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High Holiday Reading from Tablet

A preview of what’s to come over the next few weeks

by
Mark Oppenheimer
September 22, 2014
Tablet Magazine
Tablet Magazine
Tablet Magazine
Tablet Magazine

A Jewish woman of my acquaintance once described the women’s gallery of her Orthodox synagogue during the High Holidays as practicing a Music Man kind of Judaism: “pray-a-little, talk-a-little, pray-a-little, talk-a-little.”

Here at Tablet, the universe’s leading source for Jewish news and politics, arts and culture, and life and religion, we encourage a different version, what one might call pray-a-little, read-a-little, pray-a-little, read-a-little. That is, if and when you are not in synagogue, and as your observance permits, take the opportunity to practice your Judaism by reading the amazing stuff that Tablet is running this High Holiday season.

And seriously—it’s amazing.

Over the next couple weeks, we will be offering another installment of the Israeli version of This American Life; a new translation of a story by the late, great Israeli author S.Y. Agnon (plus an essay on the challenges and rewards of Hebrew translation); and a provocative new essay on Jewish feminism by Anne Roiphe (in which she names some familiar names, and generally stirs the pot).

We’ll be re-running, all at once, Marc Weitzmann’s extraordinary five-part series about anti-Semitism in France.

And did we mention a new essay by Etgar Keret? Or the essay about how a mother’s death changed a woman’s attitude toward Yom Kippur prayer? Or an amazing tale of searching for community among the hipsters and Hasids of Crown Heights?

As the New Year approaches, we wish you a warm, enriching, wise, and intelligent community of real-life people. But online—you already have one. Thanks for reading Tablet, and please stick with us in 5775.

Mark Oppenheimer is a Senior Editor at Tablet. He hosts the podcast Unorthodox. He has contributed to Slate and Mother Jones, among many other publications. He is the author, most recently, of Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood. He will be hosting a discussion forum about this article on his newsletter, where you can subscribe for free and submit comments.