American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide

C. Bibliographic Resources

American Jewish Fiction the United States, in more recent novels such as Razia Ben-Gurion’s Netishah [Abandonment] (1987), Maya Arad’s Sheva Midot Ra’ot [Seven moral failings] (2006), and Ayelet Ben-Ziv’s Ya’efet [Jetlag] (2006). Assaf Gavron’s Moving (2003), another contemporary example, features a few undocumented Israelis working as furniture movers in New York and is now being made into a film; its author has translated Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels into Hebrew. David Ehrlich deals with life in the United States in a few of the stories in his Ha-Bekarim shel Shelishi va Khamishi [Tuesday and Thursday mornings] (1999) and Kahol 18 [Blue 18] (2003), while the most popular of the younger generation of Israeli fiction writers, Etgar Keret, has also set a few of his stunning, imaginative short pieces in America. Some of these are available in English translation in his collections The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God (2004), The Nimrod Flipout (2006), and The Girl on the Fridge (2008). C. Bibliographic Resources The following bibliographies and historical surveys of American Jewish fiction and literature provide vast amounts of information on the subject. Some of them are specialized and expensive resources designed for librarians, and a few are nearly impossible to find these days; but they will be useful to readers searching for information on an author not discussed here, or for an alternatively organized overview of the field. Ask a local librarian if you are having trouble finding these works, which are listed here chronologically, oldest to newest. David Philipson, The Jew in English Fiction (1918). Joseph Mersand, Tradition in American Literature: A Study of Jewish Characters and Authors (1939). Meyer Waxman, A History of Jewish Literature (volume 5, 1960). Harold U. Ribalow, 120 American Jewish Novels (1962). Sol Liptzin, The Jew in American Literature (1966). Sol Liptzin, A History of Yiddish Literature (1972). Louis Harap, The Image of the Jew in American Literature: From Early Republic to Mass Immigration (1974). Ira Nadel, Jewish Writers of North America: A Guide to Information Sources (1981). Lewis Fried, Jules Chametzky, Gene Brown, and Louis Harap, Handbook of American-Jewish Literature (1988). Gloria Cronin, Jewish American Fiction Writers: An Annotated Bibliography (1991). Jules Chametzky, John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum, and Kathryn Hellerstein, Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001). 174 Hana Wirth-Nesher and Michael P. Kramer, The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature (2003). Rosalind Reisner, Jewish American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests (2004). Derek Parker Royal, “Contemporary Jewish American Narrative: A Selected Bibliography,” Shofar 22:3 (spring 2004). D. Anthologies Give American Jews a printing press and, sooner or later, they’ll give you back an anthology. It makes sense: Jews pray in a minyan, so why not publish 10—or 20, or 45—writers at once, too? Anthologies allow fields to be defined, authors to be celebrated, and readers to feel like they’re getting a bargain, so they’re a good deal for just about everybody involved. As it turns out, an interested reader can learn a lot about American Jewish fiction and its changing nature simply by sifting through anthologies from different decades—and by paying close, if skeptical, attention to the polemical statements that often serve as introductions to these collections. The following chronological list cannot claim to be completely comprehensive, but it offers a relatively large selection of American Jewish fiction anthologies, including some worthwhile anthologies that are more specialized as well as several that are broader in scope. Each includes at least a little American Jewish fiction. Joseph Leftwich, Yisroel: The First Jewish Omnibus (1933). Leo W. Schwarz, The Jewish Caravan: Great Stories of Twenty-Five Centuries (1935); reprinted with additions (1965). Leo W. Schwarz, A Golden Treasury of Jewish Literature (1937). Harold U. Ribalow, This Land, These People (1950). Harold U. Ribalow, These Your Children (1952). Leo W. Schwarz, Feast of Leviathan: Tales of Adventure, Faith, and Love from Jewish Literature (1956). Harold U. Ribalow, A Treasury of American Jewish Stories (1958). Harold U. Ribalow, The Chosen (1959). Henry Goodman, The New Country: Stories from the Yiddish about Life in America (1961); abridged edition (2001). Saul Bellow, Great Jewish Short Stories (1963). Irving Malin and Irwin Stark, Breakthrough: A Treasury of Contemporary American Jewish Literature (1964). 175 Appendix D ...