June 2025: Thank you, two powerful pieces, and wishes for a chag sameach
Writing, reading, resources and recipes + an update from day 604
Dear friends,
I hope you’ve had a decent month on a personal level and are managing to hold onto some shreds of hope and light, despite the state of the world. More on that later. May the month of June bring us better news. Scroll down your monthly dose of book reviews, upcoming literary events, a story, recipes, and an update from my corner of Israel.
Brief writing update: I continue to work on new scenes (by hand) for my novel-in-progress. I haven’t outlined anything so I’m writing things out of order, as they come to me, sometimes starting a scene from a prompt. As the novel is inspired by the lives of actual people in my family (background here), none of whom I actually knew, I’m doing a lot of research - and have much more to go - to try to remain true to their lives and times.
In parallel, I’m continuing to search for an agent while submitting stories to literary journals for the sister volume to The Book of Jeremiah, tentatively titled LOVE IN ALL ITS FORMS. Wish me luck! This leads me to…
Some nice news: My story, “Rites of Passage” was accepted for publication in Of the Book, a relatively new publication that emerged in the aftermath of October 7 to amplify Jewish voices in an increasingly hostile world. Together with my nice news from last month (an acceptance for the story “Baby Face” by Eleventh Hour Literary), I’ll have two new stories coming out in June, both from the new book, and I can’t wait to share them with you!
Thank you: Thanks to those who saw the call in last month’s newsletter to donate to the Rahat Sustainability Center in memory of Hayim Katsman z"l. While I never knew Hayim, he stood for many of the things I believe in, and I was grateful for the opportunity to do something positive in his memory and to support a project that fosters tolerance, dialogue and sustainability. The campaign remains open and you can still donate here.
Recommended Reading
I’m up to 36 books for the year. Here are this month’s recommendations:
The Right to Happiness by Helen Schary Motro: The Right to Happiness is a powerful new addition to the Holocaust and post-Holocaust literary cannon. Helen writes with compassion, nuance, and clear-eyed realism about the lives of these (fictional) survivors/refugees and their descendants. I especially liked the title story, which is almost more like a novella...in which Hilda, a German Jewish refugee who has never particularly participated in religious or cultural Jewish life and has never been to Israel finds herself paralyzed with apprehension in the lead-up to the Six Day War. Helen writes with great empathy for her characters, both the survivors or refugees trying to rebuild or reinvent themselves and their American children seeking to understand their parents. Highly recommend! (Listen to Helen discuss her book at May’s Literary Modiin event).
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits: The English version of this book came out in 2021 to many accolades - winner of the Wingate Literary Prize, a finalist for a National Jewish Book award, to name a few - but I only got around to reading it now. Set in the Pale of Settlement in the late 19th century, it follows two sisters: Mende, the dutiful one, abandoned by her philosopher husband and left to care for their children and difficult in-laws; and Fanny, the rebellious younger sister, once trained as a ritual slaughterer and known as a vilde chaya (the wild animal). After Mende suffers a breakdown, Fanny leaves her own family to track down the wayward husband, joined by the mute, mysterious ferryman Zizek Breshov. Their journey quickly spirals into a tale of murder, betrayal, and entanglements with the czar’s army and the Russian secret police. This is a rollicky, witty, fast-paced family saga, written with great creativity. As A. D. Miller, the judge of the Wingate Prize, wrote, “Technicolor characters, echoes of Yiddish and Russian literature, dark humor, a feminist heroine, a rich evocation of a vanished world and sly commentary on relations between Jews and gentiles—from a brilliant shortlist, this superb novel was a worthy winner.” Highly recommended.
The Inhabitants by Beth Castrodale: Beth Castrodale runs a small website called Small Press Picks, which I try to visit regularly to get recommendations, and on a recent visit I saw that Beth has a new book out, which I promptly ordered to the next person coming to visit. Nilda Ricca is a portrait artist who has recently lost her mother and her relationship when she inherits an unusual Victorian house in Vermont, the perfect place to move to with her young daughter. But the house comes with baggage: the original architect whose works were said to influence the mind; a helpful but mysterious housekeeper, and a handsome chemist for a neighbor who plies Nilda with herbal tonics to boost her creativity. Plus, the subject of Nilda’s latest portrait commission is not someone she’d like to glorify once she learns the truth about him. Things around the house get pretty spooky, and it’s not always easy for Nilda to understand what is real and what is imagined. As Chauna Craig wrote in her blurb: “Take the classic Gothic element of a spooky old house, add a dash of modern #MeToo seasoning, and let everything simmer in the warmth of timeless maternal love, and you have Beth Castrodale's deliciously clever new novel.” Between the physical details and magic potions, the otherworldly elements with contemporary challenges, this ghost story was an enjoyable, fun read.
Events
I’m excited for Literary Modiin’s June event - Sunday, June 22 at 20:00 Israel time / 1 pm Eastern - on Zoom - featuring Danny Goodman (AMERIKALAND), Margot Singer (SECRET AGENT MAN), and Emanuela Barasch Rubinstein (INTIMATE SOLITUDE). Register here:
Another event to put on your radar (and attend, if you’re in Israel): the Shaindy Rudoff Memorial Lecture at Bar Ilan University on Tuesday June 10, featuring Benjamin Balint and Oren Kessler in conversation with Ilana Blumberg - all three past winners of the Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature. No need to register, just come!
Department of Mazal Tovs
Speaking of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, mazal tov to this year’s winner, Sasha Vasilyuk, author of YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY, and finalists Janice Weizman (OUR LITTLE HISTORIES), Benjamin Resnick (NEXT STOP), and Toby Lloyd (FERVOR). Literary Modiin is pleased to have hosted three out of the four! (Click on their names to view the recordings).
Essay and Story of the Month
A double header this month, as there were two pieces I’d like to feature.
Claire Sufrin’s powerful, personal essay My Jewish family is proof that hope is worth mustering after terror cuts young lives short (JTA) came out last week in the wake of the heinous murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington DC. It’s an important lesson in hope and resilience. Please read.
On a different note, I recently came across Swans by Amy Stuber in Short Story, Long, and it does what all good fiction should, getting me to identify and care about the protagonist (though I'm quite far from being a 6'5" basketball player from Kansas), with a gut-punch of an ending. An excellent story, perfect in its pacing and voice.
Recipe of the Month: Alon’s Cinnabons
Welcome to the near end of the newsletter where you are rewarded with a yummy recipe. In a few hours, we will celebrate Shavuot…last year around Purim time, there was an effort to collect the favorite recipes of our hostages. The website Tastes Like Home hasn’t been updated in a while, but I went there to look for a recipe. Thankfully, many of the faces you’ll see on this site have returned to their families, but many others have been killed in captivity. Alon Ohel is one of the 58 remaining hostages, thought to be alive, but - as we know from Eli Sharabi - in serious distress and worsening medical condition. Alon’s favorite dessert is cinnabons, which might be mine as well. This recipe is courtesy of pastry chef Yaniv Tamari. Read more about Alon here. May this be the last holiday that Alon and the others are in captivity.
Ingredients
380 grams of bread flour
8 grams of salt
20 grams of fresh yeast
45 grams of sugar
200 grams of eggs
30 grams of milk
190 grams of cold butter cut into cubes
For the filling:
300 grams of sugar
30 grams of cinnamon
140 grams of soft butter
Sugar syrup:
100 grams of water
100 grams of sugar
Royal Icing Cheese:
100 grams of soft butter
150 grams of powdered sugar
150 grams of cream cheese
Put all the ingredients except the butter in a mixer with a kneading hook and mix for about 15 minutes at low speed, then increase for 2 minutes at high speed. Add the butter gradually to the dough until fully combined. Spread gently on a covered tray and put in the fridge for 12 hours.
Preparation of the filling: Mix all the ingredients together.
Roll the cold dough into a rectangle 50 cm long and 40 cm wide, spread the filling and roll from the long side. Put in the freezer for about 20 minutes and cut into spirals about 2 cm thick. Arrange densely in a rectangular mold, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour until the volume doubles. Put in an oven preheated to 160 degrees for about 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and immediately soak in sugar syrup.
Prepare the royal icing cheese: Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the Cinnabon while it is still warm to the touch.
Israel Update
So much happens so quickly here. Things I thought I’d definitely write about at the beginning of the month are by now old news. There was and is joy at seeing Edan Alexander reunited with his family but nearly everyone I know, no matter their political stance, felt a deep and sinking dismay at the way in which it was done. Daniel Gordis covered this very well in his May 13 post “Don't send your kid to the army without a second passport." Heart-filled joy for Edan Alexander can't lighten the heavy hearts.....
What remains - on this holiday eve - day 604 - is that 58 hostages remain in captivity. Calls to end the war are increasing, but I don’t know how effective they will be. What will finally get us out of the impasse? I don’t know. A friend told me she exists with “90% blinders” on. Many more tell me they can’t watch or follow the news, and I only do to a very limited extent.
Instead of social media, I try to fill my head with images of this beautiful country and the people who are trying to help. We’ve had a spate of visits from abroad - my father-in-law, my niece, other cousins - and next month we’re looking forward to several friends visiting. I take many of them volunteering with me. My new favorite agricultural volunteering (sorry, avocados) is picking mulberries, which is relaxing and yummy. I went this morning for my second time. (In fact, we bumped into a very famous Israeli there who did not want to be bothered, so we didn’t, though I gave his wife a tip on how to best collect the mulberries). Other things I’ve done in the last month: picking cherry tomatoes in the Gaza Envelope, preparing leeks for sale, and packaging brussel sprouts.
I’m short on time (and now the Houthis have set me back 10 minutes…I’m typing this in my safe room, a frequent occurrence these days), and I want to get this out before the holiday, so I’ll leave you with a few images from my month. Please excuse any typos or incomplete sentences!
Until next time, b’sorot tovot. May we soon see all our hostages returned home, and may we merit peace and dignity for everyone in this region. Chag sameach and Am Yisrael Chai.
A small way to support my work: Since June 2019, I’ve hosted the monthly Literary Modiin author series, and since April 2020, I’ve been putting out this monthly newsletter. Both represent a significant amount of effort for me, but I love talking about books and promoting other authors, and I’m committed to keeping both of these things FREE for all. I do incur some expenses to keep these up, however, so if you have enjoyed the Literary Modiin events and/or if you enjoy the newsletter or both, and you’d like to support my work in some small, tangible way, I’d be grateful if you’d click on the “Buy Me a Coffee” link below. (If you can’t, that’s fine too)! I appreciate your continued support for these events, book recommendations and my literary musings.
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Julie Zuckerman's debut novel-in-stories, The Book of Jeremiah, was published in May 2019 by Press 53. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in CRAFT, Tikkun, Jewish Women’s Archives, Crab Orchard Review, The Coil, The SFWP Quarterly, Ellipsis, MoonPark Review, Sixfold, and The MacGuffin, among others. She is the founder and host of Literary Modiin, a monthly author series celebrating fiction, memoir and poetry with Jewish content. A native of Connecticut, she lives in Israel with her husband and four children. www.juliezuckerman.com
So wish I could be at that June 10 event—and yes, Claire Sufrin's essay bowled me over, too.
My god I love mulberries! They are a rarety here in N California, but just grew all over the city in the Donbas.