Publication party
Last night Naomi and I went to a party to celebrate the publication of the book "All of our lives: an anthology of contemporary Jewish writing" by Targum Press (in English), at the home of the editor, Sarah Shapiro, in Jerusalem. Apart from the obvious pleasure of seeing one's name in print, with my story "The East End of London," this event was quite unique for me, because Sarah lives in an ultra-orthodox (haredi) neighborhood of Jerusalem, and to my surprise, I was the only man at the gathering, and not only that, all the other other participants (ca. 25) were haredi women! I was certainly the odd man out, and it was unusual to be the minority in a room-full of women from another culture.
Nevertheless, we are all Jewish and my memoir fits in well with the themes of the book. Sarah Shapiro is an experienced editor who has produced four such books previously with the titles, "Our lives," 'More of our lives," etc., that had been entirely devoted to the writing of Jewish women (I had bought two of them for my daughter when she was a student). Now they have added some men (ca. 10%) to the contributors, including me. In reading the works one would not be aware of the tremendous cultural difference between me and most of the other contributors.
Nevertheless, I found the ladies charming and interesting. I was surprised that several of them seemed to have read my story and complimented me on it. I realized that the mere act of writing was for most of them a means of expression and escape from the reality of their lives, not very different from my own motivations. But, two things stood out for me, the tremendous change where women now come to dominate certain areas of writing and publishing, and the use by many of them of pseudonyms. Why this need to avoid personal responsibility for their work? Perhaps the reasons are obvious.
It was clear to me that Sarah Shapiro, in her creative writing classes and in her editing, has catalyzed a means of expression for an otherwise stifled and little known group, and I am proud to be included with them. I don't suggest that you run out and buy this book, but I think it would be quite an eye-opener for many of you to read the stories contained within.
Nevertheless, we are all Jewish and my memoir fits in well with the themes of the book. Sarah Shapiro is an experienced editor who has produced four such books previously with the titles, "Our lives," 'More of our lives," etc., that had been entirely devoted to the writing of Jewish women (I had bought two of them for my daughter when she was a student). Now they have added some men (ca. 10%) to the contributors, including me. In reading the works one would not be aware of the tremendous cultural difference between me and most of the other contributors.
Nevertheless, I found the ladies charming and interesting. I was surprised that several of them seemed to have read my story and complimented me on it. I realized that the mere act of writing was for most of them a means of expression and escape from the reality of their lives, not very different from my own motivations. But, two things stood out for me, the tremendous change where women now come to dominate certain areas of writing and publishing, and the use by many of them of pseudonyms. Why this need to avoid personal responsibility for their work? Perhaps the reasons are obvious.
It was clear to me that Sarah Shapiro, in her creative writing classes and in her editing, has catalyzed a means of expression for an otherwise stifled and little known group, and I am proud to be included with them. I don't suggest that you run out and buy this book, but I think it would be quite an eye-opener for many of you to read the stories contained within.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:54 PM
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