Resist Anti-Semitism with Literature

My Favorite Jewish-American Writers that You May Want to Read or Reread

Along with Islamophobia, anti-Semitism is on the rise.

Last week, a mob came to Russia’s Dagestan airport to find and terrorize Jewish passengers flying in from Tel Aviv. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, there has been a 388 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States over the past year that has exacerbated since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians in its October 7 terrorist attack. Voice of America published an article in early October noting anti-Semitism is increasing around the world as well.

Last Friday, former U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the Obama Foundation’s “Democracy Forum” about the Israel-Gaza war and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict in addition to artificial intelligence's uses for protecting global democracy. He also addressed that a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism has followed and used his dialectical thinking to show empathy and validation toward Israelis who were killed and terrorized from Hamas’s attack and the Israeli government’s extreme response on Gaza that has now killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. Obama acknowledged that emotions are heightened on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the “carnage . . . .“force[s] a moral reckoning on all of us.”

I have Muslim and Jewish friends, and my heart aches for them more than ever. Many of my students are Muslim and Jewish. The Arab-Israeli Conflict and its history are complex. All I have ever wanted for Palestine and Israel are peace, respect and community. Judaism and Islam are both Abrahamic faiths like Christianity. If you would like an introduction to the history of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, I’ve included a fine documentary to start with below.

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As a literary artist, writer and educator whose temperament is not made for and joy is not found in international relations, I turn to art and literature to help me cope in our violent world. A few weeks ago I sent a BLUESTOCKING BOMBSHELLS post for my paid subscribers covering some Israeli and Palestinian writers to check out. Today I wanted to share with you my favorite Jewish-American authors.

Art and literature are forms of resistance toward violence, and I hope providing some more writers to my readers can add to that resistance and lead to a more peaceful and just world.