The Newsletter of Fig Tree Books LLC
April, 2021: Issue #17
Fredric D. Price, Founder & Publisher
OUR MISSION: Fig Tree Lit is the Newsletter of Fig Tree Books LLC. Like our books, we aim to cover the dynamic American Jewish experience.

Tell us what you think; we're eager to hear what you have to say at Info@FigTreeBooks.net.
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

JEWS OF DIFFERENT HUES: We simply feel forgotten about: 9 Asian American Jews speak

CHAPTER FROM AN UNPUBLISHED NOVEL: Solomon Kursh by Robert Wintner

COMING SOON TO FIG TREE BOOKS (MAY 4, 2021): Jacobo's Rainbow - A new novel by David Hirshberg

CHAPTER FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MEMOIR: Arieh Paz by Art Feinglass

ESSAY: American Israeli by Ilan Chaim

POETRY: Amen, by Shelley Saposnik from the JLJ

MY JEWISH YEAR: Yom Hashoah, by Abigail Pogrebin

BLOG: Now with commentary on culture/current events, plus mini-reviews of books

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: Woody Guthrie's song in Yiddish
COMING SOON TO FIG TREE BOOKS (MAY4, 2021): Jacobo's Rainbow - A new novel by David Hirshberg
Prologue:

It seems as if anniversaries have a way of letting spirits loose, and they don’t respect boundaries any more than viruses do, so the only way to fool yourself into thinking you can control them is to make others believe that they can see them as well. A conjurer uses sleights-of-hand, feints, and misdirections, which can succeed because you’re willing to suspend visual disbelief. However, an author only has one dimension to work with, as well as a disconnected audience, which can be a disadvantage. But on the other hand, there’s no one to say that what you’re reading is false. 
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of a momentous event in my life - the day I was sent to jail. It’s the obvious time for me now to tell my story. My guess is that you’re going to believe this is fiction; that would be a delusion.
Jacobo Toledano
Arroyo Grande, New Mexico
June 10, 1980

David Hirshberg is the author of the multiple award-winning novel My Mother's Son (2018). He has published four short stories, one of which is the winner of a Hackney Award. You can read more about Jacobo's Rainbow at: https://amzn.to/2WjcJBu.
CHAPTER FROM AN UNPUBLISHED NOVEL:
Solomon Kursh by Robert Wintner

Solomon Kursh follows a young Jew in Chicago, in the late 60’s, as he drifts from the Jewish fold to new stimuli. His old Bubbi lingers in her admonition: “You can change your noses, but you can’t change your noses.” Recalling her strange ways and odd, obscure speech patterns, he chuckles, until the Jewish question comes home to roost. Stanley Sokolov becomes Solomon Kursh at the behest of his guru, a man with charismatic charm and a thick accent. Solomon rises in the ranks of The Hima Luja Temple for the Sanctity of Souls Having Fun, until a truth emerges and demands reconciliation.

Robert Wintner’s short fiction has appeared in Hawaii Review (University of Hawaii) and Sports Illustrated. His historical novel, In a Sweet Magnolia Time was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Faulkner Award. Los Angeles production companies optioned his sailing novel Whirlaway and the motorcycle adventure The Modern Outlaws for film rights. Solomon Kursh is Wintner’s fifteenth novel. 
ESSAY: American Israeli by Ilan Chaim

"American Israeli: An answer to existential questions of identity - opinion. Do I accept my birth identity as given, or do I choose my own access to Jewish history? I didn’t choose to be born in America."
JEWS OF DIFFERENT HUES: "We simply feel forgotten about:" 9 Asian American Jews speak

Weary colleagues in Jewish community ask if they really have to champion everyone under attack. They say, “We have been asked to show up for black and brown communities, and now Asians too?”
CHAPTER FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MEMOIR:
Kibbutz Stories by Art Feinglass

"Arieh Paz, formerly Leon Gold, of Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, considered himself in the jeep mirror. He fingered his moustache, pushed his cova temble kibbutz cap back on his head, opened his shirt another button and rolled his sleeves up one more fold on his thin arms. Only a year in the country, he thought proudly, and already I look like an Israeli. He put the jeep into first gear and drove out the gate of the kibbutz."

After working in the civil rights movement in Mississippi and hitchhiking and hopping freight trains across America Art Feinglass decided to give life on a kibbutz a try.  During his eight years as a member of Kibbutz Lahav in Israel’s Negev desert he became an Israeli citizen, served in the Israeli Army during the Yom Kippur War and was one of the first graduates of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. After leaving Israel he worked for several major American Jewish organizations and launched two successful commercial theater companies while raising his daughters as a single father. More recently he founded and is currently artistic director of the Seattle Jewish Theater Company, now in its tenth year.  He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild Playwrights Group.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: Woody Guthrie's song in Yiddish
MY JEWISH YEAR: Yom Hashoah, Chapter 18
"Each student walks onstage holding the hand of the survivor whose biography he or she will recount. It is an unspoken promise from the child to the elder: I will tell your story. We are holding on—not just to history, but to you.

"I am at the JCC in Manhattan at a performance called Witness
Theater on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ten kids from two schools—Abraham Joshua Heschel and Trinity—have partnered with seven Holocaust survivors to dramatize their stories after months of interviews."
BLOG: Now with commentary on culture/current events, plus mini-reviews of books not published by Fig Tree Books

CLICK on the BLOG image to READ, REPLY to what we've written, COMPOSE something on your own about the state of literature (Jewish or otherwise), book publishing in general, culture & current events, or a specific book that you want to let others know about. And to SIGN UP, so you don't have to wait to read our blogs once
a month when Fig Tree Lit is published.