Tuesday, September 25, 2007

After the Flood

My Jewish home base, the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, has been in temporary digs for about a year now, while our new building gets built. Our library was boxed up and put into storage--and, sadly, during the storms that marked this summer here in Chicago, most of the library was destroyed. (Who by water? Now we know.)

Our librarian has asked me to give her a wish list for the poetry section, and for the library more generally: anthologies, single author texts, works of criticism, you name it. I'm passing the question along to you, my colleagues and friends. In the best of all possible worlds, what should we buy? In this world, what should our priorities be?

I'll post my own list as I draw it up--but I'm eager to see what your lists would look like, so send them along, one by one, two by two, or by the dozens!

To thank you (in advance), this, by the Idan Raichel Project:



Out of the depths...

1 comment:

Dinah Berland said...

Gorgeous music! Thank you for introducing me to this amazing group of artists.

If I may be so bold as to offer my own book as a suggestion for your library ... "Hours of Devotion: Fanny Neuda's Book of Prayers for Jewish Women" has just been published by Schocken Books. It's my verse adaptation of the first full-length book of Jewish prayers for all occasions to be written by a woman for women. Published in German in 1855, it was published in 28 editions up to 1918 and translated into Yiddish and English. I've worked with a translator to bring the prayers into English and made them into poems. You'll find more about it on my website, dinahberland.com, on Amazon.com, and in the Sept. 14 issue of the Forward, and the Sept. 14-27 issue of the Chicago Jewish Star. Thanks so much for taking a look!

Chag Sameach & Shabbat Shalom,
Dinah Berland