length work that was published in the previous calendar year. Submissions must be made by the publisher.

The award includes a prize of $2,500, as well as a one-week residency at Ledig House International Writers Colony in New York’s Hudson Valley.

More information about this award can be found on the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s website.

Read some of Irina’s work online here.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Posted by Naomi Firestone

Be your favorite literary hero and win a Sony Reader Pocket Edition ebook reader! Omnilit has just launched a Halloween Costume Contest and you can check out more information (and the rules) here: http://www.omnilit.com/contest.html